The rewriting of history happens quickly around here. Casting Windsor as a poor trade option and claiming he has been a passenger for two weeks is over the top! He had 21 possessions in round 1 and slotted a lovely goal. Are critics forgetting the nasty hit he took to the shoulder last night. I thought he was done for the evening, but he recovers sufficiently to battle on.

27 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

Or could look at a penalty for “unsportsmanlike behaviour”. Only a [censored] of the highest order would incur this penalty…… enter the F Wit Voss.

For a player who has done SFA in afl his main achievement is his big mouth. Something Freo must be proud of.

Coach seemed cognisant he was 'treading a fine line'. Not a sportsman's bootlace, with behaviour emblematic of stepping in...

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Tarax Club

3 hours ago, BDA said:

we got another game into our youngsters

stemmed the bleeding after quarter time. could have got real ugly.

i think a 50 point defeat is about par given where ourselves and Freo are. no need to be disheartened at all

carlton are very beatable. If we get our hands on enough ball i reckon we can turn them over

It's also just the start and flying that far after 6 days would have zapped a few of their energy perhaps. Given the real temp at 7.30 according to the BOM was around 25 Celsius with 82% humidity. We certainly looked slow at times.

Although Max who barely had time to scratch his nose against the Saints was a dynamo.

I wonder if we hooked a turbine up to his bicycle we could solve all our energy issues.

1 hour ago, Maldonboy38 said:

I feel sorry for our defenders being burnt by constant turnovers n the middle

Fair point. It was coming in at breakneck speed at times and faster than it was repelled. Plus no Disco or Bowser.

Underestimate Freo this year and you've made a mistake. Despite some really doubtful umpiring you often see at fortress kardinia, Freo almost won.

Next week will give us more of an insight to the season. I think we have the talent. But is it mature enough and our some older guys fading away?

King certainly has some challenges but I'm glad we changed coaches and moved a few players on. Could have swung the axe a little harder.

Sparrow isn't really my favourite. I think he gives us 100 % ( 12 tackles yesterday) but hes just not a ball winner. Yet he's in every single week. That needs to change. Hes 25 with a myriad of games under his belt. If he hasnt really performed yet, hes not going to improve.

And while his tackle count may have earnt him another game, I don't want players gifted them. I think we saw quite a bit of this under Goody. Maybe from lack of depth and or injury but successful clubs have at least half a dozen pushing for selection each week. Selection was often a common and robust discussion here in 2021

Do we currently have this sort of talent? Not to the same extent, but at least more so than the last two years?

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Previously known as LITD.

34 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

The rewriting of history happens quickly around here. Casting Windsor as a poor trade option and claiming he has been a passenger for two weeks is over the top! He had 21 possessions in round 1 and slotted a lovely goal. Are critics forgetting the nasty hit he took to the shoulder last night. I thought he was done for the evening, but he recovers sufficiently to battle on.

It’s not really a knock on Windsor, he’ll be a good player, but we reached on draft night by 3-4 positions. No one is taking him over Curtin Caddy or O’Sullivan

47 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Everyone saying that we miss May so much, is it the 2021 version or his current reality?

Last year he was slow and immobile. He would struggle with this new game plan given his age and injuries

We were never getting the 22 version of May back in a full time sense once 2023 commenced Dub but he was still able to produce the best version of himself on occasions somewhere through 2024 imv.

To say we could just go out and find a like for like replacement is very nice banter (and i'm not suggesting this is what you are inferring) but no serious football punter genuinely believes in such fairy tales surely?

May at his best was a generational talent for us and the best we can hope for is something akin to his best.

Turner will grow into his role and should improve as the years pass but i'm not expecting him to get to the heady heights that May produced on a consistent basis anyway.

Hopefully we can find another seriously good intercept Marshall / enforcer down back to support the likes of Disco at some point in the near future but i'm not holding my breath.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Demon Dynasty

The first QTR was really ugly we were lucky we were not 10 goals down . It was Neeld esq.

I was pretty happy after that we dominated 2nd but didn't capitalise and gave them 2 late goals in last 2 mins after barely going inside 50.

We are miles off Freo quality and that's ok. Happy that we didn't roll over. We definitely looked gassed early which is odd as we ran the game out well against Saints after a pretty hot day .

Disco was among our best when we lost him so that hurt.

We were mugged twice at the start of the game and after half time with Freo’s frenetic game that put early and later distance points on the board to leave us too far behind to catch up when they eased up. We were just not prepared. We approached the game with too much confidence this week. Lacking a gorilla forward will also give us grief plenty of times this season. Most players tried had but team work lost shape.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by John Crow Batty

1 hour ago, Demon Dynasty said:

We were never getting the 22 version of May back in a full time sense once 2023 commenced Dub but he was still able to produce the best version of himself on occasions somewhere through 2024 imv.

To say we could just go out and find a like for like replacement is very nice banter (and i'm not suggesting this is what you are inferring) but no serious football punter genuinely believes in such fairy tales surely?

May at his best was a generational talent for us and the best we can hope for is something akin to his best.

Turner will grow into his role and should improve as the years pass but i'm not expecting him to get to the heady heights that May produced on a consistent basis anyway.

Hopefully we can find another seriously good intercept Marshall / enforcer down back to support the likes of Disco at some point in the near future but i'm not holding my breath.

Sure he was great but if he was still on the list he would not help us imo.

Of course we miss the ‘22 version

The season will be a roller coaster.

Hitting out at our drafting, when was our last top 3 pick, and when did we ace father sons like Pies, Lions & Dogs!

If you base expectations around 7-10 wins and realise we are rebuilding culture, game plan and have quite a lot of kids, you will enjoy the year a lot more!

There are also rose coloured glasses on some of the players who have left the Demons!

We’ve taken the broom through the place, a little maybe even a lot of patience at times will be required in 2026!

1 hour ago, Greg Schneider said:

It’s not really a knock on Windsor, he’ll be a good player, but we reached on draft night by 3-4 positions. No one is taking him over Curtin Caddy or O’Sullivan

We did. And both Adelaide and GC took other players before Caddy.

In any case, we (badly) needed a player like Windsor (outside run) much more than we did a key forward or even a key defender. Windsort wa the right selection at the time, and still the right selection.

2 hours ago, waynewussell said:

The rewriting of history happens quickly around here. Casting Windsor as a poor trade option and claiming he has been a passenger for two weeks is over the top! He had 21 possessions in round 1 and slotted a lovely goal. Are critics forgetting the nasty hit he took to the shoulder last night. I thought he was done for the evening, but he recovers sufficiently to battle on.

That was Darcy who had his fist connected would have knocked Sparrow out into next week (last quarter). We all looked at each other when it happened unbelievably and of course no mention from the very unbiased commentators. It was not aimed at the ball or maybe Darcy needs glasses.

Catching up on all this. My take on it all is that we're in a better place than the pessimists are portraying, but a worse place than the optimists.

There are some real issues out there at the moment (mids especially), and they aren't going to be solved in the short term. Elsewhere, as long as we can keep people on the park, I'd like to think we'll be OK. Mid-table OK, grab a few decent wins, lose a few howlers

Do we know what Disco's injury is?

Watching the backline at the moment isn't for the faint of heart, it seems incredibly fragile. Equally, not all teams have 3 decent tall forwards.

But we have to remember we've lost half the backline from last year, and not no-one either: Bowey and McVee, and in particular May. Apart from his defending, his great strengths were his ability to organise the troops and his decision-making and disposal. And while his drop-off is being highlighted here, in his final game for us he still managed 23 disposals and 12 marks. In fact, last season he averaged nearly 18 disposals and 7 marks a game.

None of that is easily replaced.

Definitely a first quarter to forget, and lots of room for improvment, but...

• The boys fought hard to get back into the contest and never gave up

• The leaders led. Max, Steele, Langdon, Salem

• Definitely a selection error not picking a sesond ruck vs Freo. They are massive

• Losing Turner at not long into the second term is a massive blow, especially with Freo being massive

• Second good game in a row for Kolt

• Voss carried on like a pork chop and had nothing to show for it 😁

The road trip routine needs some work. We looked tired/slow and the ball was like soap for them.

The game plan looked not existential, except in the last when a “licence to take it on” may have been the instructions.

Most of the game involved us holding the boundary line, with little looking inside for a central corridor, or spread to find space. If you can't get the ball it is difficult to manage the tempo/momentum. Freo sat on us waiting for our errors as we guarded the grass. It looked like we were hoping to get turnovers and then swarm the contest. We started fumbly and they were just too good, and our confidence fell.

There was no plan to change tempo or momentum. Would have liked us to chip it round a bit, get each other into it without the opposition rushing us. Need to make space and time, and that inability affected our ability to play to our plan.

Where was our change of strategy change up, when it would have made a difference?

Where was our handball game?

We couldn't create, didn't swarm or make overlaps. Looked like more fun in the last, where we seem to have a licence to take it on. Hopefully that fits us well, more of that as we take on the Blue.

6 hours ago, Gator said:

In other words, you do have to reference their age/experience every time you reference them.

That's utter nonsense.

I suspect I'm different to 99% of Demonland posters. Langford has lacked intensity his entire, albeit small (just for you), career. He's nowhere near hard enough at the contest and never has been. And you don't need age or experience for that.

The ol' terminal uniqueness paradigm.

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

Do we know what Disco's injury is?

And Mihocek - concussion?

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

Do we know what Disco's injury is?

I hope it's not his mirror balls.

3 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

It’s not really a knock on Windsor, he’ll be a good player, but we reached on draft night by 3-4 positions. No one is taking him over Curtin Caddy or O’Sullivan

Way too early to judge. He’s a natural winger in my book. I think Langford does need to embrace contact and become a mid but he’s got great skills and he’ll justify his selection over time. Lindsay for mine is a mid, not a back in the modern game with so many great small forwards running around. Bowey and hopefully AMW can push him out of defence. Personally I think we’ve seen enough from all 3 to know they have the talent to be great players going forward. Clearly we’ve got defensive issues but for me the signs are more positive than negative. The clubs we’re chasing are all 3-5 years further advanced so drafting and trading are going to be crucial especially with Tassie coming in. Lets just beat Carlton ffs

4 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

It’s not really a knock on Windsor, he’ll be a good player, but we reached on draft night by 3-4 positions. No one is taking him over Curtin Caddy or O’Sullivan

Way too early to make that call.

13 hours ago, deegirl said:

This. Since the premiership Sparrow and Rivers have plateaued. Good players who can’t seem to make the step up to be very good.

To be fair deegirl it’s game two of the rest of their careers post Clayton and Tracc, our big stars that these boys were subservient to since they joined the club. Let’s see how they look in 10-15 rounds, to give them time to step up into those vacant roles. They have to find the real belief that says yes we can stand up, “if it has to be, it must be Me”.

4 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

It’s not really a knock on Windsor, he’ll be a good player, but we reached on draft night by 3-4 positions. No one is taking him over Curtin Caddy or O’Sullivan

You do understand how the draft works?

He has line breaking speed. Thats what we recruited for. Neither player you mentioned has that.

23 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

You do understand how the draft works?

He has line breaking speed. Thats what we recruited for. Neither player you mentioned has that.

Do you? You take best available at pick 7. Not needs. Could’ve addressed what you stated at pick 12, similar to what we did last year. Taylor best available, Latrelle a need