9 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

No I was thinking of Turner. He did give a slight one to an Essendon defender’s stomach which resulted in a down field free kick in the square. Fortunately they deemed it insufficient contact for a report.

I thought he had a good first half and glad he wasn’t cited.

That downfield against Disco was ridiculous and shouldn’t have been paid in the first place, let alone a report.

They looked like they were still at the GC at the G, very flat, lethargic, effort was raised by lever which is concerning considering the mix of experienced players. Not sure why we haven’t tried 2 rucks with Heath and 5 on the bench to preserve Gawn.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Demonsone

9 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

I would love to 5 or more changes to stick it up the players but I think they will only have 1 forced change Salem and 2 unforced changes Culley and either van Rooyen or McDonald, 1 of them will get 1 week to prove themselves. McDonald is my bet to get dropped with Rivers, Laurie and Heath coming in. If they want to make a statement drop Langdon but I don't think they will.

B: Lever, Petty, Howes

HB: Tholstrup, Turner, Rivers

C: Langford, Sparrow, Windsor

HF: Chandler, van Rooyen, L.Pickett

F: Fritsch, Mihocek, Melksham

FOLL: Gawn, Steele, K.Pickett

IC: Lindsay, Langdon, Sharp, Laurie, Heath

EMERG: Culley, Kentfield, Henderson

So after one terrible game you want to punish the players?

I didn’t know you used your 23 as a weapon either…

Oh Werridee, what hath we become…

Dost our membership cards be destin’d for the microwave? How’th we deal with digital memberships

8 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

O.K I'm willing to drop both McDonald and van Rooyen. New Side:

B: Lever, Turner, Howes

HB: Tholstrup, Taylor, Rivers

C: Windsor, Langford, Lindsay

HF: Chandler, Mihocek, Sharp

F: Melksham, Fritsch, L.Pickett

FOLL: Gawn, Steele, K.Pickett

IC: Petty, Langdon, Sparrow, Culley, Heath

EMERG: Jefferson, Kentfield, Moniz-Wakefield

IN: Taylor, Rivers, Heath

OUT: McDonald, van Rooyen, Salem

van Rooyen has kicked 1 goal in for 4 games not zero. That is enough to get him dropped when I think about it.

8 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

O.K I'm willing to drop both McDonald and van Rooyen. New Side:

B: Lever, Turner, Howes

HB: Tholstrup, Taylor, Rivers

C: Windsor, Langford, Lindsay

HF: Chandler, Mihocek, Sharp

F: Melksham, Fritsch, L.Pickett

FOLL: Gawn, Steele, K.Pickett

IC: Petty, Langdon, Sparrow, Culley, Heath

EMERG: Jefferson, Kentfield, Moniz-Wakefield

IN: Taylor, Rivers, Heath

OUT: McDonald, van Rooyen, Salem

van Rooyen has kicked 1 goal in for 4 games not zero. That is enough to get him dropped when I think about it.

Jeffo best forward in scratch match, still not enough for you Werridee?? Melksham looked very proppy on Weekend as well!

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by picket fence

11 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Jeffo best forward in scratch match, still not enough for you Werridee?? Melksham looked very proppy on Weekend as well!

11 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Jeffo best forward in scratch match, still not enough for you Werridee?? Melksham looked very proppy on Weekend as well!

He's close but he only kicked 2 but if Melksham isn't fit enough Jefferson is in my team. First emergency ATM but as I said if Melksham is deemed unfit then he is in and Henderson comes in as an emergency.

23 minutes ago, rpfc said:

So after one terrible game you want to punish the players?

I didn’t know you used your 23 as a weapon either…

Oh Werridee, what hath we become…

Dost our membership cards be destin’d for the microwave? How’th we deal with digital memberships

That's when I was angry at the performance nowI have calmed down I want 2 unforced changes and 1 forced. That's not much is it? No membership or scarf burning I'll be there against Brisbane I haven't lost faith yet.

I am very confident the football department is committed to the Miochek/JVR pairing and he won't be dropped.

Is the direction of the club clear this year yet? Is King trying to contend? I’m not interested in players like Melksham, McDonald, Salem and Lever continuing to play to help drag us to a wildcard final. What’s that achieve? We clearly won’t win the whole thing this year, those players aren’t going to be in the side in 27’ and 28’, so it’s time to accept there may be a couple more losses and start playing their replacements NOW, to fast track the future. Kentfield, Jefferson and Taylor are the ones I’ve got my eyes on.

8 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

I am very confident the football department is committed to the Miochek/JVR pairing and he won't be dropped.

It's worth looking at closely because Mihocek is such a smart, selfless player, but I'm not sure whether he can have much influence on whether or not JVR misreads the ball in flight. Round 1 was very promising, but I think it may have been an aberration.

Just now, The Taciturn Demon said:

It's worth looking at closely because Mihocek is such a smart, selfless player, but I'm not sure whether he can have much influence on whether or not JVR misreads the ball in flight. Round 1 was very promising, but I think it may have been an aberration.

We’re just wasting time playing JVR forward now unfortunately. A month at Casey as a key defender is the way to go I think. I’d be playing Kentfield and Jefferson (who are actually natural forwards) in the 1’s with Mihocek for the rest of the year. JVR was drafted as a swing man and played a lot of footy in defence the year we took him with a first round pick. I am hoping we have just chosen his wrong position.

21 hours ago, D4Life said:

The season is going to be a roller coaster, dropping half the team after a loss even a bad loss is an overreaction!

That King used lethargic to describe the teams effort highlights how bad the team as a whole performed.

Be surprised to see more than 1-2 changes unless injury related, as same team played very well against Suns!

Patience will be required inn2026 as a Demon supporter.

Go Demons!

Bit of an exaggeration. Even @picket fence stopped at six changes.

Just glad zorko isn’t playing

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Dees051321

I’m for tmac to come out

JVR to move down back with petty kentfield to come in and go forward

21 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

Please don’t use the word “supporters” unless you mean financial support only because real supporters will turn up next week regardless of yesterday’s result.

True, but the reality is a loss like Saturday's leaves a bad taste in the mouth for our fan base. An honorable loss to a top 4 team in Adelaide will do little to diminish the hopes of fans but a near 10 goal loss to the bottom side turns people away. The club has aspirations of getting our membership base up and getting much larger home crowds, but then the playing group dishes up a performance like that it just kills any momentum of the excitement that was building within our fan base.

20 hours ago, ijustwannaseeaflag said:

Geez, with that forward line the ball will be pinging out faster than that chick in Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Orian came in at 40,000 kph. Bears will make that look pedestrian. Thank goodness some 'Landers are are not running selection panels on Thursday night.

4 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

True, but the reality is a loss like Saturday's leaves a bad taste in the mouth for our fan base. An honorable loss to a top 4 team in Adelaide will do little to diminish the hopes of fans but a near 10 goal loss to the bottom side turns people away. The club has aspirations of getting our membership base up and getting much larger home crowds, but then the playing group dishes up a performance like that it just kills any momentum of the excitement that was building within our fan base.

Essendon fans turned out in force and they were on a 17-game losing streak, AND they travelled to Adelaide. Carlton fans, Richmond fans, they all turn up. Yes they have bigger fanbases but this is more of a reason for our fans to turn up to every match regardless of ladder position or recent results.

If I had a dollar for every time one of our players says they love hearing us fans I’d be a rich b!ttch.

It matters to them.

10 hours ago, picket fence said:

What a shocking lineup..

You want to play a key forward Van Rooyen on a ZERO goal 4 weeks? Nar not even in Noddy Land!

Tough week ahead but putting on a tantrum and throwing the toys out of the demonland cot won’t help our cause.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Tarax Club
brum brum edit!

5 hours ago, MrFreeze said:

Rivers featured in the Casey Demons Instagram, running laps with the boys after a scratch match vs Essendon reserves

Must come back in for Salem IMO

If fit, and assuming there's not other isssues, surely he will. We need some of his physical grunt.

To be honest, when thinking about who would come in I forgot about Riv, in large part because I assumed he was injured.

But he played the Casey scratch match, so hopefully he's OK play on Sunday.

Id go with

Out: Melksham, Salem (assuming he is inured), and Tmac

In: Kentfield (plays forward and second ruck, Petts goes back), Jeffo, Rivers (if fit- AMW if not)

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Jeffo best forward in scratch match, still not enough for you Werridee?? Melksham looked very proppy on Weekend as well!

The first line here picket rather undercuts your call to bring Jeffo in.

I mean a scratch match, a shorttned one at that, between two VFL teams sits somewhere between preseason match play drills and intrac club sim for relevance to senior selection.

That said, I think you'll be proved right.

33 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Essendon fans turned out in force and they were on a 17-game losing streak, AND they travelled to Adelaide. Carlton fans, Richmond fans, they all turn up. Yes they have bigger fanbases but this is more of a reason for our fans to turn up to every match regardless of ladder position or recent results.

If I had a dollar for every time one of our players says they love hearing us fans I’d be a rich b!ttch.

It matters to them.

I love your work Ghosty but I have a serious question:

Who needs whom more to ‘show up’, the supporters or the players?

The players are paid extravagantly for playing a game, the supporters buy pies and hope for a happy ending

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by joeboy

6 minutes ago, joeboy said:

I love your work Ghosty but I have a serious question:

Who needs whom more to ‘show up’, the supporters or the players?

Who Made Who? Did supporters make the players or did the players make the supporters?

A great song off a suddenly relevant movie.

9 minutes ago, binman said:

The first line here picket rather undercuts your call to bring Jeffo in.

I mean a scratch match, a shorttned one at that, between two VFL teams sits somewhere between preseason match play drills and intrac club sim for relevance to senior selection.

That said, I think you'll be proved right.

I heard old mate Ned Kelly from Collingwood saying we should blow up the draw/fixture and start from scratch. I quite like that idea.

While they’re at it, can we blow up the VFL and give the coaches in both the AFL and VFL time to develop and expose younger players to games?

The standard of footy over the weekend was mostly poor to completely ****house at the contrived gather round. We look like we’ll need a few changes but who has had any game time and form in the VFL?

42 minutes ago, joeboy said:

I love your work Ghosty but I have a serious question:

Who needs whom more to ‘show up’, the supporters or the players?

The players are paid extravagantly for playing a game, the supporters buy pies and hope for a happy ending

There’s need on both sides.

Maybe it’s just me; I don’t see the point in not attending a game because of the result of the previous game. Well, actually it’s not just me, the entire DA feels this way. Maybe my way of thinking is contrary to the general fanbase 🤷‍♀️

PS: I love your work, too. It’s the first thing I read on the train/plane home after every game. Sometimes it’s the only thing I read on the way home.

I've sat on the fence about posting since the game finished, I can't say I really have much individuality with my insights and I likely echo a lot of what's already been posted, but here goes.

The result on the weekend was almost inexcusable; not that we lost, but the manner in which we did. I always genuinely felt it was a danger game, and I texted a mate beforehand and said I had a bit of a feeling that Essendon might knock us off. Their improvement against the Doggies in the last three quarters was palpable, and I thought the signs were there (albeit, not on the scoreboard) that they could probably extend that form and knock us off. Essendon's intent at the contest, will to move the ball with precision, speed and rigour, and their desperation to just win was a stark contrast to Melbourne.

Disappointingly, we never really looked firing a shot which at least based on the limited form we've seen under King, was not what we should expect. I'm really hoping this game is an aberration and not the beginning of the norm.

In terms of outs, well, you could probably put on a blindfold and throw darts at names and you'd be justified in the outcome.

Lindsay's form is concerning. Yes, he's young. Yes, it's his second year. But he looks lost and lacking in confidence. Personally, I feel that he also seems to lack the intensity at the contest he had in his first couple of games for us, up until he injured himself in a marking contest against GC in R3 last year. He just doesn't seem to have the confidence that he did in those first couple of games IMO. Potentially, he's not overly suited to the role he's playing or he's struggling to adjust to the new speed. I don't know what to make of it.

Windsor continues to mystify. Yeah, he has pace; but his disposal is woeful and once again he's not impacting games at all.

Petty is Petty. I know I'm in the minority on here, but you're effectively playing without a man with him on the field. He's one of the softest big-men I've seen play the game. I was hopeful a return down back would rejuvenate him and get him back to his 2021 form but this just hasn't eventuated. He's lost; he's not a backman, nor a forward and he needs to be more than a secondary stop-gap as a ruckman.

JvR played an absolute pearler in R1 and I thought the signs were beyond impressive in the preseason, but what he's displayed from R2 - R5 show that R1 JvR is a pipedream and aberration.

Culley failed to look anything like an AFL footballer on the weekend, though I largely like what he's produced previously. I'm also pretty firm that we're not in a good position if Salem is still a walk-up start in the 23 end of year.

Melksham didn't look right at all. We all know what he can offer and I think we should rest him if he's not right for this weekend. McDonald was another who was taught a lesson. I'm a little bit on the fence with that to make of it, but I think it's fair to say the passage of time may be catching him.

I suspect we'll go again with JvR and Mihocek, thought I wouldn't be at all disappointed if JvR was out and either Kentfield or Jeffo is given a run. Personally I'd role the dice with AMW and bring him in for Lindsay. I really think you could make about six changes based on the output from the weekend, but I'm trying to be a little balanced between what I'd like and what I expect.

Strangely, I'm more confident we'll get a win this weekend against Brisbane than I was heading into the Essendon game. I'm backing the effort to return and here's to hoping that the Essendon game is an outlier, as disappointing and aggravating as it was.

1 hour ago, MrFreeze said:

I am very confident the football department is committed to the Miochek/JVR pairing and he won't be dropped.

2 hours ago, FlowerPower said:

I’m for tmac to come out

JVR to move down back with petty kentfield to come in and go forward

As a key forward JVR has not kicked a solitary goal in 4 matches, surely he must be dropped?? Has reverted back to running under the ball again. Needs to go back to casey and play CHB!