sparrow is such a nothing footballer; milkshake in for him for mine

big task for the skipper going up against the old protege so the q then becomes whether they want to give him some support

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

No coach worth his pay is sending in his team without some adaptions to the opposition's strengths. We have to match or beat Freo around stoppage to be any chance. We have to defend much better than we did against the Saints. Lever's not getting dropped, TMac's not the answer, we desperately miss Bowey and AMW is likely way underdone. Does Koltyn run with Serong and do we play Heath or watch Max get smashed into by Darcy and jumped over by Jackson?

Of course it's unlikely we win but apparently we weren't a chance to beat the saints either......Bring it on.

Wasn’t trying to be a downer. I tipped us against the Saints but Freo will be fired up at home.

Our new game style is great but will open us up to some big lossses against the skilful quick teams early days

McDonald & Heath for Lever & Sparrow. Lever turned the ball over on multiple occasions and had about ten contested marks taken on - mostly by midgets. Straight swap for McDonald.

Heath required to combat Jackson & Darcy, and Sparrow contributed nothing (again).

10 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

sparrow is such a nothing footballer; milkshake in for him for mine

big task for the skipper going up against the old protege so the q then becomes whether they want to give him some support

Interesting what we do with Sparrow this year as he is out of contract and a free agent. Will probably get offers from the SA teams. Plays well in pre season games and that’s about it.

First thing King does this week is tell Jake Lever you have NO license to go for the inside kick - putrid !

7 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Wasn’t trying to be a downer. I tipped us against the Saints but Freo will be fired up at home.

Our new game style is great but will open us up to some big lossses against the skilful quick teams early days

I'm the same quietly confident yesterday. Against freo over there I am expecting 35 point loss. But 60+ wouldn't surprise

5 hours ago, bing181 said:

It just really intrigues me what people think the assistant + development coaches do. Sit around all day playing Pokemon on their phones and then putting out the cones for training?

They pump up the soccer balls too.

4 hours ago, beelzebub said:

This ^^^^ ... a better account of the day me thinks.

That was our first dance of the year...and yes it looked like it at times... but at other times it gave a glimpse of things to come.

We've had all summer to learn new patterns but reality is ever so often more demanding than practice. Not all the gears meshed at times... but when they did !! 👍

Strangely I dont expect CJ to be perfect but he does have a specific quality that showed yesterday... he has bravado, speed and can break lines... On several occasions he changed the ebb by simply having half of Stkildas forward attack suddenly all in wrong positions. That's GOLD. I saw some quite decent k I king at times...and some nonsense special. I thought he did OK.. He'll do better. There's a lot a players that will similarly get better

I think our defence needs more work. It will be sorely tested against the Fockers.

Imho we did miss what May brings to defence yesterday and we need to find someone..or tactics to better do that. Im sure King and Co have been working on that ... keep.working ;)

Id like to see Tommy back... but not thinking thats Kings preference.. It occurs to me when both May and Tmac were in defence...it clicked well....left Ricky to do Ricky stuff. With neither on the park 🤷🤷 Disco and Petty need to step up again. I didn't think Petty was too bad actually... latter in game beating two opponents when it mattered was excellent.... but dropping a chest mark... not so much. Again I think we'll play better v freo for the hit out yesterday. We'll need to. Freo ought to go well this year.

Tis very early in season, and I notice the bookies are giving us NO respect..

Am thinking another close game coming up.

I'd be happy taking the choccies by any margin.

Be interesting if any changes. Im not expecting any.

Re. cj he also set up three goals directly from his drive from half back. All came when we had good space and he was kicking to space.

As I mentioned in the game Day thread, the further up the ground he is kicking it the better. He is like Brett Maloney or Lumumba. You can't rely on him to be switching the play to a contest or chipping it around... he's a quick "in transition" player and anything else is a risk. It'll be a big test for him vs Freo.

TMac because he can take a big grab down back, can chop out n the ruck and Freo have good talls so we need an extra.

Sparrow the only out for mine.

From the match report on the Casey practice game.

Sounds like Melksham is a few weeks off...

Both Henderson and Melksham completed a half each as part of their load management.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1972973/vfl-report-dees-dominate-in-final-practice-match

I have a (very) rare kid-free evening on Saturday (#singledadlife), and heading to the game. Any other Demonlander’s heading over? I’ll probably grab a water or two at The Camfield beforehand.

I am probably in the no change basket, unless there's an injury given it was such a team effort, although I agree both Melky and Moose would be unlucky to miss and I certainly am keen to see Xavier Taylor get a game ASAP.

Ultimately only Lever played poorly and he's been one of our better players all pre-season, so you don't change your defensive structure after one bad game and he is critical to our defensive setup.

Good to see King rewarding and being rewarded by our two fittest players - Sharp and Kolt - and I'm keen to see if Tholstrop goes to Serong or just plays wing/half back this week.

Sparrow should also be better this week as he was the one that lost most of his midfield role to allow Kolt to keep manning NAS when he went into the centre square.

If Darcy plays, I am not against a hard call on Sparrow for Heath, but I don't reckon it will happen.

1 hour ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

I have a (very) rare kid-free evening on Saturday (#singledadlife), and heading to the game. Any other Demonlander’s heading over? I’ll probably grab a water or two at The Camfield beforehand.

Ill be there with my young lad.

This will be a tough one, looking forward to a big challenge.

4 hours ago, poita said:

McDonald & Heath for Lever & Sparrow. Lever turned the ball over on multiple occasions and had about ten contested marks taken on - mostly by midgets. Straight swap for McDonald.

Heath required to combat Jackson & Darcy, and Sparrow contributed nothing (again).

I would do exactly the same. Selection will be interesting. I think King will show a more horses for courses approach than Goodwins old approach of backing his team in.

9 hours ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

Not saying the coaching group did not have input but it's King who would have given such a vital move the final tick on the day and the commitment to it all day.

Not the place, but perhaps one day we'll have a decent discussion on Demonland regarding the actual role of the head coach - and everyone else in the FD for that matter.

Assistant (and even development) coaches have a lot more input in what goes on than many here give them credit for. Sure, King is Head Coach and it's his name at the top and as you so rightly put it, he's the one who has to front up to defend decisions at the Press Conferences. But it's a coaching team.

Without any inside knowledge so could be well wide of the mark, I don't believe that the decision to play Kolt on NWM came from any one person or any one process. It could have started with a question to the fitness staff, and King mentioned Kolt's fitness profile as making him ideal for the job (fast enough, but can run all day). I would imagine that even the development team got involved. etc. etc.

Darcy played the no-mans-land 5th man on the bench role against the Cats (45% time on ground)

I'm not bringing in a 2nd ruck because of Darcy, he is a non-factor

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by adonski

2 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

I have a (very) rare kid-free evening on Saturday (#singledadlife), and heading to the game. Any other Demonlander’s heading over? I’ll probably grab a water or two at The Camfield beforehand.

Stuie might be going over Ethan.

25 minutes ago, adonski said:

Darcy played the no-mans-land 5th man on the bench role against the Cats (45% time on ground)

I'm not bringing in a 2nd ruck because of Darcy, he is a non-factor

Every chance he injures himself before the first ball up anyway…

An extra tall makes sense against Freo.

We will be able to run out the game better with one game under our belt, and Freo's tall defender stocks seem limited.

On 15/03/2026 at 18:36, bing181 said:

Get Xavier Taylor in, even if he's not ready. Backline needs bolstering. St Kilda had 15 goals and 32 scoring shots - that would win most games.

We need tmac in, however I think him and milkshake have been told they will only play if injuries mount.

5 hours ago, DeeZee said:

TMac because he can take a big grab down back, can chop out n the ruck and Freo have good talls so we need an extra.

Sparrow the only out for mine.

I agree on tmac but I don't think it will happen. I think he has been told he is an emergency for injuries only.

7 hours ago, adonski said:

Could use Culley as the long down the line marking option instead of Gawn if needed, such is his aerial game

Get Culley to go head to head with Jackson

22 hours ago, Dee-tonator said:

I would like to see TMac included, in order to release Lever for the intercept game at which he is adept.

But I fear King may be a bit jaundiced about picking veterans, Max excepted.

The defence certainly needs some tweaking, because we conceded far too many scoring opportunities today and always looked vulnerable in the corridor.

Bring in Tommy Mac.....would be Oscar at the other end to talk about

1 hour ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Stuie might be going over Ethan.

I’d rather staple my head to the carpet.