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This just popped up on YouTube today! I think the ABC version is my favourite. Cheers to @The Mighty Demons for the edit!

Essendon’s board have all the emotional resilience of a Demonland Gameday thread.

What do the last ten premiership teams have in common? They were all ranked in the top 6 in the following statistical categories in their premiership year: Shots at goal differential (all ranked top 4) Total points conceded Opposition shots at goal Opposition goals Percentage Inside 50s Following on from the thread H&A % as an indicator of team chances to win Finals, I decided to look at what stats (including percentage) recent premiership teams have in common using a somewhat simplistic methodology. I have analysed the ranks of the last ten premiership teams against a large number of statistical categories in their premiership year. There are 26 statistical categories in which at least eight of the last ten premiers ranked in the top 6. The list of the 26 categories are in the images at the end of this post. Nine of the last ten premiers were ranked in the top 6 in at least 21 of these 26 categories (the Western Bulldogs ranked in the top 6 in 18 categories in 2016). Melbourne ranked number 1 in 16 of these categories last year, more than any other premiership team in the last ten years. There are currently three standout teams this season for these "premiership metrics" - Geelong, Melbourne and Sydney. "Premiership Metrics" ranked in the top 6 in 2022 25: Geelong ⭐ 24: Melbourne ⭐ 19: Sydney ⭐ 14: Brisbane 14: Richmond 13: Fremantle 11: Collingwood 10: Western Bulldogs 8: Carlton What are the Premiership Metrics? Where do teams ranks against these metrics in 2022?

I feel sorry for you. I'm with faulty on this issue. Each year there is one winner and 17 also-rans. Winning premierships is the ultimate measure of real success. We're not here to [censored] spiders.

Threads should not be started lightly, and this the perfect example of why. There is no substance, no avenue for further discussion and no point to this thread. It’s just you having an anxious and pessimistic moment and telling us about it.

By the end of the season we will have played 1 team outside the top 9 teams in the last 12 weeks while being banged up with injuries. This doesn't excuse our losses nor does it garuntee we will suddenly beat everyone in the finals, but keeping those metrics as high as we are with such a difficult run in vs let's say Geelong or Collingwood having much more favourable draws is a reason to have confidence.

Now could be a good time to produce some Paperwork from 2012 Essendrug, clear the decks….. Still the same cheating organization in my view… wallow in mediocrity you bastards

He seems pretty invested imo. I genuinely think he hasn't made up his mind and is leaving all the contract talks until the season is finished. I'd be disappointed if he left, but would understand wholeheartedly as well. We'll get compensated well, but it's still a big loss. Thought he was good on the weekend. Took some good clunks and was unlucky not to hit the scoreboard.

It’s been 62 years since we did b2b premierships. Time to break that embarrassing record.

It seems I view this game and its result differently to many on Demonland. Which doesn't necessarily surprise me given the way Demonland has reacted to our 2022 season. We won an extremely close game in front of a loud, rabid crowd in a finals-like atmosphere. When was the last time we did that? We beat Geelong in Round 23 last year but there was no crowd. This year we lost to Collingwood and the Dogs, last year we lost to Adelaide. So perhaps the GWS win in the second-last game of 2020? Otherwise maybe we're going back to the 2018 finals. Maybe I'm wrong, but I reckon a game like that, with that result, will spark something in our players. A reminder of the thrill of playing these big games, when they don't end in disappointment like they did the previous week. Maybe they'll spark a change in ball movement, or a change in how we defend, but at the least a change in belief. It's true that Carlton's midfield was weakened, but as we all cry out for when we're down in numbers, they brought elite effort which doesn't depend on talent. Like almost every game we've played this year, our opponent has lifted when playing us. It's true that we still didn't really maximise our inside 50 chances, but one area we did improve on significantly was forward half pressure. 8 tackles inside 50 last week to 20 this week; Fritsch laying 5 of his own. I still think too many are expecting us to be blowing everyone, even top 8 sides, out of the water. We weren't doing that last year and we shouldn't be expecting it this year. I rate this win, and I rate our chances to knock Brisbane off again this Friday and confirm our top 4 spot.

Negative Nancy hey, there is every chance of beating Brisbane.

just re-watched the game and what stood out was how good Jayden Hunt was all game, not just in the last few minutes. He could be a real weapon come finals.

Win, lose or draw this week we are destined for finals multiple years in a row for the first time since 2006! 16 years is a long drought to break. Win this weekend and we will play in consecutive Qualifying Finals for the first time since the modern top 8’s inception. We’re all nervous and disappointed that after a remarkable start to the year we don’t have top four sewn up heading into the final round. Some perspective however, this team continues to smash all the embarrassing records of our past, has backed up equally as strongly as 95% of reigning premiers in the past 30 years and is in this season up to its ears. Smash those lions!!!

We'll beat Brisbane on Friday night while St Kilda will win a tight one against Sydney on Sunday looking to end their season on a high. Means we'll finish 2nd having won 3 of our last 4, all against fellow finals teams including wins against Brisbane and Fremantle interstate. Pretty decent form to take into the finals IMO.

Why is this a thread? Meet with the run home thread or kill it.

If we beat Brisbane on Friday we'll end the season with 16 wins, one fewer than last year. That will be despite: a brutal fixture - assuming the Dogs pass Carlton, of our five return matches four will have been finalists. Compare that to Brisbane, whose five return matches feature just one finalist (us). Or Geelong - the Dogs will be their only return game against a finalist, plus they've had North and West Coast twice each. And that's without touching on travel, six straight weeks of different venues, and repeated instances of having a shorter break than our opponent. the competition focusing on us and analysing our gameplan within an inch of its life. a comparatively worse run with injuries than 2021 (not saying we've had as bad a run as other sides, just that it's been worse this year than it was last year).

We were ahead for over 60% of the game so why do you say that? Last week we played far better football & lost but should have won. This week we hung in there …Carlton played out of their skins & either team could have won. We were not lucky ..we deserved the win

I reckon the bombers should try another succession plan. Get Jobe 'the wordsmith' Watson in as senior assistant, with rutten as the seasoned mentor type. Watson to take the reins after two more years treading water.

This simply has to stop. And it simply has to stop on this website too. During the game last night in the Game Day Thread I was alerted to two posts from different people making ethnic slurs about people in the crowd. These posters have since been banned. Vilification on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity is unacceptable and will be treated as such. Posters that make such vile comments are not wanted here and will be banned permanently.

Essendon running to get Clarkson like

Since the byes finished in Round 14, here is the top 8's record against the current top 8 (i.e. Carlton in, Dogs out): Geelong - 3-0 Melbourne - 3-2 Sydney - 2-0 Collingwood - 1-1 Richmond - 1-1-1 Carlton - 1-3 Fremantle - 0-1-3 Brisbane - 0-2 5 of our 8 games since Round 15 have been against the current top 8 (which might remain the final top 8 if Carlton wins or the Dogs lose this week). Brisbane, Sydney and Collingwood have, combined, played 6 games against the top 8 in the same period.

For 11 weeks Collingwood was applauded for their skill in winning close games, including here on Demonland, and including in response to our loss last week. We win a close one and we "lucked in" because an opposition player made a mistake. FFS.

The kick to the pocket should only be used at certain points in a game. We overuse it far too often IMV. It's fine if looking to protect a lead or ice a quarter or game. Possibly on occasions if the oppo is on a 3 to 4 goal momentum roll. Outside of that it should never be the 'go to' option. We should be going to the hotspots or fat side wherever possible and getting a small or two (even Fritta) front and square more often. All out attack bar the above exceptions. Anything else is playing right into the oppo's hands and keeping them in the game as its such a low percentage (conversion) play that will result in a low undefendable score against the better clubs. Puts too much emphasis on our defence/defenders holding the line pretty much every game. Just not humanly possible to do this every week, especially against the top 6 to 8 clubs. It's about getting the balance right IMV and at the moment we are way too conservative (with ball placement/method...eg bombing to the pocket) going foward....except when we're behind and the game's on the line! Funny about that.

Question: Harry Petty does a brilliant job one on one one against Curnow to spoil and not infringe, only just hitting Curnow's outstretched arms as happens in 50 aerial contests a match. Yet the umpire pays a free. Ok, that's the benchmark for a marking infringement. Brown and Gawn get scragged and their arms held and/or smashed at every aerial contest they are engaged in in and yet receive barely a single free between them. What up with that? P.S - asking for a friend.

What a cracking match. The tape can go straight to the pool-room. Put it in a soundproof box, though, so we don't have to listen to Hamish whatshisface try and ruin an all time classic MFC win on the bell with his bemoaning the fortunes of the losing team's supporters. He can [censored] right off. I still can't understand how any Dees supporter can't be absolutely rapt that this is what we are living through. Onwards. Go Dees

I really feel for Rutten. It feels like he has barely had time and space to build a list, form relationships with key club personnel etc... Whatever happens I hope he stays in footy. Maybe we take him if Yze departs? As far s the Bombers being in crisis: - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. ... take a breath Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. May they remain irrelevant and mediocre until the robots rise to kill us all.

And for the spiders…

Gunston would make sense if we didn't have Fritsch. But we do. And if people think Gunston would replace Brown or T Mac, they're kidding themselves. Because the bulk of his goals come from marks on leads. And we simply don't have the midfield to provide that. I know that's Ben Brown's wheelhouse as well, but his advantage is his height at 200cm and arm reach to bring ball to ground. Gunston can't do that. Imagine having Fritsch, Gunston and Ben Brown all playing. The ball would be run out of our 50 before you could blink. The only way I see it happening is of Goodwin made a complete overhaul of the way we enter our forward 50 and adds players with skill through the midfield as well as on the half forwardline. But I also don't see that happening.

What a glowing reception this thread has received. And rightly so.

You did not state “there’s a good chance”… you made a definitive statement that does belong as a post in the veil of negativity topic. It was an attention seeking post.

Hi Olisik

STFU

The veil of negativity thread is about you buddy

Gunston looks still gettable... Given TMac and Brown have one good leg between them, I'd have a crack.

For a guy who has supposedly already signed a deal with Freo, he seems pretty invested. Was braving the wet at Casey to watch the VFL boys play, has been posting pics of the win on his Insta... I don't know, something doesn't add up. He could possibly have just 2 games left with the MFC, but he isn't acting like someone who has already checked out.

100%. Our raw Win/loss record is very comparable but we've had a much harded season to contend with. I believe our 2022 season has actually been an improvement on 2021 when you take in all the factors above and you look past the incredible final 45 minutes of footy we played in 2021. We are not playing our best footy and must improve in many areas to win it all again, but that is exactly the situation we were in at this time in 2021.

Agree. We are definitely struggling to run our games relative to our opposition at the moment. In the last half of q4 the blues and the pies were winning the critical contests and looked the stronger sides. And the real tell was our inability to get overlap run and waves of players to transition the ball and create scoring chains Which is one reason I thought our win against the blues was so meritorious. But if you support the concept of the dees having implemented a carefully calibrated periodisation program, then we are still on the upward trajectory physically and weeks away from our peak. Whereas the pies and the blues are probably close to their peak. Which was helpful for them against us as both games were at finals like intensity levels. A couple of contextual things to consider in comparing this year's physical readiness compared to last year. The lighting was no doubt a factor in the Eagles game, but the fact remains the eagles ran out the 2021 round 21 game better. And the crows came back from a sizeable deficit in the second half of the round 22 game, to get within four goals, before three very late goals by us padded the margin. And that game was little more than a run around compared to the intensity of the blues game. The lions game is fascinating in terms of the parallels with last year's round 23 game. We are playing a top 4 team, on their home deck where they have a huge home ground advantage and a win could help ensure a top 2 finish for us. Geelong has a huge amount riding on that game last year as a win would mean they didn't have to play port at home in the qualifying final. The lions have even more riding on it than the cats did. They lose and they drop to 6th, as might we. That scenario has a curious echo of last year too, in that the lions were the beneficiary of the dog's stumble against Port, and luckily scrapped into the top 4 at the dog's expense.

Before watching the VFL today I thought the one obvious change that would be made was Harmes needing to come in to tag Neale. As a fan of Harmesy I’d still be ok for him to get that role but his VFL game today wasn’t great. He got a huge amount of the ball but kept trying to break tackles, take on too much pressure on the handball and bombed most of his kicks. Meanwhile Bowey was excellent, never wastes a kick, was hard at the tackle, had some brilliant spoils and kicked an important goal. It looked like he was pushing forward more today also, so maybe he’s aiming at Spargo’s spot, although maybe the wet weather just had them all pushing up the ground to lock it in. Sadly today also showed me why JVR is being held back. On a tough day for forwards he was well beaten by Plowman and co and despite trying hard it took throwing him into the ruck for him to have any impact on the game. I see a big future for him but on the first defender being pushed hard he was found wanting a bit today. Meanwhile Weid was excellent. Long story short, either Bowey in for Spargo or no change. If we desperately want Harmesy to tag Neale then he comes in, probably for Sparrow.

Over the past 30 years only four clubs have managed to go back to back. Adelaide once (1998), Brisbane twice (2002, 2003), Hawthorn twice (2014, 2015), and Richmond once (2020). Geelong has never done it. Their three premierships in 2007, 2009 and 2011 were followed by Hawthorn, Collingwood and Sydney, respectively. Maybe this will help people with their expectations of this year, but winning one is tough, but going back to back is a rare feat. You’re dealing with complacency, culture changes, list changes, figured out game plan, a harder draw, worse draft picks and most importantly - and I can’t stress this enough - a professional league of other elite clubs where every other team is trying to achieve the same goal. Keep positive. Enjoy the footy we’re playing. Enjoy that we’re still extremely competitive and will be playing finals. Stop comparing it to last year and most of all have some healthy respect to the competition we’re facing. Go Dees.

The fact that this is a realistic possibility makes a mockery of those who espouse to the idea that loading impacts our results to any degree. To suggest that we lost games because we were only at 75% optimal level, is suggesting that we botched our loading program. Even if we do beat Brisbane, get the double chance and win the G/F, no fitness department would cut things so fine that it comes down to this. The reason it has come to this is twofold IMO. Firstly, we've had injuries to key personnel, who have struggled upon returning to the side. And secondly we've become too predictable in the way we play, and our opposition have pulled us apart at times. After starting 10-0, missing the top 4 would be a bad result.

Far out...this thread sounds a lot like "We won't win the flag this year". I would suggest you go and ready the "Premiership metrics" thread.

I’m just going to say this one last time before moving on, I’m willing to accept that I might be harsh or didn't see this from the best angle. We talk about how there are the moments in our game right now where we don’t seem to be totally in sync whether that be burning teammates without looking up, bombing away when there are good short options/options in wider areas, or not taking the first option but one thing I really can’t stand is players that mark in range but maybe 40+ metres out and walk back with their back to goal. In the second quarter when Max took that ripping mark directly in front I saw Bayley Fritsch in what I felt at the time was about 10 metres of space leading back towards goal. I won’t say this was an absolute gimme but I felt had Max been backing up while looking forward he could have easily seen this and dinked a kick that Fritta would have 90% marked and run in for the open goal. It’s a game of millimetres and these little things are going to play a massive part in finals, we need to be switched on. Max goes back and hooks the kick, it’s not always about our inaccuracy sometimes. It’s about looking for the best chance to score, Max’s last 4 shots over two games to that point had been horrid. I do like that our captain wants the responsibility and takes ownership but lets make sure our awareness levels are as high as possible. Happy for people to disagree on this but in that moment I would have preferred Max to get it over to Fritsch and on the off chance it didn’t work out I would have preferred a rushed behind than a set shot miss. We move on, however my view remains that for Melb to go deep this season it’s going to be between the ears as much as the personnel issues we face.

Max said after the game they trained for what they learnt the week before. I’m not sure if they sent Goodwin home for that part of training, but I imagine he may have had some part in it.

Maybe we'll do a switch and bait in the finals around this set up? It feels so obvious and repetitive that departing from it strategically should give us a competitive edge provided the boys are trained to expect it

There really isn't too much difference between this time last year, and now. 2 wins (that we easily could have had in the last couple of weeks), not much % wise, very wide open field... and I think a lot of us forget that we were a Gawn goal from finishing 3rd. Sure from here it only takes one bad game to be bundled out, but none of the teams scare me - home or away. We are right in it, and we are definitely going to be considered the team to beat in two weeks.

Given that we don't really have an option, Melk has become the de facto 2nd tall and he's doing a good job of it. The FD have been creative with their use of the rucks and Melk. JVR is not ready, as much as I would have liked him to be...wanting it so doesn't make it so. Weid has been tried and tried but not the answer. Smith might have been an answer if injury didn't get in his way yet again, not enough time to make a case I would have thought. Tommy Mac really isn't a show of being back. So what we've got is it...Melk and the resting rucks are the 2nd tall, with a bit more Trac time forward.

Watched the last 2 minutes again. The standard of commentary is absolute and utter garbage. Koz kicks one of the most clutch goals of the season, and all McLachlan can do is waffle on about the team being beaten and how disappointing it is for them. What about celebrating the skill and effort on display to do what looked impossible?

I highly rate this team. The emotion of it all takes hold when expectations aren't met. I'll be first to admit that my negativity sometimes gets the better of me. I thought in the heat of battle that we were "pathetic" tonight. In reflection and after watching the replay I realised we're not. And that I am pathetic. This is my life.