The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 16th June @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect the Dees disappointing loss to the Power.

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.

Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/

No point mentioning the umps. More interested in if you thought Viney unbalanced the midfield.

Felt like the 'Soft as butter' game from the COVID season where we just refused to acknowledge the other side of the ground. I don't care anymore about results I just want to see us persist with the gameplan that we are trying to achieve. Games like this with the same old method are a waste of time.

3 minutes ago, layzie said:

Felt like the 'Soft as butter' game from the COVID season where we just refused to acknowledge the other side of the ground. I don't care anymore about results I just want to see us persist with the gameplan that we are trying to achieve. Games like this with the same old method are a waste of time.

You can't change method with current list.

Not enough skill or good decision makers.

Our best players are also our weakest link

This is probably a question better reserved for the end of season podcast, but what we are going to do about our midfield balance going forward?

Viney, Trac and Clarry are not the players who are going to win a game in the middle of the ground for you in 2025

Every contending club has speedy and skilful midfielders who can extract AND hit targets - we have crash and bash midfielders who almost look like they’re from another era

I acknowledge that the club has gone some way to addressing this by bringing in good ball users and revamping the game plan, but as long as those three continue to be our leading possession getters it’s going to continue to lose us games

Edited 23 hours ago23 hr by demoncat

Interested to get your thoughts on our game plan and personnel. The game plan is working and for the most parts we are executing it, just can’t convert our inside 50s.

Do you think we blood kids, or persist with the current team and back them in on lowering their eyes when kicking into the forward 50.

Should I dare say we’ve missed Spargo’s entries into the forward line but seeing us just bomb the ball in over and over had me pulling my hair out.

Super frustrating watching that. We were terrible - won so many stats but they were useless in the end. Georgiades had a day out - but wouldn’t have if he was a demon..)

We are at the bye, and turn the corner in real trouble. We continue to make the same dreadful errors and cannot kick for goal.

Who should we look at from Casey, who should go back, and what games can we realistically win in the home stretch??

@binman Are you able to tell me how many ineffective inside 50s we had this week? Thats the worst delivery I’ve seen in a long time.

Cheer up, Demonlanders! The Mighty Dees are now clear competition leaders in the important area of kicking behinds! Yes, we have now kicked 179 behinds are are now 11 clear of the Lions, the Dogs, the Pies and the Cats. Great company, eh? What to do about it? Well, now finals are out of the picture, Goody should redesign our training regime so that we spend 50pc of training time practising goal kicking. It has become more than embarrassing. We are a laughing stock. I imagine that, when Max has taken a terrific mark in the F50 and is lining up for goal, the opposition players are saying to each other "set up for a kick out". Question for Binman: does the TAB offer in-game odds on set shots for goal? It would be a sure-fire way for Dees supporters to at least make a few bucks out of their misery by backing the behind. Go Dees!🔵🔴🔵

How many more weeks of terrible forward half play does the footy department think is acceptable? It's already been about 70 (going back to 2022). Another season or two should do it?

Each week the club needs to be doing the things that are going to get us closer to another premiership. So question to the panel, what do we do to achieve that? Because staying the course right now seems to be getting us further away.

For mine, the Petty experiment has to be killed. He may bring the ball to ground, but when he gets a shot he's not punishing enough. Petty and Turner look like the future of our backline, so they should play as such. If Jeffo and JVR are the future up forward, let's play them there. If they go 3 weeks without kicking a goal, the club must persist. It matters very little that Petty gets 10 balls to ground a game that then result in 1-2 goals but butchers the ball when he has the chance himself.

Goodwin gets some tactical things right on occasion and he won the flag, but he gets a lot wrong. Selection, interchange, sticking with tactics too long. The panel has acknowledged all of these problems this year on multiple occasions. Replacing Goodwin doesn't mean that we have a potato as a coach, we get someone in with their own tactical thoughts, some fresh ideas, no preconceived notions about what works and what doesn't. Maybe they wouldn't do much better, but do we really think that the next best coach waiting in the wings would be worse?

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I am seriously concerned that the quality of our youth is not developing properly. We are already starting to see worrying signs of regression from Rivers, McVee, Sparrow, and Windsor. These were supposed to be the backbone of the next generation to achieve lasting success, but these players already a shadow of themselves. I don't want to think about what this could mean for Langford and Lindsay.

Maybe this team can achieve the ultimate again before Max, May, Viney, Lever and others have to inevitably hang up the boots, but we need something drastic to change to get there and the team isn't changing at the moment.

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Perhaps on the lighter side, although I love the pod, I have been frustrated for a few weeks about the disposal quality question. I have heard the panel tell us that Langford, Lindsay, Bowey, McVee, Pickett, Melksham, and VanRooyen all as great/elite kicks. By my count that's 7 players. Is this really true? Who are the actual really great kicks on the team?

Unfortunately I feel like we did not take the game on at all. There was no fast ball movement, no risks taken. Our Discipline or lack of it - or frustration - is creeping in. I’m happy to lose playing our new method, but for me we lacked ambition.

On a side note - I love the different perspectives on the show. It would be nice if George was allowed to articulate his points without constant interjections or belittling of his thoughts. Disagree more respectfully please. What we love about this site is the vast opinions and thought - make your point and then leave it up to the listener to draw their own conclusions.

Keep up the good work!

Did anyone notice that after Max marked on his chest directly in front of goal that he prepared for the kick by walking, with his back turned on the goal, AT AN ANGLE that increased the degree of difficulty of kicking the goal?

He actually set off from a point pretty much in line with the outer boundary of the goal square, so he could have taken his kick from directly in front, instead of at an angle. Of course, he missed.

Back in round 1 2018 Max's inability to kick accurately from directly in front cost us a win against Geelong. Despite his 2021 heroics in the preliminary final and round 22 against Geelong, this has been a costly recurring problem.

Basic (secondary) question: If the captain cannot be persuaded to correct his one serious flaw, how can any player be made to do so?

Little wonder we are the only team to have registered more points than goals in 2025.

It’s an obvious observation but we’re playing good enough footy to win these kind of matches. We’re doing such a lot right… but our kicking for goal isn’t just “ bad” it’s at PTSD levels now and is killing us.

Max is a case in point. He was never great, Maybe a 60/40 proposition or maybe even just 50/50 but he’s kicked 2.13 this year and looks utterly at sea in his goal kicking routine. I honestly think many in this team are now mentally scarred. Trac looks the same… as does Petty.

It’s not just about "more practice" now… I would argue that what ever they're actually practicing has made them worse. I think it’s psychological and I just don’t see how this is going to end. Any thoughts?

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by Wells 11

Gents, not a great game.

I think some demonlanders need to realise we have changed our gamestyle, but have a lot of players that have spent the last 6+ years playing and training our old style. So the dump kick naturally sneaks back into their game. It's frustrating yes, but they are working on changing from it, all you have to do is look at the players doing it, Oliver, Viney, May, Trac and Co.

These guys won a premiership and finished top 4 playing the "forward territory" game, they will just need a bit more time and training to lose that muscle memory.

Also, people need to get over Max's goal kicking, he isn't a good kick. No player can do everything, and Max can do pretty much everything except that, take the good with the bad and relish it whilst we still can!

Also is it to early to offer Kalani White a Kossie deal?

How bad was that 18 point play passage? That round-trip coast to coast sling shot ending in port scoring …

1 hour ago, Wells 11 said:

It’s an obvious observation but we’re playing good enough footy to win these kind of matches. We’re doing such a lot right… but our kicking for goal isn’t just “ bad” it’s at PTSD levels now and is killing us.

Max is a case in point. He was never great, Maybe a 60/40 proposition or maybe even just 50/50 but he’s kicked 2.13 this year and looks utterly at sea in his goal kicking routine. I honestly think many in this team are now mentally scarred. Trac looks the same… as does Petty.

It’s about more than practice now… I think it’s psychological and I just don’t see how this is going to end. Any thoughts?

Agree but as of yesterday I think he's at 2.15.

1 hour ago, Travy14 said:

Gents, not a great game.

Also, people need to get over Max's goal kicking, he isn't a good kick. No player can do everything, and Max can do pretty much everything except that, take the good with the bad and relish it whilst we still can!

I disagree. Kicking is the most fundamental skill in the game. It's called football, after all.

Max is a champion and an all time great of the club. Nobody could dispute that. Also, he is a wonderful ambassador for the club who is respected almost universally by football followers.

But the raw facts are that he has a serious, match-losing flaw in his game and it is one that can be corrected with application, with a routine and with practice. As captain I believe he has a role in showing to the rest of the list that constant improvement is what the game demands, and no-one is exempt from it. Not even mighty Max.

2 hours ago, pitmaster said:

Did anyone notice that after Max marked on his chest directly in front of goal that he prepared for the kick by walking, with his back turned on the goal, AT AN ANGLE that increased the degree of difficulty of kicking the goal?

He actually set off from a point pretty much in line with the outer boundary of the goal square, so he could have taken his kick from directly in front, instead of at an angle. Of course, he missed.

Back in round 1 2018 Max's inability to kick accurately from directly in front cost us a win against Geelong. Despite his 2021 heroics in the preliminary final and round 22 against Geelong, this has been a costly recurring problem.

Basic (secondary) question: If the captain cannot be persuaded to correct his one serious flaw, how can any player be made to do so?

Little wonder we are the only team to have registered more points than goals in 2025.

With Max's more of an arc type kick, the maggots call play on anything up to 1 to 2vseconds earlier, because of the arc.

How disappointing was that game.

Seemingly no interest in manning up the short hitup kick we just let them have it all day. Teams have done that to us before and just waltz their way from back half to forward 50 with little or no pressure. I thought we’d changed that after seeing the intense pressure we would put on the ball carrier and the next possession getter in the previous weeks. I’m not sure where we go from here now. If the boys all lose faith and the hunger for the win we could fall off a cliff in 2025 which was pretty much over before it started. I was so bullish about our finals chances but that took a hit when we lost to the saints, then the 1 point loss to Collingwood I managed to wrestle with that internally and say we probably weren’t going to win that anyway, but I saw a way in which we get on a run now, go into the bye on the back of a good win and build some momentum in the back half of the season, but now that opportunity is gone. We will be a bottom 6 team again by the looks this year which just breaks my heart. This list is so much better than that and that is what’s hurts the most. Same old issues, same personnel making the same mistakes, it’s so hard to fathom how this is not getting looked at inside the club and getting worked on.

Where to from here. Well at least we won’t lose this week.

We all seem to acknowledge that the midfield needs a shake up. Is leaving Trac in the forward line an option a la Dangerfield at Geelong? He is very good overhead and IMO would provide a better option than Petty who has no physical presence whatsoever. Your thoughts please gentlemen.

Cutting questions off here. Thanks for contributing.

Sick as a dog but surprisingly not from watching the footy although it didn't help.

I'll still do the show because I need this Bye more than the team.

5 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Cutting questions off here. Thanks for contributing.

Sick as a dog but surprisingly not from watching the footy although it didn't help.

I'll still do the show because I need this Bye more than the team.

Maybe a symptom of the MFCSS?

Outs as importance as ins now

Look to 2026.

Salem, Melksham at the end now.

Sparrow, just a battler, find new home

Petty, competing but can’t turn down to injury or wear and tear. find new home.

Ins to be given a good go.

Laurie, see if he’s up to it.

Tholstrup, get games into him

Verall, Max needs support.

Mentha, give him a look

Jefferson , an obvious one who will be better again with another pre season strength building.

Missed the questions- but keen to know how you believe we can build trust within the forwards and mids. It’s a chicken and egg scenario- where forwards don’t lead as the mids do not lower their eyes and the mids bomb it long as the forwards are stagnant. How do we address this issue ingrained over time?

This is a big worry. Rivers looks beaten. I remember when we used to "Melbourne" our young talent, and crush them instead of developing them.

13 hours ago, RadishDee said:

I am seriously concerned that the quality of our youth is not developing properly. We are already starting to see worrying signs of regression from Rivers, McVee, Sparrow, and Windsor. These were supposed to be the backbone of the next generation to achieve lasting success, but these players already a shadow of themselves. I don't want to think about what this could mean for Langford and Lindsay.