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So I've gone through and analysed each centre stoppage clearance for the game. Here they are: FIRST QUARTER 1) We have Oliver, Petracca and Kozzie with Max. The players in a triangle formation in equal distance apart. Kozzie is the only player defensive side of the stoppage (ie behind Max). The tap is a nil all, dropped at everyone's feet. It bobbles between Mills and then Oliver, and then Kennedy, whose brute strength can't prevent him from getting a tumbling kick forward to be marked by Papley. Even in this play, Kozzie is caught a little ball watching off from Warner, who could have received from Kennedy. Analysis: This is a solid, but rushed clearance from Sydney that lands in the forward's hands because Kennedy manages to get a quick kick away before Petracca can reel him in. 2) This time we have Oliver, Petracca, Jordon and Max. You would think this is a more defensive and safer set up. Petracca covers the defensive side of the stoppage, Oliver wing side (he and Kennedy are basically grappling each other without it), while Jordon and Warner are much wider of the ruckmen on our attacking side of the stoppage. Petracca is on Mills, so one would hope is likely to neutralise him or win the contest and defend the back of stoppage. Max wins the tap slightly towards Jordon who goes to attack it, but ends up blocking for Max, who takes it momentarily before dropping it/it being knocked out of hands. Jordon immediately wins the ground ball and handballs back to Max, who then goes wide and high with the handball that hangs too long in the air for Oliver. Max probably should have kicked it or the handball needed to be better/flatter. Kennedy tackles Oliver, the ball squirts free and Hickey picks it up and gets a simple long kick out of the contest, with Max well off him. Analysis: We had the more defensive set up after a quick goal against, Max won the tap, Jordon got it out to Max, who potentially overdid it on handball. Unlike the first Sydney clearance of that quick kick forward, Max tried to go for the cleaner clearance. I can see why you might try for that early in the game, but we needed to get ourselves into the game after a really early concession. 3) The score is 2.1 Sydney to nothing us at this stage. We have the more experienced body in Harmes, along with Oliver, Petracca and Max. Just about the most experienced starting combination we can muster at the moment. Petracca covers the back of the stoppage again. Oliver and Kennedy grapple again wing side, but slightly wider than before and closer to our attacking side of the stoppage. Harmes is well wide with Warner. Max wins the tap again, this time a double-hander and gets it well clear and forward of the contest. Harmes turns and is pursued by Warner. Harmes gets to the ball first, but clatters into the inside slider in ANB, who has come steaming in off the edge of the square to impact the contest (something that rarely happens all night - the inside slider). This moment is unfortunate and a bit clumsy. This spillage leaves Harmes and ANB on the ground and three free Swans at the ball and two Swans on the outside to give to. Lloyd picks it up and handballs uncontested to Mills who has completely lost Petracca and got him on the outside. Analysis: This stoppage was a bit unlucky again. Harmes coming back from injury, potentially lacking a bit of synergy with his team mates. With Max's tap to space, we should have probably at least won a rushed clearance from Harmes or ANB, but Sydney did cover this side of the stoppage well with two defenders pushing up into the centre square. Petracca's defensive accountability questionable. 4) McDonald has just kicked our first and the score is 2.1 to 1.0. We stick with Harmes, Oliver and Petracca, with Max. Harmes covers the defensive side of the stoppage this time. Oliver and Kennedy on the wing side and closer to the rucks than the last stoppage. Petracca has attacking side of the contest with his back to our goals. He and Parker are wider of the rucks. Max almost takes it out of the air, but it knocks our way, he can't gather cleanly, but immediately pressures Mills at ground level and lays a tackle, but Mills gets his hands free and handballs cleanly to Parker on the outside. Although Parker started on Petracca, Christian I think tries to cover Rowbottom, but it is Petracca's man that gets the kick out of stoppage again. Analysis: It's hard to know if Petracca was at fault for this clearance, but Mills gets the ground ball and manages to cleanly dish out to Parker. Without Max stopping Mills, we're in trouble here. Christian probably needs to do better defensively. 5) The score is 2.3 Sydney to 2.0 us. ANB joins Jordon, Jackson and Petracca in our most inexperienced combination for the night so far. Jordon takes Kennedy MCC wing side, but doesn't start by grappling him, like Oliver did. ANB starts well wide of his opponent in Rowbottom. ANB starts behind LJ and Rowbottom is more central. Sinclair is in the ruck for Sydney. Petracca and Florent are our attacking side of the stoppage but some distance from the other mids. The bounce favours Sinclair, but he cleanly taps it straight down to Kennedy, who gives to Florent, who loses Petracca in traffic. Christian's man again. The kick goes inside 50. Analysis: This is a very clean clearance for Sydney. The best of the night thus far, but three centre clearances in a row where Petracca's man has got him on the outside. 6) We had just taken the lead by 3 points, thanks to a Ben Brown major. Max is back in the ruck. ANB is now playing on Kennedy. The two are defensive side of the contest this time. Jordon and Mills grapple on the wing side of the stoppage, while Oliver is 20+ metres (you can tell from the cut of the grass) from the centre circle on Parker. Max and Hickey halve the tap, it's probably marginally Max's win. Jordon and Mills get sucked in closer to the rucks and the ball is tapped behind them, allowing Oliver to burst into the space behind them and then use a handball to ANB, who gets a rushed left footed kick forward, which is marked by Kozzie just forward of centre wing. Analysis: This stoppage set up is the ideal match up and set up for us. Parker isn't particularly quick and he and Oliver start very wide of the contest. Oliver is often very good when he has room to burst into the stoppage and stop the jumper pulling against him. We just needed to get the ball into that space and allow Oliver to do his thing. Our best clearance of the night thus far. ANB kept it simple by banging it on the boot. 7) This time there's 1.30 left on the clock for the first quarter. Max is in there with Hickey. Jordon and Mills are defensive side of the contest, but close to the stoppage. Petracca and Parker are wing side of the stoppage, a bit closer to the wing position this time (further from the rucks), and Oliver is 16m wide from the centre circle with Warner. Max wins the knock, hitting it wide towards the wing position (the wing further from camera side). McInerney comes off Langdon's wing really quickly to gather, but Oliver tackles him, not before McInerney gets a rushed handball away that misses Oliver's opponent Warner. Warner recovers by himself, as Oliver had been drawn to covering McInerney, when all of a sudden Langdon's incredible closing speed comes out of nowhere to tackle Warner. Warner gets a throw away that isn't paid and gets to Cunningham on the outside. A very good hit up, even if a throw. Oliver pursues him out of the centre square and ends up forcing Sydney wide to the back flank to Lloyd. Analysis: I'd say this one, even though Sydney won the stoppage, we recovered well from where we were. We were unlucky not to get a free kick for a throw, but still managed to force them wide and defensive side. We then transitioned across to cover the line really quickly. So even though we lose the clearance, we have the game on our terms almost immediately as they have to kick up the line to our contests. They decide to go short and then they eventually go to the contest that we kill over the line. That's a win for us. SECOND QUARTER 8) Max starts in the middle. Kozzie starts at the back of the stoppage again, defensive side on Warner. Mills and Petracca are on the wing side of the contest, close enough to the rucks, and Oliver and Kennedy start well wide (15+ metres again) of the centre circle on our attacking side of the rucks. The bounce hangs over Max's head, Hickey attacks it and taps it back towards Petracca and Mills, wing side. Mills and Petracca grapple as Kozzie's man Warner comes in behind them and scopes up the quick clearance before Kozzie can stop him. Analysis: Hickey is really aggressive in this stoppage and Sydney manage to block for each other well and win a rushed clearance. Due to the rushed nature, it isn't a targeted clearance, which enables May to read it quicker and get off Buddy to spoil it wide. 9) This time Max, Petracca, Jordon and Harmes are in the centre. Petracca starts wide, offensive side for us. Jordon and Mills grapple wing side, but slightly further away from the rucks this time and Harmes covers the defensive side of the stoppage. Max wins the tap forward, but Jordon is on the defensive side of Mills, so Mills ends up getting to the ball by himself. Jordon tries to close him down, which means Mills handballs to a running Swan defender off the back of the square, who is pursued by ANB. ANB forces a rushed, lucky kick forward (but still in the middle of the MCG) to Wicks and Salem. Salem is pinged for pushing Wicks in the back. Sydney get a clean possession from the free kick. Analysis: Despite not winning the clearance, we're in good shape to defend slow attacks like this. 10) This is the first time Langdon hasn't started on the wing. Gus and Jordon start there here. Jackson into the ruck against Hickey. Oliver is wide of the contest again, probably 15 metres away from the centre circle. Harmes and Parker grapple on the wing side. Melksham on Florent covers the back of the stoppage. Hickey wins the tap down, but Harmes reads it off his hands and takes on Florent and beats him. He runs away with what would have been a perfectly clean clearance, but is pinged for running too far. He takes 11 steps from the point he receives the ball from Hickey's tap to when he kicks it. It felt like a nonsense call and it was. Analysis: When Harmes is on song he really gives us good ball winning ability and toughness through the middle. We should have won this clearance and didn't because of an umpire error. THIRD QUARTER 11) We're up 5.6 to 3.7. Max is back in there. Oliver is wing side closest to camera on Parker, but they're 10m off each other. Petracca and Mills are next to each other on the opposite wing side. Kozzie is defensive side of the stoppage again on Warner. This is a dangerous set up for Sydney. Max and Hickey come together. Oliver lets Parker go and is free directly to Max's right, whereas Parker gravitates towards defending the back of the stoppage (offensive side for us), which is where Max hits it with conviction, as if he expects Oliver to be there. Parker is there by himself and gets the handball to a spreading Mills, who again catches Petracca on his heels at the stoppage. Mills gets the clearing kick, but Petracca's closing speed means it's rushed and lacks penetration. We set up really well behind the ball. It doesn't actually get inside 50. It's probably 70m from goal inside the centre square. Hunt goes up for the spoil and Salem is front and centre, and gets the handball out to Langdon. It's essentially a clearance for us because Hunt, Salem and Langdon are so clean. Analysis: All three stoppages Kozzie has attended to this point in the game, he's been used defensive side of the contest. I presume they like his pace to defend if it gets out the back, and he could be a weapon bursting through the stoppage if the tap is appropriate or one of our other mids wins it. Again, we 'lose' the clearance, but it doesn't hurt us and we immediately win it back with Hunt, Salem and Langdon. 12) A similar set up again. Petracca covering defensive side of the contest in place of Kozzie. Max in the ruck again against Hickey. Oliver and Jordon on either wing side, but again Oliver is playing 5m off his opponent. Max just wins the tap straight down to Oliver, who snaps it on his left boot, but is smothered by Kennedy. The ball loops up and Petracca outmuscles Warner to get a penetrating but rushed snap kick inside 50, which is intercepted by Sydney. Analysis: This is a somewhat lucky clearance, but Petracca's strength enables him to fend off the defending Swan and get it moving forward. Harmes playing inside 50 can't prevent the Sydney defender from intercept marking. 13) Jackson is into the ruck this time against Hickey. Oliver covers the defensive side of the stoppage on Warner. Jordon is wing side and Petracca is wider of the opposite wing side. Hickey taps it down to himself and is tackled by Jackson, but manages to get a handball to Kennedy, who is tackled by Jordon and it is thrown out/spills out. Petracca bursts onto the loose ground ball and despite being tackled by Mills, has the strength to dish the handball wider to Oliver, whose really quick hands find Jackson in space, who in turn, handballs a risky one to Jordon given it's wet. JJ manages to be clean and gets a mongrel kick inside 50. Analysis: This is where the likes of Oliver and Petracca are really dangerous around stoppages. If the ball is loose on the ground, they gobble it up with their intensity and cleanness. They get it to the outside here and Jackson's quick thinking and JJ's cleanness allows a good inside 50. 14) Jackson is in there on Hickey. Oliver is well wide of the stoppage again, but defensive side. Harmes starts on Parker on the wing side. Petracca is on the offensive side and wider of the contest, but not as wide as Oliver. Jackson roves his own tap brilliantly, accelerates away from the contest and kicks on his left foot and gets it to the half forward flank. Analysis: Jackson is a weapon at stoppage. If he's not taking it out of the air, he's staying in the contest to defend or winning ground balls like a man half his size. The kid is a gem. His kick probably doesn't go deep enough and it goes on Spargo's head (not the guy whose head you want to be kicking it on), but Jordon gets over to make it a contest, before Jackson arrives with our mids. Great surge work rate. 15) Max is back into the ruck. Oliver is wing side of the contest. Melksham is defensive side of the stoppage and Harmes is goal side 15m from the centre circle. Max wins the tap down to Harmes who is tackled by Hickey. The ball slips out and it appears Hickey slings him to the ground without the ball, but play on. Kennedy tries to pick it up, but being pursued by Melksham, fumbles it into the path of Florent who has Oliver on his case, and can only kick it off the ground 40m to be marked by Hibberd. Analysis: Both of Melksham's CBAs have been defensive side of the contest, like Kozzie's. Given the score is the biggest margin of the match at this stage (22 points), it's an interesting time to go defensive - having Harmes and Melksham in there. But perhaps it's a pre planned rotation at say the 20 min mark of the quarter? Despite losing the clearance, all Sydney can manage is a rushed kick off the ground that is intercepted by one of our defenders. No damage done. 16) Max in again. Petracca has the defensive stoppage side. Oliver tighter on Parker on the wing side. Jordon on the opposite wing side. Hickey wins the tap down to Florent who can't gather, but instead Oliver's opponent Parker gets the ground ball and in the end a relatively simple clearance. It is not as shallow as the previous Sydney clearance, but it still only just makes it inside 50. Analysis: Oliver gambles a bit at this stoppage. If Jordon or Max win it, Oliver is on the outside to receive. Instead, Oliver ends up looking lazy and his opponent gets a relatively easy clearance. Fortunately, Franklin can't get there and May mops up. 17) Max, Oliver, Melksham and Petracca are at this stoppage. Oliver is at the defensive goal side of the stoppage. Melksham grapples on the wing side. Petracca plays the offensive side of the contest. Max knocks Hickey over and the ball finds itself in dispute on the ground. Hickey knocks/handballs it to the outside. Melksham gets sucked into Hickey on the ground, his opponent Mills reads it very quickly and is incredibly clean when Hickey knocks it into a bit of space. Rowbottom partly blocks Petracca out of it and Mills gets a handball to the outside again to Oliver's man Parker all by himself, who this time gets a deep inside 50. Oliver got caught trying to man Kennedy and left Parker. Analysis: This is a tough one to analyse. It seems that Oliver backs Petracca to impact the contest more, but Petracca is pushed out of it easily and Oliver doesn't cover Parker well enough. FOURTH QUARTER 18) Max starts against Hickey. Oliver covers the defensive side of the stoppage. Petracca the offensive side and Harmes the wing side. All mids start essentially on the outer centre square ring, so closer in tight to the rucks. Max wins the tap and taps it towards Oliver, but Hickey gets there first. The Swans mids spread and Hickey gives to Rowbottom flying past him and they get a really clean look at an inside 50. Probably for the first time in the match, but May leads Buddy to it. It's not a well directed kick and May is switched on. Analysis: We're lucky that they don't get an easy hit up here. Hickey wins the ball and gives by hand far too easily. Three of our guys get caught on the offensive side of the contest and three Swans burst into the space left by our mids. This is probably the poorest stoppage for the game and it starts the last quarter, when they were coming and only 10 points down. Off May's fist, our mids trail in, they surge it forward and Gus probably coughs up that easy goal to Sinclair. Not a good start. Like most of our guys weren't switched on here. 19) Max, Harmes, Petracca and Oliver again. Petracca (offensive side) and Oliver (wing side) are both very wide and Harmes is closer to Max, defensive side of the contest. Hickey and Max both neutralise each other, but the ball squirts out towards our forward half. Oliver and Parker chase after it. Parker gets a speculative kick off the ground, which goes out to centre wing, where Gus picks it up and kicks it on the full. Analysis: Not a good start to the quarter for Gus. He coughed up that first goal and then ends the stoppage play by kicking it on the full and giving the ball back. Again though, not a clean clearance for Sydney, which meant we could get it going our way quickly. 20) Jackson into the ruck for the first time since the middle part of the third term. Up against Hickey still. Harmes stands defensive side of the stoppage. Petracca is on the wing side and Oliver offensive side. There's 15m between each 1v1 contest. Jackson wins the tap. Ball is in dispute. Jackson is about to pick up the ground ball when Harmes does it first and handballs instead to Florent. Harmes goes after him and the ball spills, and Harmes, Warner and Oliver end up holding it up for a ball up. Analysis: This is an example of where the synergy isn't quite there yet with the mids and in particular a returning James Harmes. They just get in the way of each other and then make a poor choice, but manage through second efforts, to lock up the contest and ensure we don't get hurt by it. 21) Max back in the ruck against Sinclair. Harmes at the offensive side of the contest. Oliver on the defensive side with Parker and Mills and Petracca on the wing side. Gawn and Sinclair halve the tap. Oliver lets Parker run and Parker wins the clearance before Oliver can stop him. Parker's kick is a little impacted by Oliver's shove, but it's a big clearance given we're 9.6.60 and they're 8.9.57 with 11.52 left on the clock. Rivers and Hibberd do really well to pressure their Swans opponents inside 50 and then Petracca and Oliver get back really well and Oliver atones for his error with a clean pick up and clearing kick that goes down the throat of Fritsch in the middle of the ground. Analysis: Oliver needs to play the percentages here and play tighter on Parker. It's a big moment in the match. Momentum is going their way, Parker is dominating and Oliver gambles on us winning and leaves Parker free on our defensive side of the contest. It's a bad play. Probably Clarry's worst moment for the night, in what was an otherwise superb performance. 22) Jackson against Hickey. Jordon manning the defensive side of the contest. Harmes on the wing side. Oliver on the offensive side 15m from the centre circle. Hickey takes it out of the ruck and gets a 15m kick forward. Rivers does well again to get the ball going back our way and then our mids push back to help out, but Sydney cause another spillage and Rivers comes through again inspirationally and clears it on his left foot. Analysis: Perhaps a little bit of inexperience with Jackson? Hickey has tried to take it out of the ruck a couple of times. We need to be awake to this, particularly at such an important moment in the match - 10 points up, 7.25 to play. What this game showed is I think our mids are prepared to gamble a bit more at centre stoppage, because they know that as long as the opposition are only getting rushed clearances that aren't deep, our defenders should be able to deal with these. With this in mind, we often left space for our mids to explode into the offensive side of the contest. It didn't work too often, but with more synergy with Max, it could be extremely dangerous. What we found in this particular game though was Sydney's mids often exploited that space instead. However, what this meant was that rather than having a 35m kick to get it inside 50, they'd have to have a 50+ metre kick under pressure to get it inside 50, as they'd be kicking from our offensive side of the contest. Often their clearances were shallow as a result. There's no doubt Petracca is a weapon offensively from centre stoppages, but is still a bit of a liability defensively. He does seem to get caught ball watching a bit. This is something that happened at times last year too when he went into the middle. If we had momentum against us and we were trying to defend stoppage, Petracca wasn't always our strongest defender in there. Oliver can lose his man a bit too, but I guess this just shows what concentration is required to play the majority of centre bounces for the match. This is where having a Viney to go with Harmes will give Petracca and Oliver more rests, so that when they go into the middle, they're completely switched on. It might even be worth running Brayshaw through there a bit more. Given this point, I wonder if some of our sloppy centre stoppage work can be forgiven due to the lack of midfield rotations? But we're going to have to tidy this up, either through more rotations or by going more defensively in our set ups. There is also a trend at the start of quarters (see the first, third and the last) of our guys ball watching or not being entirely switched on. I think this is contributing to our slow starts, where we put our defenders under early pressure and hand the opposition early momentum. It'll be interesting to see whether our stoppage work improves when Viney returns to play the more defensive orientated midfield role. This is a role I think Harmes can play really well for us too. We just need some more rotations through there IMO. A little side note that I'm note sure is worth much, but I noted something I've never seen before last night. Langdon playing the MCC wing side occasionally. Can't say what the thinking would be here, but there you go.

Just announced JJ Round 8 Rising ⭐️ Star. Well done James.

30 years ago I was weaving my way through a crowded nightclub making my way back from the ladies’ room when I was hit in the head with a jug of beer. It wasn’t deliberate, one big drunk guy was passing the beer to his mate, but it was reckless. My then-boyfriend was furious and asked me to point the guy out, which I did. What happened next? Nothing, that’s what. Turns out the big drunk guy was Darren Millane and the then-bf was a diehard Magpies fan. Needless to say, that relationship didn’t exactly flourish.

Makes a few people who posted to drop him on the changes thread look a bit silly to say the least... Great first game back.

My recommendation to Goody . . . listen to King on Monday and do the exact opposite on Saturday.

So I've just wasted 2 hours of my life making notes on all the centre bounces and comparing the setups. I've never done this before so I dunno how useful it is. 1 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (far wing side), Petracca (offensive side), Pickett (defensive side) Kennedy sprints in to the centre from the wing side and leaves Oliver to eat his dust. The tap is neutral - both ruckman get a piece of it. Kennedy blocks Oliver out of the contest initially. Mills and Oliver compete with the ball; ball falls to Kennedy; Mills blocks Oliver and Kennedy boots it away unopposed. No impact on the contest from Petracca or Gawn. Pickett is standing defensive side ready to block the escape, but the ball gets kicked over his head. Goal results from this clearance. Eventual goal: Swans 2 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (far wing side), Petracca (defensive side), Jordon (offensive side) Oliver continues to be professionally blocked by Kennedy. Jordon receives what I would call an illegal hold by Warner - no whistle, play on. Hickey jumps, Gawn stays on the ground and wins the tap, hitting it towards the wing side. Balls go to space, both ruckman scramble after it. Gawn wins, handballs it to nobody. Jordon wins it back, handball to Gawn, handball to Oliver, who gets immediately tackled. Handballs it to nobody again. Hickey picks up the loose ball and boots it out of there. Eventual goal: Swans 3 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (far wing side), Petracca (defensive side), Harmes (offensive side) Kennedy not present in this contest. Gawn wins a tap forward. Harmes chases after the ball and gets friendly fire from Alex Neal-Bullen who slides for the ball and takes Harmes legs out. Both MFC players eat dirt while the Swans half-backs pick up the ball unopposed and clear it. This one should have been ours but for a MFC player error. Eventual goal: Demons 4 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (far wing side), Harmes (defensive side), Petracca (offensive side) Oliver blocked out of the contest by Mills initially. Gawn again stays down while Hickey jumps. Hickey misses it, Gawn taps down to space and chases it himself. Swans players are all ahead of their MFC opponents. Mills stops blocking Oliver at the last minute and chases the ball, gets there well before Oliver does. Handballs to space to Parker (Petracca's man - seemed to get caught ball watching) who wins the clearing kick. Eventual goal: Demons 5 (Swans clearance). Jackson, Jordon (near wing side), Neal-Bullen (defensive side), Petracca (offensive side) Vastly different setup this time - Petracca as the offensive midfielder starts a lot further away from the contest (he is initially out of frame) and Jordon is starting on the opposite side to where Oliver had been. Bounce favours opposing ruckman (Sinclair) who taps down to Kennedy (Jordon's man). Jordon immediately lays a tackle but it's ineffective; Kennedy handballs out to Parker (Petracca's man) who has bolts out with a clearing kick. Eventual goal: Demons 6 (Demons clearance). Gawn, Jordon (far side wing), Neal-Bullen (defensive side), Oliver (offensive side) Similar setup to previously but Jordon has changed sides. Gawn taps to the advantage of Oliver who hits the contest at speed, handball to Neal-Bullen who gets the clearing kick. Eventual goal: Swans 7 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Petracca (far side wing), Harmes (defensive side), Oliver (offensive side) Gawn wins the tap decisively and appears to be attempting to replicate the previous tap to space, but Oliver doesn't get there this time and the ball is gathered by some Swans mullet on the wing, who was opposing Langdon. Handball goes backwards to Warner who gets tackled, but handballs out to Cunningham who clears it through half back. No eventuating goal; quarter time. 8. (Swans clearance) Gawn, Petracca (near side wing), Pickett (defensive side), Oliver (offensive side) Terrible bounce; ruckman end up competing on the circle on our defensive side. Hickey jumps; Gawn doesn't (again), Hickey ends up jumping over Max and Max falls on his arse. Still manages to affect the tap, which falls to the ground. Kennedy is blocking Oliver out of the contest and Mills is blocking Petracca; Warner (Pickett's man) gathers the ball unopposed. Pickett attempts to smother but is ineffective. Eventual goal: Demons 9 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Jordon (near side wing), Petracca (offensive side), Harmes (defensive side) Gawn wins the tap and taps it to space on the offensive side. No MFC players in the vicinity, Mills pushes off Jordon and gets there first. Petracca was running in the wrong direction to receive this tap and Jordon was comprehensively outbodied by Mills. Eventual goal: Demons 10 (Demons clearance). Jackson, Harmes (near side wing), Oliver (offensive side), Melksham (defensive side) Hickey wins the tap but it goes to Harmes who beats a hold and and breaks a tackle, to run away with the ball and clear it. Unfortunately gets pinged for running too far before the kick. Unlucky because I thought he did everything right here. No eventuating goal; half time. 11 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (near side wing), Petracca (far side wing), Pickett (defensive side) Obviously different setup here with no offensive side player, and all three mids very close by. Oliver and Petracca are both standing basically at the circle, Pickett only a couple of metres away. Gawn wins the tap and... taps to to the offensive side where there are no Melbourne players (or any players). Parker (on Oliver) is first to the ball, again, and handballs to Mills who clears. Eventual goal: Swans 12 (Demons clearance). Gawn, Oliver (near side wing), Harmes [I think] (far side wing), Petracca (defensive side) Same setup as before but different personnel. Telecast is still showing the replay of the goal as the bounce takes place so it's hard to see (onya channel 7). I think it's Harmes on the far side wing, but whoever it is has gone by the time they switch back to the play. It appears Gawn wins the tap. Oliver receives and tries a hurried kick but it's smothered and goes straight up in the air. Petracca gathers and boots it out (down the throat of Sydney's half back). Eventual goal: Demons 13 (Demons clearance). Jackson, Jordon (near side wing), Petracca (far side wing), Oliver (defensive side) Slightly different setup again. Players are all very close to the contest still but Petracca is at about 2 o'clock (on offensive side) on the circle instead of at 12 o'clock. I reckon if we'd lined up like this in #11 we would have won a clearance instead of Gawn tapping to nobody. Ball is thrown up instead of bounced, Hickey grabs it. It's a scrap with all players in close. Kennedy initially wins the ball, but Jordon is able to lay an effective enough tackle to draw a dud disposal. Petracca wins the ball, we handball it out. All the mids from this contest touch the ball on the way out, including Jackson. Jordon is the final recipient who delivers inside 50 from half forward, but unfortunately the kick is poor. This was the first clean clearance of the game to us though. Eventual goal: Demons 14 (Demons clearance). Jackson, Harmes (near side wing), Petracca (far side wing), Oliver (defensive side) Different setup again, with all the players very close to the contest still, but the wing-side mids now both on the offensive side of the circle - Petracca at 2 o'clock, Harmes at 5 o'clock. Jackson taps to himself and runs the ball out, and wins the clearing kick. Eventual goal: Demons 15 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (near side wing), Harmes (offensive side), Melksham (defensive side) Back to the earlier setup with the offensive player a fair way out of the contest. Oliver as the wing side mid is more defensive side (about 7 o'clock). Defensive side player has been in the same position every bounce. Gawn wins the tap and hits it to the advantage of Harmes, who runs in to the space and collects. He is tackled instantly by Hickey and the ball spills. Kennedy gathers, fumbles and taps it forward towards Florent who soccers it clear. Eventual goal: Swans 16 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (near side wing), Jordon (far side wing), Petracca (defensive side) No offensive side player again, players all very close to the contest, Oliver at 7 o'clock, Jordon at 12 o'clock. Tap goes towards Florent and Jordon, who gets the quick handball away to Parker who has peeled off Oliver and is running in to the space where there is no Melbourne player to be seen, and gets a long clearing kick to half forward. Eventual goal: Swans 17 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Melksham (far side wing - 12 o'clock), Petracca (offensive side), Oliver (defensive side) Scrap contest, with most of the players ending up on top of each other. Ball spills out and is collected by Mills. Petracca attempts to interfere but is off balance and ends up spinning away from the contest. Clearing handball goes offensive side towards Parker, who had broken away from the pack and was meters in the clear. No eventuating goal, three quarter time. 18 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Harmes (near side wing), Petracca (offensive side), Oliver (defensive side) No clear winner of the tap, ball goes to the defensive side where Oliver appears to be about to gather, but the ball bounces away and the ball is collected by Hickey, who handballs it to the charging Rowbottom who delivers inside 50. Eventual goal: Swans 19 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Oliver (near side wing), Petracca (offensive side), Harmes (defensive side) Gawn wins the tap, taps towards Petracca who has moved in ahead of his opponent, but the tap is too rich and goes over his and his opponents head. Contest falls Parker and Oliver; Parker clears the ball by kicking it out of the air while wresting Oliver. Can clearly see what we were trying to do here and there was a massive touch of luck in this clearance from Sydney. Eventual goal: Demons 20 (no clearance). Jackson, Petracca (near side wing), Oliver (offensive side), Harmes (defensive side) Seem to be settling back in to the earlier setups again now. Jackson wins the tap, and there's a ground level contest between Petracca and Rowbottom. They both overrun, Harmes and Jackson go for the same ball. A scrap ensues with no clearance and there's another ballup. Eventual goal: Swans 21 (Swans clearance). Gawn, Petracca (near side wing), Harmes (offensive side) Oliver (defensive side/wing - 2 o'clock) First contest where we didn't have a player directly on the defensive side of the circle. Gawn tap goes backwards in the direction of Petracca (basically stationary, still wrestling with Mills) and Oliver (been pushed out of it by Parker) - ball goes right in between the two of them and Parker hits it at pace and runs out. Eventual goal: Demons 22 (Swans clearance). Jackson, Harmes (near side wing), Oliver (offensive side), Jordon (defensive side) Hickey wins the tap, grabs the ball himself and boots it clear. No midfielders touch the ball. No eventuating goal, game ends. Thoughts: I'm definitely no analyst - this is the first time in my life I've ever attempted to scrutinise our setups like this and often I found I had no idea what I was looking at really. But my general notes are: - 3 of our 4 clearances came when Jackson was rucking - but none of them came from good taps, they were all because he involved himself in the midfielder's contest. Gawn does this too, but not as effecively. - They sharked our taps from Gawn. This was a clear strategy. - Sydney's mature midfield combo of Kennedy, Mills and Parker is brilliant. They pantsed our starting midfielders of Petracca, Oliver and Harmes/Jordon. They block for each other too - more than once I would see the player who has just dished the ball off immediately lay a block. I didn't see the Melbourne mids do this once. - While they won a lot of clearances, very few of them resulted in goals. There were a lot of junk kicks out to the wing or kicks to half-forward where they were outnumbered. Overall despite the fact that they comprehensively beat us out of the middle, we still made it hard for them to score. - There was only one drawn contest in the middle. I'm not sure how that compares to normal but I expected more in such a fiercely contested game. I'd love to sit down and do this for a game where Viney plays and see how it differs. I feel like I'll have a better idea of what I'm seeing and how it differs if I have more of a point of reference.

Having had a look at a game where we sucked in the centre, I decided to have a look at a game where we were competitive in the centre clearances and see what looked different. I picked the Geelong game - it was a game where all our mids had very high clearance numbers. One thing that was obviously different was how far away the midfielders were from the circle, at every bounce. There was only ever one, or sometimes none in close. Whenever Max tapped, it was always to the space in which our midfielder would fill. The mids always knew exactly where the tap was going to go, so the right player was charging in at pace, the other two were preparing to either spread or defend, depending on which way that contest went. It was random who the nominal receiver was, but Oliver and Viney in particular got themselves in to the right spot, in space, to receive the tap heaps of times. I barely saw this happen against Sydney. I reject the assertion that Max's taps are too predictable. When we set up well, one of the three mids will be anointed to receive the tap. It could be any of the three. Or the plan could be to punch it to space. How could the opposing midfield possibly know in advance? They have a one in four chance of guessing correctly. In the Sydney game our mids lined up very close to the circle at nearly every bounce. I'm now convinced Sydney forced that. Whenever Max tapped, it was always to a pair in a flat footed contest, or to space, but there was no player there to run on other than bloody Parker, who had a field day. I watched thinking it might be the Viney factor. Having now watched two games worth of centre bounces, I don't think Viney is particularly any better than Oliver or even Harmes for winning contested ball in this scenario. His point of difference is that he tackles like a warrior. If his opponent gets a clearance, you can be sure that he has earned it at maximum price. We're definitely better for having him in there, but we've still got enough inside firepower that we should be able to get by without him without getting smashed in there like we did on Saturday.

Reminds me of Junior. Tough bugger. Big fan.

I watched the game live and on replay and I am not understanding the criticism of Harmes. He was tough, fast, good pressure and prolific.

Let's acknowledge that we're supporters and that we don't need to concentrate on anything, and are free to dream and speculate as much as we like, because nothing we say or do affects the fortunes of the team.

Not because I want us to, it just seems to be the Demonland catalyst for players recapturing good form.

Rule 1 Dont Condemn till you know the full story Rule 2 Dont attend nightclubs that may or may not draw heat Rule 3 Always defend honour of women Rule 4 See rule 1

from Fox Sports: “Welcome back, James Harmes! The midfielder was best on ground, according to the Official AFL Player Ratings, recording 31 disposals, seven tackles and a huge 21 contested possessions. He wasn’t alone starring - Clayton Oliver (35 disposals, 10 clearances) was busy, Christian Petracca (28 disposals and a goal) was damaging, and while the duo of Tom McDonald (four goals) and Ben Brown (three) wasn’t exactly what everyone expected coming into the season, but it worked wonders.” Not that I think Harmes was BOG, but it’s hard to understand how others could have thought that he should be dropped. Or will they just discredit Fox to support their own poor view of reality?

Maybe men should stop behaving like absolute uneducated pigs to women and to one another. Problem solved.

Younger Supporters have been asking about what happened. Why did we fall so low? Did Norm leave a curse? The Red Fox was our true legend…

Jordon Jones is going to be a rock in the coming years. Like his defensive work.

This is a forum for measured unhysterical discussion and analysis not an open mic night. ?

I'm a bit surprised that Luke Parker didn't get a vote. He seemed to bob up with annoying frequency, particularly around those much discussed centre clearances. edit: I just checked his stats to see if it was just my imagination, and he had 32 disposals, 4 marks, 5 tackles and 7 clearances. That's a good day's work by any standard.

Good post. In all the years i have followed the dees i have never seen one of our players play better over a sustained period than max has in the first third of this home and away season. And that includes Robbie. And that is off the back of an immense 2020. His athleticism has gone up a level, as has his ball handling skills, particularly when the ball is on the deck. There was a brilliant example in the Swans game (i can't remember if it was the second or last quarter - we were kicking to the Punt Road end, which is where I was sitting). Max collected the ball off the ground right in the pocket, only a meter or so from their goal. From the distance i was watching it took me a sec to register that it was max, such was the way he smoothly picked it up, took some steps and delivered the ball by foot. The ball tic tacked up the ground and went out on our goal side of the wing. Max ran from the back pocket to take the ruck. I think he got a free from the throw in (or if not grabbed it) and kicked a perfect pass to Harmes who somehow dropped it over the line on our HF. He then went to the next throw in and tapped it brilliantly to a moving Oliver who if memory serves got it to Salem who kicked it to brown 20 meters out. Incredible skills. Incredible work rate. And the key actor in a critical goal. All while looking not 100% fit. And as occurs every week with how we play, after getting physically smashed in aerial contests and taking his turn tackling and being tackled. And again copping hits to the head from opposition players who know they can hit him with impunity. Max is a million miles away from being the problem. He is the solution.

My two pence worth: For the last two years we had many games where opps were happy to cede hitouts but win the clearances: Bulldogs, Geelong, Lions, Cats and sometimes Hawthorn or even Eagles when Nick Nat was out. We would often get first hands to the ball but the opps would get the clearance. iirc having Viney in there in those years didn't make a difference. On Max, until this week he has played no less than 90% game time, sometimes as high as 97%. He looked beaten up vs north after all the clips across the back of the head from Richmond but and I couldn't tell if he was carrying an injury but thought he needed more bench time to rest. He was given this vs Swans. As @Pollyannamentioned he played 'just' 84%. Interestingly, Jackson's game time (usually 70-80%) didn't go up to compensate Max's time on the bench; in fact it went down: 79% to 70% this week. It looks to me we are 'managing' Jackson's game time rather than rest him for a whole game. How many times do we see Max drag himself up off the ground. They must be heavy knocks to fell a 204cm giant. He is getting no protection from the umpires and I'm glad the club saw fit to increase his bench time this week. I don't think Max should be given a week off. He is our captain, a proud man and incredibly courageous. Give him more bench time if necessary but he has to play, unless he is injured. I truly don't think Max or his hitouts are the problem. I think the opps develop effective strategies against us, strategies we are yet to counter in games or at training. I would like us to try different centre bounce setups during the next few games if we get an unassailable lead. I read somewhere that this is what Clarkson does. We can practice at training but there is nothing like game conditions.

Baby Oil is all well and good behind closed doors, but it has no place on the football field.

i am a near 81 year old dee who lived through that era and I highly recommend that any football person should read the book the RED FOX. A great insight into the man .

According to Gary Lyon this morning Trac confirmed off-air that no after effects from the corky. He's right to go.

Last time I had a guy crack on to my wife I felt sorry for the poor bustard.

When you are 8-0 and have 2 rising star nominations in the first 8 weeks. #lifeisgood

Grats young fella. Has had a great start to his career and shows how valuable a reasonably long apprenticeship in the 2's is. Surprised me how good he has been tbh. I have never bagged him (iirc) but didnt have a great deal of confidence that he would play as well as he has. I have been consuming my share of humble pie this year i must say.

10 Votes T Mac You really have to hand it to him. Amazing mental toughness and application to get his body and game back to 2018 level. Put up for trade last year too. No-one saw this coming. As his confidence grows, he could really dominate Him and Fritsch on track to get 40-50 goals this season

I think B.Brown is going to be great for us. His reach is so long it's very hard to defend - it contributed to each of his three marking-goals in different ways. I also thought his defensive intent when the ball hit the ground was fine - he stayed involved. He worked up and down the ground and I think at times we committed too many marking targets to the contest. I think it would be better to keep one of BB, TMac or Fritsch deeper and draw a defender away from the immediate contest and provide an ongoing one-out target if we win it. I think that synergy can come when they play together more.

You know its entirely possible to simply not comment on threads you don't wish to discuss? Try it out, it works a treat for most adults on Demonland.

Yes, because the written thoughts of fans online are critical to the teams chances for success in September

Curses are superstitious nonsense and the domain of the feeble minded.

Copy cat! Seems we had the same idea (see page 3). Nice work though mate. Really interesting read, especially having been through the exercise myself, to see where we might have drawn different conclusions, but there wasn’t much difference. I did mine in the morning. In the afternoon I watched bits of the Carlton and Bulldogs game, and the Brisbane and Freo game, and found myself wishing the players would hurry up and kick a goal so I could observe how they set up at the bounce. One thing I noticed the Blues/Dogs mids do that I never saw in our game, was for both sides to have two wing side mids and a defensive side one, ie both clubs having one man each unopposed, going head to head. We were man-on-man at EVERY ball-up - not sure if it was us who forced that or Sydney. It will be easy to tell with watching more centre bounces. I’d never analysed a clearance in my life before, but I don’t reckon I’ll ever stop doing it with every one now.

We all seemed to watch different games, but I agree with SPC. I thought Harmes looked good from the stands, then after just watching on replay, am still convinced that he was a much more solid contributor than the heat he’s drawing on Demonland would suggest. “Turnovers” are a misleading statistic. There are turnovers that are the result of high-traffic, high-pressure situations where the ball is frantically changing owners, and then there are turnovers that are the results of brain-fades or poor disposal. Harmes’ were safely in the camp of the former, whereas if we’re going to really get stuck into turnovers, Petty, Jordon and Clarry were all guilty of the latter in the first half. But what’s so great about the team right now is most of the supporter’s criticism of players is fairly pernickety in the scheme of things. It’s just such a refreshing feeling not becoming infuriated by low-grade efforts, lack of discipline and generally crap decision making from any of our players. I hope it stays that way for a while! He had to blow a couple of cobwebs out the other night, but Harmes is a welcome return to this exciting team for my money.

Lucky it is about when the ball is in play. Otherwise Ben Brown would need about three bounces for each set shot at goal ... ?

A MFC player winning the NS will go a long way to winning a GF drysdale . Don't be a Wet blanket , just some fun .

What I particularly like about Spargo is his ball use. Whenever he has ball in hand I am very confident that he will hit up a team-mate inside 50. Simply sublime, albeit under-rated, talent. Love the kid!

Happy Mother Day Woke up and had to pinch myself to make sure I was not dreaming again . Red and Blue all over on the outside from bruising . First time I can remember to the Dees on top of the ladder ( not sure what happened in 2005 ) . First time I am watching On the Couch . First time I am watching most other games . First time I am happy to talk footy with anyone . First time on Demonland . Plus lots more . Footy is much more fun when your team are doing well .

Lol wait until we have a drop off in form, it turns feral..

Just watching the replay and it's astonishing how many tackles went unrewarded for holding-the-ball. There must have been at least a dozen of incorrect disposals with nothing given. The worst of which were those where players just dropped the ball when tackled. Felt bad for lever when Hayward dropped the ball immediately when lever tackled him only for the umpire to penalise lever for falling into his back afterwards.

I will always have a soft foot for Jack as he was so wonderful with kids, I often took my daughter to training 7 years ago and he was just brilliant in his interaction with her and a few years later when we had moved to Alice Springs he was also fantastic with my son, the kids loved him.

Buddy should have been charged for staging.

I literally lost 0 seconds sleep over this

So its a free shot on Gawn every single week. They cannon into his back punch him in the back of the head and pile on to him when on the ground. PLay on. No frees, no fines. BS

Great story. Jack is back enjoying his footy with some mates. Jack has always been a lad, and loves the social side of life and footy. It was the intensity of the AFL and the restrictions on social life. He’s a great young man, intelligent, fun loving and a talented sportsman. Hope he enjoys his footy life and showing his footy talent.

I'm not sure on the details but superficially it appears to be down to Max looking at the stats. Hickey had 3 centre clearances himself - Max 0. They each had 3 around the ground. Oliver had 10 total - 9 around the ground, 1 centre. Max just doesn't seem to be giving a 2nd effort at the centre bounce to block for the mids. He doesn't really jump so he should be able to follow up - he generally wins the tap so he knows where the ball is. As @Lucifer's Hero observed he's playing massive game time - 95% last week and 84% this week - that seems excessive with Jackson in the side and 3 tall forwards and 3 tall backs. He's just not holding his marks around the ground either - although it was slippery last night and only TMac seemed able to - Sinclair dropping 2 regulation chest marks and even Steven May spilling one. I think Max is beaten up and needs to play less minutes or have a week off.