23 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

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

Do you ever say anything positive?!!!

Is fitness one of the big problems for this group?

They can’t man up when teams transition from D50 and I gave up counting the number of times Geelong had players 20m clear of any opponent even in their F50

By contrast when we have the ball nobody seems interested in hard running to create separation for themselves or create space for team mates to run into

Our forwards are literally look like backs playing out of position - they seem to be devoid of any kind of creativity when it comes to leading patterns and predominantly want to wrestle with their opponents or push them under the ball ( the easy option imo )

We have quite a few players who just don’t look AFL level fit to me - it may explain our pathetic q4 stats this season to date

3 hours ago, Go Ds said:

Do you ever say anything positive?!!!

I do, when there are positive things.

I, for one, likes very much TMac performance and should keep the gig when Lever comebacks.

Petty should be out until he proves otherwise in the 2s.

At the moment I can't see us defeating Richmond for example. Who else is left? WC and that's it, that's about the only team against we have a chance.

Just chill and enjoy the ride, I don't have to be ubber positive every single time to be a perfect supporter. Times will change at some point, light at the end of the tunnel.

Almost forgot to mention, I am also very positive about our young core. They will carry this club for years to come 🤞🏻

Edited April 5Apr 5 by ElDiablo14

19 hours ago, DemonWA said:

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?!!

This is the optimism I can get behind. An oft repeated hope that I cling to when looking at the ladder, over the years is: "We're only 1 or 2 wins outside the top 2/4/8!" - And guess what, we're only 2 wins outside the 8 right now! It's salvageable I'll leave the doom and gloom exclusively to the 2 hours spent watching us kick it into the forward line!

Edited April 5Apr 5 by John Demonic

When did MFCSS become MFCSSSS? Super Sad has been added.

16 hours ago, Big Gun said:

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.

I think this does show the stength of our list. These players should be used to provide a rest for our prime player , expose these younger bodies to the prime level , rotate them against appropriate opponents. By that I mean our prime players against Brisbane rest some of them against Richmond Essendon. etc

I might be wrong but I see this as a thread to put questions to the guys to discuss on the show.

There's plenty of other threads to question, refute and provide rebuttal to other people's posts.

20 hours ago, DemonWA said:

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?!!

I can’t see it happening.

We just don’t have any natural forwards who are in any sort of form!

Fritsch competed better but can’t kick a goal!!

Edited April 6Apr 6 by Doug Reemer

10 hours ago, Sydee said:

Is fitness one of the big problems for this group?

They can’t man up when teams transition from D50 and I gave up counting the number of times Geelong had players 20m clear of any opponent even in their F50

By contrast when we have the ball nobody seems interested in hard running to create separation for themselves or create space for team mates to run into

Our forwards are literally look like backs playing out of position - they seem to be devoid of any kind of creativity when it comes to leading patterns and predominantly want to wrestle with their opponents or push them under the ball ( the easy option imo )

We have quite a few players who just don’t look AFL level fit to me - it may explain our pathetic q4 stats this season to date

I'd like to know this too.

We get whacked in uncontested possessions and marks on a smaller ground. Is this down to fitness and work rate or structure? A lot is being said about where we are faulting with the ball but are we just as bad without it right now?

We once had a very well drilled defensive zone system, have they tried to alter what they do without the ball too much as well as with it?

A further couple of questions....

I understand we can only speculate, but what is going on with the players?

The head space of players like Bayley Fritsch, Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca.

In particular, Christian Petracca chucking his mouth guard on the ground after the siren shows he is angry and frustrated. Is he angry and frustrated at his team mates or the coaching staff or maybe himself?

He and Clayton Oliver are both coming up to playing 200 games for the Melbourne Football Club, a great achievement. But will they both be at the Demons next year in 2026 and beyond?

The other pressing issue being who is taking responsibility for our current predicament? Is it the coaching staff? Or is it the players? Should it be a combination of both?

I know that Simon Goodwin will be under a massive amount of pressure the longer the team goes without winning. The buck stops with the coach. But shouldn't the leadership group and senior players be taking accountability too? There was all this talk about "love" during the start of this AFL season but what about selflessness, self-responsibility and playing for the team?

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

Goody, Max and others have liberally used the word "love" of late. I can somewhat understand it. When he was at his lowest ebb, Max brought Clarry into his home for a number of days despite Jess having recently come home from hospital having given birth to their second. Others in the club have gone above and beyond. That's love. None of us can truly understand what Trac, his wife and family went through following the horrific spleen injury. Following such raw emotion, love from the club, coach and team mates was needed to get Trac back on track. It seems Kozzy dearly wants to return home but he loves the club and its people.

But love is such where if the actions do not follow the words, credibility can cut irreparably. Trust is lost.

Goody called for a team response following North. The lack of response was evident on the first minutes of Gold Coast. The response was better against the Cats.

But with all this talk about 'love' from our leaders, shouldn't we see a truly powerful response?

What is the truth? Has Goody lost the trust of the team?

BTW, LOVE what you do Andy, Binman & George!

Let's talk about Selwyn Griffith, MFC's high performance Manager and Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Recall Selwyn replaced Darren Burgess after the 2021 Premiership season. In 2021, Dees fans were brimming with confidence going into 4th quarters because we knew no one was as mentally and physically tough as the Dees. Burgess taught physical toughness delivers mental toughness. The last third of that grand final was breath taking.

For a while now, it's been the opposite. At the end of last season, George repeatedly mentioned fitness and our inability to run out 4th quarters was an issue. With hindsight, George was bang on. Despite the club's "thorough" post-season review, we start the first 4 games as we ended last season - seemingly unable to run out quarters and games.

Additionally, at the end of 2022 and 2023 seasons, I recall those wonderful Demonland reports on team practices stated repeatedly many players could barely run by season's end. In 2023, we lost both finals by less than a goal.

Just imagine if we freshened players up like Geelong has done for years...

The Dees should have won that '23 flag.

Now Selwyn is a wonderful, genuine person you'd want as a mate. A good human being.

However, in the 2024 financial year, MFC had $57m revenue and $44m assets, demanding Peter Jackson-type professionalism. At the end of the day, the smelling salts of reality is we have to be assessed on our results.

Is Selwyn Goody's Achilles heel?

An interesting little tidbit from Goody’s post match presser, he mentioned we went to Geelong and tried to take away ‘some of their game’.

The pile on around the uncontested marks will come all week, deservedly so. Of all teams, Geelong is not the one you hand the ball to at will.

Has a coaching group ever got something so wrong, tactically?

We have some interesting times ahead -

The good - we defended the corridor well, Kade Chandler, Kozzi being back, some effort before 3/4time, about two passages of play through the middle from Half Back.

The bad - May’s disposal from the back half (in the end he got a few intercept marks), NFI going forward, Uncontested mark tally, all the negative stats, Centre square operation.

The ugly - Claz forgetting how to be an in and under champ, not driving with his legs. Kicking onto people’s heads, handballing at their shoelaces, not knowing where the next player was going to be in the chain.

Some chances to improve:

Fullerton leading at the ball.

Move Rivers and Kozzi into the midfield

Play a small forward at the drop of the ball in f50. Not once did I see a small player roving from the balls kicked onto JVR’s Noodle

Move JVR out to CHF

Kick to advantage, force the player to lead at the football!

We are really disappointing atm. However I will stick with them and hope we are a week away from turning it around.

Is there anything at all we can do to fix our forward line?

In the four games this year, the most goals kicked was only 11.

In three games we couldn't even manage 10 goals.

I mean some clubs have individuals that could manage that many by themselves.

Have we left every stone unturned and tried every possible option?

Now that our backline is struggling, we need at least 7 or 8 goals more to win a game.

And yes I know we have injuries and some players are badly out of form, but surely there must be something we can do?

Yes, No or maybe.....

I mean there's not much more we have to lose by trying something different again. And to Goody' s credit, he has tried a couple of things.

Staring down the barrel of five and zip requires drastic changes.

The brainpower of the Demonland podcasters must have something up their collective craniums. Or at least, I hope so.

Thanks guys for the effort and time you give with these.

I look forward to another interesting and informative call. And hopefully some fruitful solutions.

That's all the questions for tonight—thanks so much to everyone who contributed. Just a small favour for next time: if you have multiple points or issues to raise, please post them separately rather than combining them into one post. It really helps me break things down and respond more effectively.

We will be LIVE in 30 mins at 8:00 pm

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On 05/04/2025 at 18:03, Deeoldfart said:

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.

At least Fullarton is a target and is tall

I'm listening to the podcast and it is feeding back like crazy... anyone else having issues or is this a me thing?

3 minutes ago, BoBo said:

I'm listening to the podcast and it is feeding back like crazy... anyone else having issues or is this a me thing?

Not just you. It's like an acid trip.

4 minutes ago, BoBo said:

I'm listening to the podcast and it is feeding back like crazy... anyone else having issues or is this a me thing?

Yepyep that’srightright feedfeeding backback likelike craycrayzie

1 minute ago, Jack Vineys Anger Manager said:

Not just you. It's like an acid trip.

It's not a good time.

6 minutes ago, BoBo said:

I'm listening to the podcast and it is feeding back like crazy... anyone else having issues or is this a me thing?

Yes, feedback is terrible. Can someone call them.

1 minute ago, xarronn said:

Yes, feedback is terrible. Can someone call them.

I’ve let them know