The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 18th August @ 8:00pm. Join Binman & I as we dissect the Dees disappointing loss to the Hawthorn.

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/

It's ok if you wanna cancel this week.

I wouldn't blame you.

But if you do want to go ahead a firey and angry rant is always appreciated. I find them therapeutic.

is the first half proof that 'try bowey as a forward' doesn't work? we had no one behind the ball with a level head

Who would’ve done a better job out there today / Jed or May? It’s a rhetorical question but why aren’t we trying new things, new players at this stage we are in. We looked old, slow and effortless to many time today, give the blokes at Casey who are desperate to prove themselves a go!

Not sure if that is a question or a rant.

Items for discussion:

• are we fit enough, seemed like Hawks gave us the run around?

• Do we need a new tackling coach, as Hawks seemed to break out of tackles often?

• Skills were unbelievably sloppy, is a major part lack of confidence?

For discussion - playing to win, or let’s experiment ? Is now the right time to experiment or does it tell players that the club/coaches don’t care anymore about this year?

To me we should play to win for every game (especially milestone games) and to build as much confidence as possible leading in to pre-season and next year - I.e. get the most from this year we can, build confidence in the new game style and players playing to their position in the new game style.

Changing positions for too many players at once (Bowey, Langford etc on top of existing changes) is too much change, destroying any semblance of confidence they might have and giving us no chance to win - from the very start today it was very evident the players knew the coaching staff were not being serious and did not care about the result, a ‘motivation killer’ for professional sportspersons - the players knew we were experimenting and did not care so much about winning - the players accepted the result was irrelevant today and therefore the result was pre-ordained from the start and this was reflected in their early contests. Much of the modern game style/strategy and our skill and effort to execute is driven by confidence - today we had none from the very start.

We cannot afford to repeat this mistake again against Collingwood - there is still much to play - pride, confidence, supporters, sponsors, potential recruits etc.

I love that there are still questions regarding our fitness hahaha.

Today showed exactly why Goodwin was moved on. He has continued to play mostly the same players, in the same positions and tried to shift the way we play to follow suit.

Posters fell in love with the fact we started moving the ball 'realllllly quickly' from the back half to the forward half. Forgetting that you still need to actually hit targets at the end of the chain and kick goals... Only a minor detail that we've been chasing for how long?

Today, Hawthorn showed us more than just a loss. Sam Mitchell. A player of sublime skill but also a player who is uncompromising in his competitiveness showed the MFC again that you simply cannot expect to play a long term sustainable brand of football without a blend of attributes across the list.

The difference between skill, touch, finesse, forwards who are natural at their craft, etc etc was just stark today.

It's a premium that Sam Mitchell has put on his recruiting and development team. It's modern day footy. Something we haven't.

Poor old Chaplin is just playing a copy and paste starting 22 with Goodwin instruction.

And binners thinks we're one elite kick away from turning this thing around?! And that a swingman at under 18's level (Van Rooyen) is an out and out gun forward!

I mean come onnnnnn guys. Take the goggles off!!

My question for pod with goggles off.

How many senior players do you think need to be moved on over the off-season for us to be able to make a GENUINE impact going forward with our younger brigade?

Trac, Oliver, Sparrow, Langdon, May, Viney, Sharp. The skill level is unbelievably bad on a consistent basis.

Langdon's skill level was genuinely unbelievable today. I'm talking C grad amos 2's. Who will call it out?! Who?!

Edited August 16Aug 16 by Howard_Grimes

2 questions,how do we attract other players when the cupboard is bare and what do you do with the players on mega deals,there not worth what there getting paid and offer nothing for other team's

1 hour ago, Howard_Grimes said:

I love that there are still questions regarding our fitness hahaha.

Today showed exactly why Goodwin was moved on. He has continued to play mostly the same players, in the same positions and tried to shift the way we play to follow suit.

Posters fell in love with the fact we started moving the ball 'realllllly quickly' from the back half to the forward half. Forgetting that you still need to actually hit targets at the end of the chain and kick goals... Only a minor detail that we've been chasing for how long?

Today, Hawthorn showed us more than just a loss. Sam Mitchell. A player of sublime skill but also a player who is uncompromising in his competitiveness showed the MFC again that you simply cannot expect to play a long term sustainable brand of football without a blend of attributes across the list.

The difference between skill, touch, finesse, forwards who are natural at their craft, etc etc was just stark today.

It's a premium that Sam Mitchell has put on his recruiting and development team. It's modern day footy. Something we haven't.

Poor old Chaplin is just playing a copy and paste starting 22 with Goodwin instruction.

And binners thinks we're one elite kick away from turning this thing around?! And that a swingman at under 18's level (Van Rooyen) is an out and out gun forward!

I mean come onnnnnn guys. Take the goggles off!!

My question for pod with goggles off.

How many senior players do you think need to be moved on over the off-season for us to be able to make a GENUINE impact going forward with our younger brigade?

Trac, Oliver, Sparrow, Langdon, May, Viney, Sharp. The skill level is unbelievably bad on a consistent basis.

Langdon's skill level was genuinely unbelievable today. I'm talking C grad amos 2's. Who will call it out?! Who?!

Can Howard be a guest speaker?

Gee, I sure hope no one thought sacking Goody would automatically have players motivated or unburdened. The last two games have had a lot of the same good and bad stuff we've seen all year.

Please Binman , this week don’t point to some statistic that show some degree of competitiveness by this Melbourne team . I appreciate your positivity but the fact is we got soundly beaten. We were never in the match and the winning margin could have been even worse.

This team ,under the former coach’s guidance, has fallen off a cliff since 2024 - its win / loss record falling from 80% in 2021 to 30% this Season.

Many of the Senior players ( with Gawn being the obvious exception) , despite being highly paid and on long contracts, continue to seriously underperform and appear (at times) to be disinterested.

The fact that some of these players were on Whispering Jack’s best player list is both surprising and concerning.

The development of our younger players , at best , has been patchy and some have gone backwards.

And let’s not start on our decline in fitness.

As a long time supporter and member, I hope our new management and coach can arrest this slide but we will just have to wait and see.

Edited August 16Aug 16 by FabDemon

@Demonland

So the “State of play” at end of 2025

@No Coach - interim

@No President - interim

@No CEO - awaiting September

@No home base - still waiting waiting … will it ever happen in our lifetime

—-—————————-

Club has been dismantled from the 2021 premiership:

Burgess departing to the Crows

Restaurant drama and reported players punch up

Finals 2022 & 2023 … Two x straight set finals departures

Board room dramas

Key Players retiring, leaving or injured (Hibbo, LJ, Gus, ANB, Ben Brown, JJ, Bedford, Harmesy)

Gus’ sad concussion retirement

Trac on field injury and subsequent off field dramas and trade dramas

Clarry off field issues and trade dramas

Missed finals 2024 and 2025

Did I miss anything … ?

Edited August 16Aug 16 by spirit of norm smith
X

Thanks again for the pod, gents. Another poor showing, allowing the hawks to simply ‘run around’ us with uncontested possessions and marks, with no effort to cover across, no ability to stick a tackle, or demonstrate rudimentary football skills.

Many of our players had absolute mares of games.

Max all Australian? Who else could pinch it from him?

Rivers provided real run through the midfield in the last - any thoughts on why the experiment hasn’t been tried more often this year.

Is May too slow now to be a key back?

Why no set plays from kick outs this week?

4 quarters of football left versus the filth. Nothing would please me more than seeing effort and skills, a few clean hits and the collywobbles to be in full swing come the finals…

Not making excuses but wondering about your thoughts on the game break difference. Hawks come off a 9 day break while we come off 6. It does seem like it hands an advantage. we would have lost anyway but perhaps look a little less outclassed?

3 hours ago, Wells 11 said:

Not making excuses but wondering about your thoughts on the game break difference. Hawks come off a 9 day break while we come off 6. It does seem like it hands an advantage. we would have lost anyway but perhaps look a little less outclassed?

I take your point but shouldn't teams be able to handle six-day breaks? Everyone of them has many a year so ones that can't cope are stuffed.

1 hour ago, Go Ds said:

I take your point but shouldn't teams be able to handle six-day breaks? Everyone of them has many a year so ones that can't cope are stuffed.

it’s not about being to handle them it’s about the advantage of 9 days v 6.

1 minute ago, Wells 11 said:

it’s not about being to handle them it’s about the advantage of 9 days v 6.

I can't believe it's even a debate.

Undeniably a huge factor in the game, particularly given we were coming off all the emotion of the previous week and we have a number of young players desperate for the season to end, not to mention nominally our best defender who looks totally cooked

The impact was most evident in terms of the impact on their ability to spread and get back on turnover and our inability to spead, cover their spread and get back on turnover (meaning our all team defence was woeful, the key reason gunston had do many clear leading lanes).

Scanning this thread I wish I could say I'm surprised how negative so many posters are about our performance.

Most such posts are from people who deride us a woeful bottom 4 team - so a bottom 4 team against team, who were 1.40 to win, comimg of a 9 day break against a team and for whom a win locked in a finals spot and percentage gives them an outside top 4 chance.

And people are up in arms about performance - that's some serious cognitive dissonance right there.

I was actually really impressed with the way they fought the game out.

Come on Binners. Jump on board with those supporters who watch the game. Back away from the pressure acts and inside 50s or introduce psychological assessments into the stats file.

What does the panel think, I have a feeling that Chaplin went back to the old Dees a bit. We have been ok going fwd the past 5 rounds and the stats prove that. this looked like the old bomb it in.

maybe it was the Hawks pressure, but we seemed to always be kicking inside 50 from being hemmed in around where the 50 meets the boundary, meaning they were all just high balls to big packs, which made it easy for Hawks as the ball can only go to one spot.

Even the commentators mentioned it a few times how we would get the ball around the point of the square and go outside (to the boundary) rather than come back central and open up the 50.

I have made the point on the pod before but going to bring them up again:

1 - our handballing is horrible, even to the point where we are handballing the ball back in play to an outnumber that the player knows is there, when we have the most dominant ruck in the comp, just take it out!!

2 - our tackling is [censored] poor, and has to be a focus over the pre-season

3 - we just cannot transition when we turn the ball over, May had a bad game, but how many of those balls also hit Gunston on the chest, hard for any defender.

End of the season, players probably have checked out with everything going on, so let's get through the year, maybe beat the filth and keep them out of the 4.

1 hour ago, binman said:

I can't believe it's even a debate.

Undeniably a huge factor in the game, particularly given we were coming off all the emotion of the previous week and we have a number of young players desperate for the season to end, not to mention nominally our best defender who looks totally cooked

The impact was most evident in terms of the impact on their ability to spread and get back on turnover and our inability to spead, cover their spread and get back on turnover (meaning our all team defence was woeful, the key reason gunston had do many clear leading lanes).

Scanning this thread I wish I could say I'm surprised how negative so many posters are about our performance.

Most such posts are from people who deride us a woeful bottom 4 team - so a bottom 4 team against team, who were 1.40 to win, comimg of a 9 day break against a team and for whom a win locked in a finals spot and percentage gives them an outside top 4 chance.

And people are up in arms about performance - that's some serious cognitive dissonance right there.

I was actually really impressed with the way they fought the game out.

Mate, sinking ship and you'll be shouting from the mast any excuse for this club. It's wild.

20 minutes ago, Howard_Grimes said:

Mate, sinking ship and you'll be shouting from the mast any excuse for this club. It's wild.

Not as wild as getting banned mutilple times from a football fan forum and feeling compelled to create new profiles, when we're struggling of course, to continue to spew negativity about the club.

1 hour ago, binman said:

I can't believe it's even a debate.

Undeniably a huge factor in the game, particularly given we were coming off all the emotion of the previous week and we have a number of young players desperate for the season to end, not to mention nominally our best defender who looks totally cooked

The impact was most evident in terms of the impact on their ability to spread and get back on turnover and our inability to spead, cover their spread and get back on turnover (meaning our all team defence was woeful, the key reason gunston had do many clear leading lanes).

Scanning this thread I wish I could say I'm surprised how negative so many posters are about our performance.

Most such posts are from people who deride us a woeful bottom 4 team - so a bottom 4 team against team, who were 1.40 to win, comimg of a 9 day break against a team and for whom a win locked in a finals spot and percentage gives them an outside top 4 chance.

And people are up in arms about performance - that's some serious cognitive dissonance right there.

I was actually really impressed with the way they fought the game out.

I've especially noticed how badly teams do with only 5 days compared to 7 or more. So I half-agree with Wells11. But as the less-rested side is 6days to 8 days or 7 to 9 does the two or three day difference matter less? I would have assumed so.

Also, same as playing interstate, teams now have decades of experience and information for coping with 6-day breaks. Aren't teams getting better at this?

The rest of what you said I wholeheartedly agree with. Freo and Suns thrashed this week. Collingwood, GWS and Brisbane all also recently had awful days against top 4/8 teams. I want to see Melbourne back at the top. But yesterday wasn't Geelong 2011. It wasn't even the Freo shellacking last year.

52 minutes ago, binman said:

Not as wild as getting banned mutilple times from a football fan forum and feeling compelled to create new profiles, when we're struggling of course, to continue to spew negativity about the club.

Unfairly banned as my fellow demonland favourites can attest to!

I love the club. Even though we're bordering on rabble-town again.

Edited August 17Aug 17 by Howard_Grimes

I reckon both @Howard_Grimes and @binman are right, and therefore wrong.

It’s frankly dumb to attempt to ignore the 9 day vs 6 day break. It is clearly capable of being a factor, particularly for a side like us which appears to me to have struggled with aerobic fitness all year.

But then of course you see Adelaide have no discernible fitness issue against Collingwood despite the exact same 9 day vs 6 day break issue.

Fitness and that 3-day break difference cannot, and does not, explain everything.

2 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I reckon both @Howard_Grimes and @binman are right, and therefore wrong.

It’s frankly dumb to attempt to ignore the 9 day vs 6 day break. It is clearly capable of being a factor, particularly for a side like us which appears to me to have struggled with aerobic fitness all year.

But then of course you see Adelaide have no discernible fitness issue against Collingwood despite the exact same 9 day vs 6 day break issue.

Fitness and that 3-day break difference cannot, and does not, explain everything.

Of course it doesn't. I never said it did I said it was a huge factor.

By the by, even though the crows are probably the fittest side in the AFL and way way fitter than us it was also a huge factor in that game.

The pies dominated big chunks of that game as evidenced by their huge inide 50 differential. The crows, whi i thinkmwill win the flag, were definitely not at their optimal running power.