Round 19, 2025 MCG - Blues vs Demons

Can't recall Clarry getting much of it at all in that first half as he appeared to be playing some sort of tag on Cripps? Or was i mistaken?

Alternatively i may have been correct (or partially) and he starred somewhat in the 2nd half running off Cripps? Or did we hand over the role to another player which allowed Clarry to get off the leash?

Regardless, taking the number 1 mantle was very befitting on his 200th game.

It appears we batted ok down to T-Mac at No.11 but fell away badly thereafter?

Regardless that loss will go down as yet another horribilis no matter which way you try and spin it.

I'd seriously consider bringing in...

Kentfield for Jeffo

AJ for JVR

TC for Max. No point playing Max from here other than the odd token game. Too much risk imv. Put him in cotton wool and on an early extended break. Needs it imo. Physically struggling a tad and must be mentally spent.

Culley for the Kolt

Bill (last chance saloon) for Lindsey who seriously needs the break.

The Blues at AFL level scoring efficiency (24% of inside 50s into goals). Us dropping away from last week's impressive 34% result to a lowly 17% this week tells the tale. Another forward of centre fail four seasons running. Even worse, against a team in horrid form in the lead up.

Classic MFC, making a dud team (and/or oppp player/s) look like a polished [censored], while we go from chocolates the week before to crud the very next week. Add to that we had roughly one season's extra experience advantage (on average per player) over the Blues line up on the night.

> Subbed out TOG %

> Subbed in TOG %

Stats courtesy of footywire.com and wheeloratings.com

Edited Tuesday at 10:594 days by Demon Dynasty

14 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Round 19, 2025 MCG - Blues vs Demons

Can't recall Clarry getting much of it at all in that first half as he appeared to be playing some sort of tag on Cripps? Or was i mistaken?

Alternatively i may have been correct (or partially) and he starred somewhat in the 2nd half running off Cripps? Or did we hand over the role to another player which allowed Clarry to get off the leash?

Regardless, taking the number 1 mantle was very befitting on his 200th game.

It appears we batted ok down to T-Mac at No.11 but fell away badly thereafter?

Regardless that loss will go down as yet another horribilis no matter which way you try and spin it.

I'd seriously consider bringing in...

Kentfield for Jeffo

AJ for JVR

TC for Max. No point playing Max from here other than the odd token game. Too much risk imv. Put him in cotton wool and on an early extended break. Needs it imo. Physically struggling a tad and must be mentally spent.

Culley for the Kolt

Bill (last chance saloon) for Lindsey who seriously needs the break.

The Blues at AFL level scoring efficiency (24% of inside 50s into goals). Us dropping away from last week's impressive 34% result to a lowly 17% this week tells the tale. Another forward of centre fail four seasons running. Even worse, against a team in horrid form in the lead up.

Classic MFC, making a dud team (and/or oppp player/s) look like a polished [censored], while we go from chocolates the week before to crud the very next week. Add to that we had roughly one season's extra experience advantage (on average per player) over the Blues line up on the night.

> Subbed out TOG %

> Subbed in TOG %

Stats courtesy of footywire.com and wheeloratings.com

Thanks DD very noticeable that all our youngsters were well down- Windsor, Langford, Turner, Rooey, Sharp, Lindsay, Kolt and Jeffo whilst Milkshake was at half his recent output, and Tracc as well. Can’t win with these poor numbers.

Interesting data Demon Dynasty. While clearly any ranking points system that didn’t have Pickett as by far the best player on the ground isn’t perfect, your system usually aligns pretty well with the eye test I think.

Despite some other posts I’ve seen on here to the contrary, I’d have had Oliver and Salem in our best few other than Pickett on the night. Thought their decision making and ball use was improved from their recent struggles and in Oliver’s case he seemed to have a bit of his off the ball gut running back (although obviously not directly adding to his points).

Our youngsters are clearly not yet consistent enough despite showing obvious talent. The rest of the year should be about their continued exposure to AFL pressure.

On 23/07/2025 at 13:30, 0livers Army said:

Interesting data Demon Dynasty. While clearly any ranking points system that didn’t have Pickett as by far the best player on the ground isn’t perfect, your system usually aligns pretty well with the eye test I think.

Despite some other posts I’ve seen on here to the contrary, I’d have had Oliver and Salem in our best few other than Pickett on the night. Thought their decision making and ball use was improved from their recent struggles and in Oliver’s case he seemed to have a bit of his off the ball gut running back (although obviously not directly adding to his points).

Our youngsters are clearly not yet consistent enough despite showing obvious talent. The rest of the year should be about their continued exposure to AFL pressure.

Thanks for the feedback OA. Yes i developed this rating system based on what i witnessed / studied over a six match sample back in 2016 / 17 with a view to having it produce something reasonably akin to what i was witnessing on the field / box in terms of aligning the ratings with each player's output / performance on the day.

While it's far from perfect, especially for anyone who might have played an 'effective' tagging role, i feel it usually holds up as a reasonable indicator / guide of where each player's performance sat on the day (bar heavy tagging roles as mentioned). That is provided you compare apples with apples... ie., One defender vs another. Genuine mid vs other genuine mid, medium / tall forwards vs other medium / tall forwards, small forwards vs other small forwards etc in a 'who performed well from those groupings' sense.

The aim was to produce a ratings system that generally wasn't way out of wack with what i was witnessing on the day based on multiple inclusions / exclusions of various stats and by also varying the weightings of same in order to arrive at the end ratings. This included multiple iterations thereof. I like to think of it as my amateur attempt at reverse engineering! And i wanted the ratings to (roughly) reflect what i was witnessing on the day. Not just produce a number for the sake of just spitting out a rating.

I don't always agree with my own No.1 / other ratings either in terms of what i saw on the day. I still rate performances (in the main) based on what i see and the impact players had in general on the day as no stat can take in all nuances / subtle aspects and player smarts, luck of the bounce etc.

I then look at the ratings afterwards just as a handy reference. Sometimes the eye gets lazy though and stats can highlight a stand out performance (or more!) that i might have missed on the day. Or even a poor one from someone i thought looked ok on the box but then on review realise he turned the ball over far too often etc.

And yes, pressure has been a major issue with our team for the last two to three seasons. Both in the bringing and the ability to perform under it.

Edited Thursday at 11:332 days by Demon Dynasty

Team & Player Ratings to Rnd 19, 2025 vs H&A Season 2024

* Played less than two full matches

< Subbed out at least once or more

> Subbed in at least once or more

Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

Thanks DD when you view these team stats you can see more clearly what is happening within the team, Max is now No.1, Claz has dragged himself back up the rankings to 2nd, and Tracc 3rd where you would expect them but the most gratifying numbers are with our younger brigade and kids. Bowsa 4th, Kozzie 7th, Langford 12th (first year), Chin, Turner, McVee, Lindsay, Howes and Windsor all within the top 20. Let’s all hope that sparrow, van Rooyen, Petty, Kolt, Sharp and Jefferson can improve their rankings over the next five weeks.

Just wanted to find somewhere to post this.

In our 41 games since Opening Round last year, we are a combined 13-28 in first quarters.

We are behind at quarter time in more than two-thirds of our games.

Surely there's a link between constantly having to play catch-up footy and our poor forward half connection - harder to be composed, or calm, or confident, when we're always giving opponents a scoreboard head start.

• We've only had two matches this year where we've kicked more than 3 goals in the first quarter - Round 3 v North (4.5) and Round 7 v Fremantle (6.1)

• By contrast, we've had 7 matches this year where we've kicked 2 or fewer goals in the first quarter. The only one of them we've won was v West Coast (2.2 to their 0.5)

• We only had 6 matches in 2024 where we kicked more than 3 goals in the first quarter. We won all bar one of them (GWS, where we kicked 5.5 to their 1.2)

• We had 13 matches in 2024 where we kicked 2 or fewer goals in the first quarter. We only won two of them (Adelaide in Round 5 and Richmond in Round 8 - both bottom 4 sides last year)

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Just wanted to find somewhere to post this.

In our 41 games since Opening Round last year, we are a combined 13-28 in first quarters.

We are behind at quarter time in more than two-thirds of our games.

Surely there's a link between constantly having to play catch-up footy and our poor forward half connection - harder to be composed, or calm, or confident, when we're always giving opponents a scoreboard head start.

• We've only had two matches this year where we've kicked more than 3 goals in the first quarter - Round 3 v North (4.5) and Round 7 v Fremantle (6.1)

• By contrast, we've had 7 matches this year where we've kicked 2 or fewer goals in the first quarter. The only one of them we've won was v West Coast (2.2 to their 0.5)

• We only had 6 matches in 2024 where we kicked more than 3 goals in the first quarter. We won all bar one of them (GWS, where we kicked 5.5 to their 1.2)

• We had 13 matches in 2024 where we kicked 2 or fewer goals in the first quarter. We only won two of them (Adelaide in Round 5 and Richmond in Round 8 - both bottom 4 sides last year)

Thanks TA.

Imho this is likely to be mainly a motivational issue.

Surely the responsibility lies with the coaches and leaders?

You have to question the entire leadership structure and their effectiveness when you see results like this.

From the head coach down to the captain and the rest of the seniors leaders.

The other factor might be the ineffectiveness of our bottom 6 to 8 players in the last two seasons?

Doesn't pressure mean we get goal results from short passes to make the goal kicker closer...so we should get closer most of the time.