18 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

Seeing Luke Hodge’s brief but scathing analysis on Agenda Setters of our forward play against Essendon just does my head in. It was admittedly, a small sample size of vision from behind the goals of our F50 entries. Examples of midfielders getting the ball at 70m, in space but just booting to an out numbered forward, ignoring running players clear in the corridor or forwards not leading to space to provide a target. As Hodge said this is under 12’s stuff and it’s not AFL standard but it’s been the same for 4 years! You would see better forward strategy (if not execution) at your local suburban ground with part time players and coach.

Meanwhile Simon seems to talking about our need to improve our defending to stifle the opposition’s ball movement, which is very difficult to do against sides moving the ball as quickly and precisely as Brisbane, Collingwood, Hawthorn and (no doubt we will find out this week) Freo, especially if you are not scoring.

The other part of that is, if you do score you put scoreboard pressure on the oppo and they panic and make mistakes which would make it seem like we are defending better

19 hours ago, jnrmac said:

We had 16 premiership players against the Bombers. Talent is not our issue.

It can't be any more obvious that it's coaching, selection, leadership, pride, fight

Talent is an issue for me sholudnt have thought we could go forward from 21 without making changes

These players are overrated by many on here and well past it Oliver ha been a digrace

Tough decisions need to be made & the only way the club can attract any existing premiership coach is stability, a CEO in place, club can respect Goody & say thanks but need to change direction! Longmire is a strong figure and all about culture & trust with non negotiable, our club isn’t in rebuild mode with plenty of experience talent & better list mgt and tough calls to trade out players on long contracts. He’s having 12mths off and reckon he would want to jump back in 26 , sure he’s lost 5 gfs but a new but he would bring stability & experience.

Talking to someone close to Weideman who I know didn’t do enough to make it. However he said Goody told him not to lead. Rather, we will kick it to you. Sounds familiar.

Just now, beelzebub said:

I reckon there's a lot to this. Hard to will yourself 100% to that next contest.... when you know the game's

6 hours ago, Kent said:

Talent is an issue for me sholudnt have thought we could go forward from 21 without making changes

These players are overrated by many on here and well past it Oliver ha been a digrace

.

Just now, beelzebub said:

Yeah that's tosh. We were a top 4 side in 22, 23. We just had a Shiite gameplan

a coaching failure

Edited April 17Apr 17 by jnrmac

People calling Oliver's on field performances 'a disgrace' and saying Gawn is past it and in his last year are just losing the plot. It's showing the tip of a truly noxious iceberg.

Honestly, the level of bile of some people would put me off the game. Imagine trying to convince a friend or partner to come to another Demon's game after having to sit next to some of the foul-mouthed growling spittle-flicking ranting some people feel is their best contribution.

Oliver is 20% off his best, which still makes him a high-end inside mid. Tom Mitchell won a Brownlow playing the way Oliver currently is. The problem of course is that Oliver's very best is among the very best in the AFL era, so the relative disappointment is massive. But the hate... people are sick.

As for casting doubts on Gawn... no stat backs that up, no vision backs that up, no reality backs that up. Might as well say Robbie Flower was no good because he played in losses.

This club's deepest weakness is the nasty, entitled state of mind of the bitter factions that ripple through the coteries, events and even the board. People willing to slag off players, coaches, other fans, anyone in a mission to take away control from the 'enemy'. People willing to tell players they shouldn't have to follow the authority of the senior coach.

Seriously, I suspect there really are people who saw the 2021 premiership as a setback to their goals.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

This club's deepest weakness is the nasty, entitled state of mind of the bitter factions that ripple through the coteries, events and even the board. People willing to slag off players, coaches, other fans, anyone in a mission to take away control from the 'enemy'. People willing to tell players they shouldn't have to follow the authority of the senior coach.

Sounds like PR for the Board and Coaching Staff.

The ‘club‘s deepest weaknesses’ are:

• 5 out of the last 20 games with increasing losing margins.

• Resistance to dropping players who are clearly not up to it - either terminally or temporarily.

• Rigid tactics during games when it is obvious the opposing coach has worked the ‘plan’ out and has adapted.

• Repeated destructive kicking to nowhere.

• A key forwards who is touted as superstar in the making displaying virtually zero skills that define a star forward - the comments by the great forwards in recent weeks about this players footwork, positioning, inability to mark even when the ball is delivered to him properly, and total failure to lead are very damaging.

• Ridiculous repetitive press statements from the president and coach.

• A board full of the in-crowd Melbourne money cohort that behaves as if we are still a premiership contender.

All of those things speak to major changes being necessary at both the board level and in the football department area.

In most sports, a 5/20 output would demand a change of coach.

It isn’t just a temporary problem - the trend started at least in 2023.

1 hour ago, William said:

• Rigid tactics during games when it is obvious the opposing coach has worked the ‘plan’ out and has adapted.

Yep, one advantage (among many) of next year's new coach is that we'll have a game plan that will not have been worked out for a period of time.

The last 2 weeks, we've been painfully dominated in the coaches box by 2 very senior coaches. Eg- losing uncontested possession by 80+ meaning the opposition are dictating the game on their terms.

Edited April 17Apr 17 by Bring-Back-Powell

6 hours ago, 48 Year Now said:

Talking to someone close to Weideman who I know didn’t do enough to make it. However he said Goody told him not to lead. Rather, we will kick it to you. Sounds familiar.

What was his excuse at Essendon?

On 13/04/2025 at 14:37, Adam The God said:

It's pretty clear the review was a smokescreen. Deemocracy lobbied for an external review. The club didn't want to do one initially, but eventually bowed to this external pressure.

Unfortunately, as the closed shop at board level remains, we got a tokenistic "external" review where Shand and Crowe were to restore harmony and team spirit. But has anyone heard from Shand and Crowe? Mentally, we went to water in Round 2.

Green is a sycophant, his conversation with Clarry was all about the past, and nothing about Oliver's past 24 months, or the standards the club needs to set for the future.

Green and the board need to take full responsibility and Smith needs to get the new CEO installed asap. Would any other club take 4-5 months to find a new CEO? I get we don't want just anyone, but our inability to land one should set off alarm bells with this administration.

We need significant on and off field change over the next 6-9 months, and unfortunately I have no trust whatsoever in this board to put in place competent people.

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Also anyone know hot to remove all these damn pop ups and adds?

6 minutes ago, He de mon said:

What was his excuse at Essendon?

How is that relevant to what I heard.

17 minutes ago, Deestroye said:

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Also anyone know hot to remove all these damn pop ups and adds?

Buy a Demonland subscription.

I wonder if it's occurred to our FD brains trust and esp to his coaching highness that opposition coaches are dissecting our game and neutering it quicker than or esteemed list can 'perfect' it ?

Edited April 17Apr 17 by beelzebub

4 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

People calling Oliver's on field performances 'a disgrace' and saying Gawn is past it and in his last year are just losing the plot. It's showing the tip of a truly noxious iceberg.

Honestly, the level of bile of some people would put me off the game. Imagine trying to convince a friend or partner to come to another Demon's game after having to sit next to some of the foul-mouthed growling spittle-flicking ranting some people feel is their best contribution.

Oliver is 20% off his best, which still makes him a high-end inside mid. Tom Mitchell won a Brownlow playing the way Oliver currently is. The problem of course is that Oliver's very best is among the very best in the AFL era, so the relative disappointment is massive. But the hate... people are sick.

As for casting doubts on Gawn... no stat backs that up, no vision backs that up, no reality backs that up. Might as well say Robbie Flower was no good because he played in losses.

This club's deepest weakness is the nasty, entitled state of mind of the bitter factions that ripple through the coteries, events and even the board. People willing to slag off players, coaches, other fans, anyone in a mission to take away control from the 'enemy'. People willing to tell players they shouldn't have to follow the authority of the senior coach.

Seriously, I suspect there really are people who saw the 2021 premiership as a setback to their goals.

Any other problems Sunshine

Mate the team is a basket case at the moment unloading on another poster wont assist

2 hours ago, Deestroye said:

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Also anyone know hot to remove all these damn pop ups and adds?

Firefox

16 hours ago, bing181 said:

Watch AFL360 with Simpson and Langmuir and get back to us. Simpson especially talks about trying to change the WCE approach at the end of 2021, even bringing in assistant coaches who were more across what they were trying to do - and how it failed because he didn't have the players who could play the way they wanted. When talking about the Dees he says it outright: "the biggest thing is going to be does the personnel fit the change (in game style)?"

He elaborated a bit on his WCE experience: "we tried to press behind with our ball movement, but our players weren't built for that, so that's what I got wrong."

(As an aside, gutsy of him to admit his mistakes so publicly, he didn't need to.)

Longmuir is also very big on the need for the playing style and personnel to mesh (uses the word frequently in this context).

For what it's worth we started the change to our game style after our straight sets exit in 2023 and drafted accordingly in 2024. Goods is on record that we wavered from our new style after big losses to West Coast and Freo and reverted to our contest and defence style in the second half of the season and we're still in the frame for a top 8 finish before succumbing to less than a kick losses to GWS, Brisbane and Port.

We have been a bloody good side since our 2021 premiership and I look back fondly at our finals wins vs Hawthorn and Geelong in 2018. In 2022 we were banged up going into finals and 2023 managed to have our forward line functioning well in the back of of the season before losing Melksham in round 23 v Sydney and then Brayshaw in the first final. The straight sets narrative is lazy and doesn't recognise that we were very close to going all of the way in 2023.

Goody's message has been consistent that we will stay the course and I still think that while we probably won't play finals we will start to play some really good footy particularly in the back half of the season and go into to 2026 full of optimism.

9 hours ago, 48 Year Now said:

Talking to someone close to Weideman who I know didn’t do enough to make it. However he said Goody told him not to lead. Rather, we will kick it to you. Sounds familiar.

I think u mean kick it on ur head.

1 hour ago, DemonOX said:

I think u mean kick it on ur head.

If true that is frightening

2 hours ago, Kent said:

Any other problems Sunshine

Mate the team is a basket case at the moment unloading on another poster wont assist

I can't run marathons so this is how I do an 'awareness raising' campaign.

Particularly in the case of Gawn, people need to realise that unjustifiable potting of one the club's greatest ever players is not something you want floating around in your pool.

If Goodwin is sacked this year I hope the club don’t look at our assistants..someone left field like Mick Mcguane probably the best coach outside the AFL..

22 hours ago, 48 Year Now said:

Talking to someone close to Weideman who I know didn’t do enough to make it. However he said Goody told him not to lead. Rather, we will kick it to you. Sounds familiar.

Well visually that comment does seem to be our forward strategy and a big part of our scoring problems, why ball carriers aren’t taking the shorter options and forwards aren’t leading.

12 hours ago, chookrat said:

Goody's message has been consistent that we will stay the course and I still think that while we probably won't play finals we will start to play some really good footy particularly in the back half of the season and go into to 2026 full of optimism.

They did warn us at the start of the season that there would be teething issues with the new plan.

6 minutes ago, Flowergirl said:

They did warn us at the start of the season that there would be teething issues with the new plan.

They might have undersold it...

22 minutes ago, Flowergirl said:

They did warn us at the start of the season that there would be teething issues with the new plan.

Hold on "There is a new plan???" When did that happen?

None of us know the ins and outs of what is being taught behind the scenes at the club. Changing an ingrained way of doing things does take a long time. We all hoped it would be ready for seasons start but obviously more time is needed. Goody gave up on changing his “new” game plan halfway through last season and our season collapsed. Goody seems far more committed this year to this current plan, and I doubt he will cave in and revert to the old style this year. He obviously knows that if he fails he’s out - but at least the Club appears to be backing him till years end.

If the belief within the Club is still there - and we are told it is - then I can see our game plan finally coming together after the bye, and us starting to fly. Hopefully we see some promising signs tomorrow.