Leaderboard

Yesterday was one of Goodwin's best coaching efforts. It looked like he simplified the game plan and simplified player roles. Things I noticed: - Played more like WCE in prelim: Slowed down movement out of backline. Jones and Salem took their time to find targets. Switched the ball across half back often, particularly by May. a more kick/mark/control game as shown by the # of uncontested possessions, kick to handball ratio, and # of field marks. - He gave players simple and very clear roles: Lewis at ff to keep McGovern deep. Fritsch our lead up marking forward (took 14 marks!!!) Those two positional moves really opened up the fwd line and made it easier for connection with mids. Gus to tag Yeo May to go one-on-one all day with Kennedy. The Wagner boys on the wings - Played 'tempo' footy - controlled by Jones and Salem and to some extent Harmes in the midfield - Played mainly one-on-one defence rather than zone.. Its probably a bit early to say the manic/chaos style with zone defence is dead but there are very clear and significant signs that our coaching box has got the message than in 2019 the top teams are the slowest to play on and the lowest teams are the fastest to play on. We may have done some of that recently but yesterday was the first time I noticed a significant and simultaneous change in game style, player roles, ball movement and tactics. It worked. Damn shame we didn't get the 4 pts. The coaching box deserved it. There is still a lot of work to be done but if I read yesterday correctly Goodwin has taken a huge step towards flexibilty and change.

Proud of the boys yesterday. Tremendous effort and the best our forward line has functioned in some time, especially with some key players out. Back line is looking better and better each week. May smashed Kennedy and Lever is improving each week. Frosty had a bit of a shocker on Darling, who is in super form, but that's going to happen. Salem continues his good form and I thought Josh Wagner wasn't too bad across half back either. It was like watching a local footy game though - we are the side outside the five who is full of endeavour, effort and willingness to hunt the footy, but we lack the polish to put a superior team away at the minute. The Eagles kicked goals when it counted and we just couldn't do the same often enough. Kudos to Jordan Lewis, and Goody, for his role up forward, and let's hope Fritsch stays as a permanent forward from now on. Have him down there with Tom Mac and they could be a formidable force. But the loss sums up our season really. We've been in so many contests but we just can't finish the job. It's disappointing, but I'm still positive about our chances from 2020 and beyond.

Can everyone learn Eleni Glouftsis’ name. I’m really over hearing “that female umpire was rubbish”. It’s not the gender making the bad decisions. The sexist drivel I’ve seen on Twitter & Facebook pages is gross. She absolutely deserves to be bagged for the bad calls but i don’t get why it always has to come back to gender.

You are talking to the only male nurse in a regional hospital........ All my bosses are female... all my workmates are female. Every,Single,One. Been that way for 15 years. You have much to learn, but i wouldnt hold my breath. Enjoy living your life being offended by everything.

Harsh on Wagners.

Mustn't be any good teams playing this year 'Mydee'...

You aren’t wrong and as a fellow female I agree. But truthfully I know the names of very few umpires and she isn’t one that has umpired our games a lot so I just simply have no idea what her name is. I refer to her as the female umpire because it’s an easy identifier. I also refer to Nicholls as that bald pr!ck because that too is an easy identifier. I only know his name because I’ve seen him crucify us numerous times. That Eleni is a female has nothing to do with the fact that she is seriously bad at umpiring and she joins the countless males who too are awful at umpiring and ruined many a game this season due to their incompetence. On a side note Chelsea is by far the best goal umpire in the competition and I know her name because she’s an excellent umpire not because she’s female.

By and large I find the site to be very good. You'll get pushback early but the longer you're here, the less so. There's a weird sort of internet pecking order at play but it's certainly not representative of how things are in the face to face world. It's why I often try to talk with people but I'm as guilty as anyone else in talking at people. Using someone's user name in a post tends to calm the waters SK. Or just agreeing to disagree early if you know where an argument is heading. You usually know early on if someone is rusted on with their thoughts. What amazes me is how different we all are. For a mob of people who all follow the one team, that observation stands out. e.g ... we have an NFL thread here where at least a dozen contributors all barrack for different teams (with the odd exception - 49ers) Yet we're all Demon fans at the same time.

He’s still learning (from the best) and just needs time.

This is simply not true. In 2017 and the first half of last year when we lost it was usually because we got smashed on transition and gave up too many out easy out the back goals (ie player running into an empty 50 and running it to the line) as we employed such a high, aggressive press (which is also why we won a lot of games and with big scores, such as the corresponding Alice game last year v the crows). Goody adjusted that mid season and we became much harder to score against (the hardest team to score against round 13 - 23). The few losses we had thereafter were usually a result of poor kicking for goal (eg v the swans) and/or teams spreading wide and stretching us with chip/kick/hold it up and cross it style (eg WC in the prelim). This approach has hurt us this year too but again we have really improved, in part because we have modified our style and also the players are probably finally near peak fitness. This year the key factor in our losses has been our inability to covert our inside 50s and our woeful kicking for goal (and field kicking for that matter), which were both an issue at times last year but nowhere as bad an issue as it has been this year.

The ball fell straight to him, what should he have done, let it hit him on his face and roll off? To dispose of the ball with a handball he would have had to (as he did) pull it in closer towards himself to execute it. However, before he could dispose of it, West Coast players jumped on the ball and held it in. It was a terrible call by the umpire.

I thought that game was a real microcosm of our season since the first five rounds. All of the following which were on display against the Eagles have been regular occurrences this year: 1) Generally the better side for the majority of the day 2) Missed some absolute sitters right in front of goal 3) Opposition barely missed a shot 4) Key in-game injury 5) Last quarter fadeout The goal kicking is just critical. In such an even competition it makes a huge difference to momentum, belief and confidence. The first five rounds were really poor but we looked completely underdone and nowhere near the required fitness levels. Since then we have made some structural changes and, other than the GWS game, we've been in every game and have played some reasonable footy. As disappointing as this year has been, with only slightly better goal kicking we would easily be 7-4 from Round 6 onwards and still a finals chance even despite our early round struggles. Even in the Lions game we were 9 points up away from home in time-on of the third against a red-hot team and playing well below our best. We're not getting the results at the moment but there is enough to show we really aren't that far away.

Umpiring was abominable

Threatened by a woman voicing an opinion? go watch some replays of the Footy Show, that should help.

I feel we just look like a better and more balanced side whenever he's out there, whether it's in defence, midfield, or up forward now, he just gets to the right spots and I think it makes up for his lack of pace. 6 marks today and should've kicked 4. A brilliant negating effort on McGovern, outsmarted him with bodywork. He's obviously found a lot better form in the last month and in the VFL, if this continues, then surely he offers more value than taking on an extra list spot on rookie or kid. We need to keep as many players on our list who can kick and make smart decisions. Given the form rejuvenation, I hope he and the club reconsiders his on-field value for next year and gets him to go around 1 more year. I'd just like to request that Mods don't merge this with the other thread. The title is a blight on the forum. JL is a 300 game great with multiple BOG level grand final performances and deserves better.

Obviously those tweets are revolting and awful. Would be equally as awful if it was said about a male umpire though, and I am sure it has. If people are picking on her for being female they are sexist and are distracted by the real issue at hand, which is her umpiring incompetence.

What’s wrong with being a downhill skier? Does he realise how f’ing hard it is to ski uphill?

They also laughed at Max in his early days. Max was as awkward looking as Preuss is currently. He just needs a couple of years to develop.

There's very little evidence for Gawn as a good forward. He can't offer defensive pressure, he shanks his kicks and he finds it harder to mark against a good key defender than when behind the ball against a ruck. Marshall is in excellent form. He does enough in the taps and is very good at following up and excellent at ground level. He'll lose the taps but win the battle against Preuss decisively. The Tigers are doing ok with Soldo and well with Chol as the extra midfielder type mobile ruck, same for McKernan as a ruck at Essendon. Preuss isn't like that, he's the opposite. He's competent in the ruck but offers little as an around the ground follower, he's more like Zac Clarke who the bombers struggled with. If Gawn's in the ruck he's odds on (but not entirely a guarantee) to win the ruck duel for the 80% of game time he and Marshall go head to head. The Saints aren't playing a second ruck so Tim Smith is actually perfect as a back up ruck against Acres or maybe Bruce. Especially on the quick track at Marvel it makes sense to get a forward in for the forward line and leave the best ruck in the ruck!

yeah... nah... they kept saying that on the broadcast.. i found it a really weird thing to say, Gawn started slowly but went past Tom Hickey very quickly. Gawn 10CP / 13D / 4M / 5T / 38HO - cant find hitouts to adv. Hickey 7CP / 11D / 2M / 2T / 20HO - cant find hitouts to adv

I've reached the point where I am forced to ignore almost every comment made on demonland about the Wagners. These boys cop unbelievably harsh reviews week on week, regardless of the way they play.

This is a moronic post. Roos did a terrific job at our club and was well worth the money. He's entitled to decide who he works for and to ask what he is worth. You would have no idea what is important to Paul Roos and probably have never even met him.

My recollection is that he first got into "difficulties" when he had that wrist injury and MFC gave him leave to return home.

More than anything I think the Eagles are well trained. They have a lot of zippy players who can draw holds and have mastered the drop and roll technique to get a holding call, plus some dangerous tall forwards who draw frees. Good players draw free kicks. Unfortunately our best 2 players - Gawn and Oliver - get crucified by the umps. Oliver is held repeatedly for nothing and Gawn is a victim of soft rubbish and a lot of off ball blocking.

Saty watches them kick from 60 off three steps all the time so I don't know what you're talking about frankly...

Thanks for the mansplanation

Getting overly emotional for being second last is useless. Ladder position matters for finals teams, otherwise you've won x amount of games. We're 5-12 having a horrible season in a very even competition and only a 3 wins off 9th. After a dreadful 1-5 start we've gone 4-7 and been a real shot to win plenty of those games. The summer from hell played out in the first month of the year, and then we spent most of the first half of the season without important defenders. No May, no Lever, no Jetta and at times even Hibberd and Hore missing. Even Salem missed a game and Frost knocked himself out in one. We were bad kicking away from beating the Crows with May/Lever/Jetta/Hore/Salem. Then we spent the last few weeks without Melksham, Tom McDonald and a back up key forward in Smith or Weideman and a lot of the choices to play in the forward line - Hannan, Spargo, Joel Smith, Garlett have had significant interruptions as well. Our best outside midfielder in Fritsch has had to play forward and often back. There's very little a coach can do with constant shifting of players. In large patches of games we've made the Eagles (twice) and Crows look ordinary. We had a real opportunity to push the Pies and gave them a nice touch up in the midfield, just needed some composure down back and to take some chances up forward. It's easy to kick the coach and he's not blameless for some of the fundamental skill errors and poor set ups we've seen but really I think so much of what's gone wrong is out of his control and possible to turn around quickly.

It was really disappointing for me to read this thread this morning. Not so much because of Casey’s loss which was half expected due to the sheer lack of AFL experience. I think Scott Selwood has more AFL games under his belt than the 10 Melbourne listed players who took part. My disappointment was due to the fact that a number of posts had to be deleted by our moderators as a result of the unnecessary derailing of the thread for the purpose of chest beating and preaching when it wasn’t warranted or relevant. People come here to read the thread mainly to find out how some of our younger prospects and our out of form or players returning from injury are faring. We want to know if our VFL partner can make the finals. Demonland is not about individual posters. It’s about our club and it’s players. A great deal of what I read was crap and was rightfully removed. We won’t tolerate it here so before anyone thinks of posting “I’m better than you” posts, think again because they won’t be visible for very long.

The beauty about having Lewis and Fritsch up forwards was that for the first time this year i felt we were able to connect to our forwards through clean delivery from these two guys. Could have easily kicked 4 yesterday.

All very good points Browny. Have put responses to each up there ☝?

Overall a better team game but too many skills errors cost us the game in the end. Kicking skills!! I watched it later, but not sure if anyone mentioned it. It our home game but the coin was tossed by an Eagles rabid family. I thinking he is an important local, but gee it was a bad look for us as the "home" team. Pretty much sums up our support in NT.

I am probably on my own here but I still want Preuss in the side. He still provides good ruck support for Max and takes a good defender in the f50. He is not marking well which is obvious but he is getting his hands on the ball and bringing it to ground. Imo it’s only a matter of time before he starts clunking them.

With most of us expecting a loss, probably of an embarrassing size, I can't believe how negative some posters are when we almost pinched the game against a top team desperate to get into the top 2. BTW, the umpiring in the curtain raiser was far better than the that served up in our game. '

Zero chance of a 1st round PP for Gold Coast. Gold Coast’s issues have nothing to do with a lack of young talent and Brisbane’s turnaround will be looked upon as the model.

This is a seriously unfair post. Roos is a professional who reached the top of his field, let me tell you that nobody in that boat comes cheaply. Given the amount of value for the MFC in being competitive and for the AFL to have the MFC competitive, it’s totally ridiculous to then slam Roos for having a steep price tag. He was the best in the biz - for our situation at least. Sorry Daz, but that’s not greed or ego, it’s just how the world works. As for him having a smile when the crowd was chanting his name - FMD mate, he’s only human. Who wouldn’t feel pretty happy with themselves in that situation?