The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 7th April @ the all new time of 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect another Demons loss at Kardinia Park to the Cats in the Round 04.

Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.

If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human.

Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/

Call: 03 9016 3666

Skype: Demonland31

How as a football club do you sell hope to the members and supporters still feeling it from the fresh hit of membership fees they've paid when you've effectively ended the season in the first month and have traded away your future first pick?

There's a lot of football to be played, is this going to be a lost season or do we actually have some kind of hope to salvage something from it?

Competitive for 3 quarters.

But do enough players want to bleed for the Demons jumper?

Our membership department must be a ghost town at the moment. Probably getting more abuse than membership enquiries.

How do we stem the bleeding at the Melbourne Football Club?

What can we do about our impotent forward line?

Why are we playing so poorly? Is it skill? Is it endeavour?

Will Simon Goodwin still be coaching the Demons next year in 2026?

Alot of serious discussions for the entire Melbourne Football Club need to be had.

Things need to change!

Edited April 4Apr 4 by Supreme_Demon

1 hour ago, layzie said:

How as a football club do you sell hope to the members and supporters still feeling it from the fresh hit of membership fees they've paid when you've effectively ended the season in the first month and have traded away your future first pick?

There's a lot of football to be played, is this going to be a lost season or do we actually have some kind of hope to salvage something from it?

Poor start, yes. But we are going to storm into the finals when we start clicking. We are not done yet.

How many of the thousands of Nibbler critics are wishing he was still a Demon high half-ward? Come on, own up!

Who else can come into our side from the AFL listed Casey players?

Sestan, Adams, Mentha ???

Just bring them in if they are performing at a decent level in the VFL.

Need to find out if they can take the next step.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

And I mean that in the short to medium term, obviously if you look far enough into the future I'm sure you could contend good times are coming, but grounding ourselves in this season and next for example, is there something for us to look forward to from a team performance perspective?

I'm not trying to be facetious but I'm wondering where to from here, we gave imo really good effort for three quarters and played some good footy within that and we still never looked like threatening from a scoring perspective.

Maybe the argument is we need to give 'the new gameplan' more time but I'm not convinced on what we have delivered so far that either a) we have a discernible new game plan or b) that even if we do, its an effective one.

It seems like after the first month we should be reassessing expectations compared with pre-season discussions, but what should those new expectations be?

Interested in whatever thoughts the boys have?

They showed a lot more endeavor this week. A lot of players really turned it around, especially May. Winning at Geelong is never easy, and the Cats are a good team.

However, we need to talk about Viney. I love him. He is one of the toughest players I have ever seen; he gets the ball and always makes a contest. But on the run, his foot disposal appears achingly bad now, and we need a different approach. I like us rotating players with better kicks through the midfield (Langford, Windsor, Pickett) and this should continue as speed and precision in 6-6-6 at the bounce is critical for gaining post-clearance possession, but Viney and Oliver should be encouraged to handball more and kick less (if not already) as they appear to be the biggest reason why delivery into the forward line is so bad and we do not retain possession

Side note: When Fritsch was playing up the ground in a half-forward flank/wing position, he showed great promise. He is good in open space and is a great kick, this is a better position for him until we fix our forward delivery.

I have not given up hope; we showed more fight and promise in this game, which was commendable. However, this season is turning out to be a hybrid of 2019/2020, so I'm keeping my expectations low.

Are we in danger to finish the season winless? 0 - 23?

Hi Guys, really appreciate your efforts on the podcas. the analysis and thoughtful discussion helps us all makes sense of where we are at as a footy club at moment.

Question mainly for Binman but happy for any of the panel sharing their thoughts

How is that Geelong had so much more ease moving the ball from their back line in a slow play compared to us. We were forced so many more times having to kick down the line to a contest. We would gain a bit of territory with short chipping but then quite often had resort to kicking long as there there no other easy options to move the ball. In comparison they quite often moved the ball with so much more space , it didn’t alway lead to scores but it was alarming.

Is it a product of poor team defence and pressure from us or just skilled kicking and decision making by them. Conversely for us, was our stilted ball movement from not running hard enough to create options or just not having enough players skilled or brave enough to take riskier kicks to open up the ground. I’m guessing a combination of both. I get that the new game plan is going to take time but we must get better at this and recruit accordingly if we are going to get anywhere in the next few years.

In addition did Goodwin letting them have an intercepting marking player ( Henry and Stewart) as spare in their backline contribute to easy ball movement for them and harder ball movement for us. To give them so many uncontested marks absolutely killed us, surely that’s on coaching.

We did look a little better at times when we could generate a handball receive off a slow play and create some run that way.

Thanks again

Jack

Obviously lots of problems from the game, but there are positives.

Langford looks really good in only his second full AFL game. Turner did some nice things. Chin was great, our most consistent player at the moment. McDonald did well too.

Most of all, I can finally see the game plan coming together. Does the panel agree?

There are three key problems as I see them:

1. Skill errors going forward giving the opposition time to get back and cover.

2. Forwards (especially Roo) playing from behind and running away from the player with the ball.

3. Tackling technique kept resulting in fast breaks to the cats.

These all undermine the trust the players have in one another, which leads to space on the outside for the opposition.

Technique and forward tactics have long been big problems for us. I think the reason there are so many calls for Goody to go are because they remain unfixed. How else can these problems be fixed sooner than turning over 40-50% of the list (which could take 4-5 years)?

15 hours ago, Demonland said:

The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 7th April @ the all new time of 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect another Demons loss at Kardinia Park to the Cats in the Round 04.

Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.

If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human.

Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/

Call: 03 9016 3666

Skype: Demonland31

well call me naive or whatever but I actually feel almost positive after last night, given our parlorous position at the moment we at least had a dip, missed scoring opportunities, umpiring decisions, players out out of confidence and still an unsettled side we managed to put together a start, ok maybe all our expectations were out of whack (clubs and fans) so lets just keep progressing forward, still some good footballers to come back in to the side, just keep going, and you guys too

Two points for me.

1. If you re-watch the game or the highlights, do you find it staggering how much more movement there is from Geelong players to create an option for a kicker compared to when we have the ball. You can't play keepy-offs like we tried in the previous rounds with next to no movement providing options for our kicker.

2. If my memory serves me correct, last year we had a Ruck coach, coaching our forwards, a midfield coach, coaching our mids and finally, a defensive coach, coaching our defenders. This year we have a defensive coach, coaching our forwards, a novice coaching our mids and a defensive coach, coaching our defenders. This is just my opinion, but I find it crazy we haven't had a proper forwards coach at the club. It's sad to listen to greats forwards from previous generations talk about the issues some of our players are having individually and I find it hard to blame the players for this. Your thoughts?

This year is feeling eerily like Danihers last season. We had just been run off our feet in a final against freo and he got the team to shred some weight and become a more running side losing our contested edge. We completely fell apart and Neale fell on his sword.

Goodwin can see where the game is headed but the list is built to play a different game style and it’s just not working. I think we can all see it’s going to have the same result. This will be Goodwins last year as our coach.

Probably delusional but we could go on a 4 game streak and be even for the Hawks game.

Bombers - middle of the road team

Freo - under performing under the weight of expectations

Tigers - surely

Eagles - please for the love of God

Andy, can you get on board with this?!!

#FreekickDangerfield

#FreekickCameron

Seriously - why do “named” players get so many free kicks that no name players don’t.

I feel a win coming next week - I’m going to be the lucky charm!

30 minutes ago, Rossmillan said:

#FreekickDangerfield

#FreekickCameron

Seriously - why do “named” players get so many free kicks that no name players don’t.

I feel a win coming next week - I’m going to be the lucky charm!

They get the frees because they are first to the ball, generally by leading at the ball carrier. Dear JVR, please take note.

My biggest concern is whilst I think we’re a much better side than this I don’t think the team we have will ever master this style of play or will become Premiers playing it, so that begs the question, Where are we? To win flags you need to be the best at the dominant game plan as we were in 21 or you need to be developing a game plan to counter the dominant plan and simultaneously be recruiting players to undertake that plan ala Hawthorn. This is a 2-5 year project unless you’re lucky ala Collingwood in ‘23. So that brings into to serious question where Goodwin sits. Firstly I don’t think he has the players or the plan to achieve ultimate success within his current contract nor do I think he’s going to coach beyond years end. So if you’re a club that values Flags above all else he’s officially deadwood. Thats harsh and I like the guy but me liking him won’t win us our next Flag. It’ll take a new coach to do that. So do we rip the bandaid off or hunt for a new coach in the backround whilst letting Goodwin show us what he can do for the remainder of the season? I'm against sacking a coach mid season but there comes a time. I like how the Swans handled it to be honest but I'm not sure we have the assistant to take the reins long term although I wouldn't know.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Roost it far

To me it looks like we've reverted from the short uncontested possession game at the back that served us well in Round 1, and we've returned to a long down the line game.

Have the coaches lost their nerve already and are they playing to limit damage rather than practice and hone the new method?

17 hours ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Who else can come into our side from the AFL listed Casey players?

Sestan, Adams, Mentha ???

Just bring them in if they are performing at a decent level in the VFL.

Need to find out if they can take the next step.

Maybe Fullarton based on his decent goal kicking form at Casey?

PS. I’m not holding out much hope for him, but we might as well try something different, because the way our forward line is currently malfunctioning, we have nothing to lose.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Deeoldfart
Typo

Curious as to what you guys think our forward line should look like next week as I think there are a few ways we could go. Fritsch and Melksham shown little thus far but when playing well are a real handful for any defence. JVR ideally needs to build some confidence at Casey. A step back to move forward might do the trick. Turner is struggling with the step up to AFL but I see something there. Fullerton appears to be in good form and deserves a chance. Jeffo likely to be available this week too and should be given a good crack at it. I also like AJ’s aggression and is another option. I really believe we have to start rewarding good form at Casey so even though I have my doubts, Fullerton deserves his shot. Can’t do any worse. Out of the box options could be May down forward or even Campbell. Know neither are really key forwards but we are quite undersized down there and a bigger body could really help and straighten us up. Campbell gives Max a chop out too. If he keeps rucking at the current rate, he will be cooked by mid year. I have left out TMac or Petty down forward as we have been there done that. Must move forward.

Anyway would love your thoughts this week. Big decisions ahead for Goody and Co.

It was good to see Petracca pulling his hair out at the end of the game. Now he knows how we all felt having to watch/listen to him throw the club (he apparently loved after 2021) under the bus last August/September, maybe he could have a chat to Nathan Jones about what it actually means to put your body on the line.

Question for George.

What happened to Max Gawn resting or god forbid even playing forward? He looks to me like he has lost his arial game this year?

Once upon a time Max loved floating forward to clunk a mark and at worst hook a few points? I’d take 1 out of 3 set shots inside 50, because it would at least drag a couple of Key Defenders to him so we could get it to ground and crumb a few goals? Or is that plan not complicated enough for our “Mastermind” Premiership coach.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Doug Reemer

Hi guys, I really appreciate the great job you all do. I look forward to listening to the pod each and every week.

do you think one of the reasons we traded our first round pick from this year (apart from wanting XL) was that we knew that khalani white would be nominating us and therefore making our first pick a mute point anyway as we will need the points?

on the team we should remember the yo yo years we used to have so although we are off to a bad start I’m still bullish that we will bounce back with the amazing youth we have. We just need more depth to cover injuries.

34 minutes ago, Tracforever said:

Hi guys, I really appreciate the great job you all do. I look forward to listening to the pod each and every week.

do you think one of the reasons we traded our first round pick from this year (apart from wanting XL) was that we knew that khalani white would be nominating us and therefore making our first pick a mute point anyway as we will need the points?

on the team we should remember the yo yo years we used to have so although we are off to a bad start I’m still bullish that we will bounce back with the amazing youth we have. We just need more depth to cover injuries.

1000% coreect.