I know we are wanting to implement a newish game plan scoring from the back half more, but don’t think this is necessarily the day you need to do that.

Think it’s more of a territory type day given the weather…

Brisbane have had the toughest prep all all teams and they beat Sydney on their patch. No excuses today. Effort, effort, effort.

https://www.afl.com.au/video/743502/electric-kozzie-lights-up-the-g-with-outrageous-running-goal?videoId=743502&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1650107975001

Remember this classic goal against GWS?

Today is simply wet weather footy.

Body over the ball, tough in the clinches, taking territory is crucial and smalls at the feet of packs. Defenders must punch to the boundary, no need to go the mark unless uncontested.

33 minutes ago, Kev said:

Match fit is different to being fit.

Those extra and repeat efforts cannot trained for.

The advantage to the club with a second up, as compared to first up game.

The Difference won't be legs... unless you're referring to those that kick goals.

Those we lack 

Vines 3 votes today.

I’m prepared for a hard to watch first half. will be a grind with errors

hoping we settle into the game and bring intensity to bring out a win

The rain will level things out today. I think if it was a dry game we'd be incredibly rusty and they would punish us off turnover with the extra week prep they have. We'll make an in tight contest game and I think we'll smash them in clearance and contested possession. Pickett has never played well in the wet so he's probably not a huge loss today.

I'm predicting a 25pt win.

Really excited to see all our debutants but it’s probably tempered my expectations of getting the result. 

3 hours ago, Brownie said:

I was thinking that watching the start of the swans lions game.

Lions were as rusty AF early on.

I'm preparing to be quite horrified early on in this game before we try and claw a GWS lead back in the 3rd.

I agree it's a huge advantage to those teams who played last week.

But Sydney are rubbish….

Anyone who’s gonna be watching our game on Foxtel/Kayo, look out for bits of a promo Fox Footy filmed in January (featuring 12 of our players and some of us from the DA), snippets of which will be shown throughout the year during our matches. If you spot an easily excitable, very animated gal in white jeans, a #18 guernsey and more red n blue ribbons than a Spotlight store… it’s not me

Wet weather footy. As has always been the case with wet weather footy even for us battlers, play to instructions, use footy instincts and have a real go. You will earn respect of teammates coaches and supporters.

31 minutes ago, Lexinator said:

https://www.afl.com.au/video/743502/electric-kozzie-lights-up-the-g-with-outrageous-running-goal?videoId=743502&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1650107975001

Remember this classic goal against GWS?

Thanks for reminding us all Lexinator.

Absolute corker.

An excitement machine who when on is so worth the price of admission.

Is that a DA member in the new bws ad?

We're celebrating Jim today with Irish weather 

7 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

We're celebrating Jim today with Irish weather 

What, exactly, is Jim Stynes Game? Is it a fundraiser? A memorial to Jim? Or both? (And both would be worthwhile). I can't recall, but have we had a Jim Stynes game before?

I've been tied up with other things for the last couple of weeks, so if there has been some publicity about it, it's passed me by. 

42 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

The Difference won't be legs... unless you're referring to those that kick goals.

Those we lack 

We've had a good spread of goal kickers in the past, with the mids having to carry some of the load.

Hoping we get a functional forward area, where we start converting the many entries, and the forwards get the majority of scores.

11 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

What, exactly, is Jim Stynes Game? Is it a fundraiser? A memorial to Jim? Or both? (And both would be worthwhile). I can't recall, but have we had a Jim Stynes game before?

I've been tied up with other things for the last couple of weeks, so if there has been some publicity about it, it's passed me by. 

Both, fundraiser for Jim's foundation and a memorial to him after becoming a Club legend.  This is the first one

We always lose in wet weather games.

We just never seem to adjust to those conditions. I hope today is different. 

I don’t give us much chance in the wet. I think their ball use and efficiency is a cut above ours, and that will be critical in the conditions. Will be good to see how the first gamers fare though. And Windsor in his second year.

Weather report indicates 20% chance of rain at 3pm.

Then 60% chance at 6pm.

Hoping the rain breaks for us as indicated.  

The F1 will like it as well.

Binman's match preview:

After another ridiculous OR played in the northern heat and humidity, most of round one has been played in similarly uncomfortable conditions.

But as the rain thumps down here in Melbourne on Sunday, it feels like a proper footy day for the start of the Demons 2025 campaign.

I can't recall feeling as excited, and unsure of what to expect, at the start of a new season for many years.

With the tweaks to our game plan, five players playing their first AFL games, including two mature age players, Sharp making his Demon debut, the weather and the Giants having played already there's any number of factors which makes this a really hard game to get a handle on.

So I'll just focus on some of the key things exercising my mind.

Weather:

Looking at the radar my best guess is the rain will clear by game time. The MCG drains well, but it's still likely to be slippery.

Tactics 

It's a myth that wet conditions is a leveller in terms of skills - so the giants' superior foot skills means the weather advantages them on that front.

The weather also really favours the giants in terms of their fleet of small to medium forwards. 

Unfortunately a weakness of ours is covering such players, exacerbated today by no Mcveee.

And we also lack such players in our forward line - and no koz makes that a huge problem for us.

Together those factors present a huge challenge for us.

Our ability to meet that challenge will, in my view, decide our fortunes.

On the plus side there'll be more stoppages, which definitely plays to our strengths - particularly in terms of how many midfield bulls we have. 

Tracc, Clarry, VIney, Langford and Sparrow will love these conditions.  

And with Briggs not playing we have an advantage in the ruck so i expect us to win the clearance battle.

However the key, as always, is not winning the clearance count, but winning the scores from clearances.

Slippery conditions also mean the fast transition game the giants like to play will be harder to implement - kicks become harder to hit, more marks get dropped and those super quick handball chains break down more often.

The conditions mean presure, contest and territory become critical. Even though they are also a strong contest side, that sort of footy is in our DNA.

Look for us to focus on repeat inside-50s, creating stoppages, getting it inside 50 and keeping it there.

Like most coaches, Goodwin backs his system. But I have a feeling that part of the tactical retooling goody has been working on since the 2024 preseason has been developing different modes of playing, including methods that mitigate the strength of our opponents.

Just like we did against Freo in the practice game, I expect that we'll look to chip the ball around the back half until we can get a good opening up the ground to move the ball.

One, that minimizes turnovers, because we're not being territory for territory's sake and blindly dumping it down the line

Two, it keeps it out of their hands, and it means that they're less able to get it on the outside and use their relative leg speed advantage to hurt us.

I'm really fascinated by our defensive system and it seems this is a real work in progress.

Two preseason games is a small sample size, but tactically i see this year as an extension of last year, not a completely new model.

We are still using a zone defence of course but not setting our anchor defender as deep as we did in 2020-2023. 

And we seem to be pushing our defensive line up higher (as is now standard). Though as evidence of goody using different modes in different circumstances it seems how aggressive we press up is circumstance dependent.

I think with the conditions, and their leg speed and ability to transition, whilst we'll be looking to trap it in our front half our press won't be overly aggressive and like he did against freo, May will play pretty deep as the anchor (with Petty helping out).

Key stats

For us to win I think we'll need a positive differential in the following stats:

Pressure - the most important stat in football. Only the pies in 2023 regularly won games with a negative pressure differential

Scores from turnover - killed us last year. We simply can't afford to lose that stat.

Scores from stoppages - we simply have to take advantage of our likely clearance dominance

Scores from defensive half - the giants smashed the pies for this syar last week. We can't let that happen today.

Uncontested marks - we can't let the giants pull us apart with heaps of uncontested marks. 

Tackles inside D50 - will be critical on today's conditions.

Telstra tracker - fitness is critical. There is a paucity of data that can help evidence fitness. The best is top 5 distances covered, repeat sprints and speed. When at our fittest we dominate these numbers.

Accuracy - need I say more?

Prediction

As always, my heart says the dees.

But my head says the Giants are the more probable winner. 

But hope springs external and I can't wait to watch the mighty dees smash in this afternoon.

Go redlegs.

20 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

We always lose in wet weather games.

We just never seem to adjust to those conditions. I hope today is different. 

Tbf we beat the Bombers in the wet last year with no ruck

Anyone know if the Warne stand will be closed or not? 

I went over to Big Footy to find something amusing to post, slim pickin's on that front, in fact down right boring. But one fact I didn't realise, this is the Giants only game at the G this year (H & A)