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Except Spargo has been a pretty good forward score assist over the last two years and is our best kick inside 50... Some people are never pleased

Is happening today down on the Mornington Peninsula for those that are interested. Lots of players in attendance I'm told. Good luck to Adam and his lovely bride

The Dogs also torched us in 2nd half of 2020 and I vaguely recall Hunter having a very good day. He certainly knows how to get the ball and use it and will be an upgrade on our 2nd winger choices - assuming Brayshaw not playing on the wing! In addition to Grundy feels like we’ve really increased our centreline on baller firepower - Rucks Gawn & Grundy Mids Oliver, Trac, Viney, Brayshaw supported by Sparrow, Harmes, (backups Jordan & Pickett) Wings Langdon & Hunter (backups Brayshaw & JJ) Just an awesome midfield / wing combination!

It was more to do with the players carrying injuries into the business end: the reason we were consistently outplayed, despite leading at half in most matches. The players I refer to are: Langdon, Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Lever, Salem, Viney.

Absolutely. I don't understand the gripe against Spargo. He is quick in the first 5 metres, has great vision and decision-making. Plays his role defensively harassing and tackling. He was struggling for form in 2019 and 2020, but since then has been very good!

Yeah, Goody... what would he know. Bloke neva achieved anything. What a massive mistake. Ruined JVRs career FMD

Don’t forget TMac& BBB…..And Pickett, JJ and Jackson were carrying knee injuries into the finals. That’s 11 players below their best. Small wonder we fell away in the second half of games at the end of the season.

QD's been on a lovely break since 23 Dec. Very happy Comes onto Demonland to ensure he hasn't missed anything important Reads this thread Checks the bathroom cabinet for razorblades Remembers he bought an electric razor last year around this time.

Not sure 2022 was really that hellish injury wise. The only players I can recall we lost for big parts of the season were T Mac, BBB, and perhaps Salem and Hibbo during the first half of the season. There was also J Smith and Disco, but they're not established best 22. There would have been a number of other top 8 teams that dealt with more injuries than that I feel. T Mac exposed a key structural area we lacked depth (and or a willingness to experiment with others), but the others like Salem and Hibbo were positions we had plenty of depth. The rest were really more 1 or 2 week injuries and niggles and/or trying to keep players playing with underlying issues that really comes more within the space of player management.

Gawny's a year older, wiser and probably funnier. What a gun! Hope he has another 10 years in the game.

Spargo is statistically the most effective kick inside 50 in a team that notoriously struggles with kicks inside 50. Would be great for him to do it more, but it's completely incorrect to say he adds nothing to our scoring power.

Good clubs don’t over react to one seasons results! Badly run clubs do - Essendon are the prime example this year! If next year goes badly, they will look at what to change but it won’t be the 2021 premiership coach!

His extended family, who will remain anonymous here, have been long suffering Demon people. Sitting in the same seats on level 1 on the wing of the Olympic stand for as long as I can remember…. that’s all you’ll get from me on this one.

Lingering injuries, yes. But as both Gawn and Goodwin commented at the end of this season, we didn't really get a break at the end of 21, the two seasons virtually rolled together. With predictable results. No accident that back to back premierships are so hard to come by.

Tiers, did you take a wrong turn somewhere on the internet? What else would we do in the off season!!

Let's take the season one week at a time. Remember 2021. Who guessed at the beginning of the year that it would be our time in the sun? So let's not waste time on rampant speculation, wild guesses, hopeful dreams and ill-informed commentary before the season has even started. There are too many talking heads in the media for us to compete with. Just enjoy reading training reports and encouraging the boys. GO DEES (one week at a time)

Chandler has yet to prove he is good enough at AFL level.

I think we need another Kozzie type. I know he is a rare player, but his “type” to me is our priority and obviously if he leaves if it will be a major priority. Toby was looking like our best chance but he is gone, so I would think in the off season it will be our priority. Our off season this year, has imo potentially solved a few of our problems, in the ruck and key forward and defence positions. Hunter could be a major pick up and Schache could have more impact potentially than Weid. It’s probably the best list we have had in years.

I realise talking about Hannan in a Hunter thread is getting off topic but I spoke to him in the preseason after this and told him no matter what happens to him for the rest of his career we'll all never forget this moment. He was thrilled. I asked him what he was thinking as he was getting closer to goal. He said if you have a look at it you can see me glance across looking for a better option. I really didn't want to kick it myself. He said the kick didn't go well off his boot and he was crapping himself it was going to miss. So his initial emotion was relief. Back on topic, I reckon by the end of next season we will be looking back on this trade and putting it up there with the Langdon trade as a quiet trade that turns into a massive bonus.

- Longer off-season break for all.

Which comes back to player management. We have a few more weeks of rest and prep going into next year.

JT doesn't casually make strong statements like this one - he's too close to the pulse of the matter, as well. Kozzie will stay a Demon, thank heavens. He has fully earned everyone's respect and admiration - with that comes some dependency on him from the whole team - a group of blokes who have opened the doors to his incredible skillset and his development as a team player.

I feel a big part of the issue to pick through here is that seemingly what worked for us in 2021 in terms of player management didn't in 2022. From what I heard of the Burgo philosophy, it was all about big pre-season, training at high intensity and playing players through niggles rather than resting them if they were 80% or there abouts. There were some exceptions in 2021, such as late starts for BBB, rests for Salem and possibly others like Viney at various points in the season to 100% recover from more chronic injuries, but from what I recall Burgo's mantra was mostly about train hard to play hard and not resting players.

A bit of angst on this thread about playing WC yet again in Perth. But I'm quite happy to see Dogga against us first up at the MCG.

I had "What's a girl gotta do...?" typed in after Mr Leg's 12:48 PM yesterday but deleted it. Appropriation is so non-PC these days. But, 'Great minds...' n all that!

Hope the housekeeper had a good Christmas @Bitter but optimistic

Far out… people need to get out more. Offended by comments about a fictitious-person.

I have asked Santa for one point this comp lol...he's given me tasty donuts so far.😃

A fully fit and in-form Salem would be a big lift for the side. Really important player for us when firing. I feel he never really got going in 2022 like in 21. At least Trac was pretty awsome at the start of the season and even then in patches after he was apparently carrying an injury.

A lot of people aren’t “phased”. But are they FAZED?

You were booted off here last time you posted rumour and innuendo. Do it again and there'll be no coming back under a different name. But I'm sure the 'real story' is fascinating. "Kid who moved back home to be closer to family doesn't spend all day of every day at home with mum and dad"

Tough one. All coaches are under pressure all the time. I guess I was assuming the coach under pressure implies he is close to being sacked. Like I said 6-8 key players were carrying injuries last half of last year so imo this does not add any pressure to Goody. Stability wins flags, if we were reactive and sacked Goody which many on here supported in 2020 we would not have a flag imo and could have lost key players. To answer your question, I would tolerate one down year over the next 3 once it is short lived and Goody still ‘has the players’ and has the vision and believe

yep. He certainly has earned his chance and was knocking the door down this year but its a big step up. I just dont quite see the X factor that maybe others do.

What this analysis shows is that we have no gaps or obvious weaknesses anywhere on the field with numerous options and alternatives everywhere. The cattle are there. It is now up to considered man management, a repeat of the 2021 injury profile and the quality of the coach's decision making to get the best result from this list. GO DEES

The pressure will be on Goodwin in the first 6-8 weeks to have us looking like the late 2021/early 2022 model with some tweaks. If we look like the mid to late 2022 model the pressure will rise pretty quickly. Our list is too good for the 6 win 8 loss way we finished the season and I suggest there will be little patience to waste the premiership window we have.

That might be true, but I think they “knew” well before he left that he was leaving.

My hatred of Jeelong borders on the Insane!

Demon positives: - Grundy will be great, as he can really play, and will add to Max fitness wise, re rest during matches and if either slightly injured, can miss a week or two, still having AA ruckman playing. - Hunter a step above JJ on the wing, he won a B&F at Dogs, can really play. Also JJ is ideal 23 player, can cover multiple positions. - Longer pre season for all. - Kossie, Sparrow, JJ, Bowey, JVR, Rivers, Petty all that year older! - TMac & BBB seemingly fit! Tomlinson 2nd year back after knee injury might be moving better, so more realistic back up! - Having won a flag, know what’s required and that our best can do it!

The only smoke so far has been from Kane Cornes and I'm very suspicious about what it is he is actually smoking.

Found an article that outlines Burgo's philosophy: Fitness guru reveals secret to Dees' incredible injury-free run: https://www.afl.com.au/news/686425/fitness-guru-reveals-secret-to-dees-incredible-injury-free-run Some key statements below: "There's two ways to go about injury prevention, I think. "If someone has niggles you give them a rest so they complete as many sessions as possible, cut the sessions short if someone's a bit sore, or you can build them up and push them through those periods where they're a little sore, a little bit tender and a little bit fatigued … to provide them with that robustness to get through." Burgess said he used to subscribe to the former theory before evolving to the latter in recent years. After an improved 2020, Melbourne won the 2021 premiership partly off the back of player availability, and the work of Burgess and his team. Nine men played in all 25 games, another four missed just one, and 16 played 20 games or more. "Providing that physical resilience was about turning up, day after day, with training intensity at a super high level," he said. "It's really tempting for medical, performance people to say 'we train from November to March and then we play games. And in January when it's a bit hot and someone rolled their ankle slightly, it's tempting to say just have this session off, it's just January, it doesn't matter if you miss one session'. But it does. Somehow this worked for us in 2021, with players no doubt carrying some injuries through the middle parts of the season, but in 2022, if Selwyn Griffith applied the same philosophy, we are supposing that it wasn't as effective, because the players weren't in as good a condition headding into finals. Maybe there's also some nuance that we didn't quite get right in 2022. I'm also actually woundering if injuries in 2022 were really as significant as is being made out? We weren't that far off Sydney and Brisbane in the finals we played them. Brisbane we'd smashed comprehensively just a few weeks earlier on their home deck. I'm woundering if it's more down to being outplayed on the night in 2022? To some extent I also recall Sydney being helped back into the game by some fairly dubious, momentum shifting umpiring. We beat Sydney and then we'd have had a weeks rest for the whole side before the prelim like we did in 2021.

Don’t forget, Goody left JVR at Casey for the whole year, to learn and gain confidence.I thought this was a mistake, should have played him .

Have been thinking along some similar lines. Not that Spargo is unworthy of his place, i just think he represents the most likely possible upgrade within the 22, as he has his limitations. I was hoping Laurie wld be that upgrade but that is TBC. Id be happy for Chandler to get a decent run at it though, to see if he can find is feet at AFL level. Just think we could improve our team with a more damaging small hf.

So you’d consider sacking goody in 2023 after he broke our drought and finished first and second in H/A the last two years? That would be absolute madness injuries and underdone players surely the main reason for our poor form late 2022 even if Goody goes 10-0 again next year people won’t give him any credit.

Great depth chart WERRIDEE it has been a great Trade and Draft period for Dees, we now have a better balanced list and Schache provides that extra coverage for CHF, CHB and the third Ruck option. Just need a couple of the kids and younger brigade to take that next step then watch out opposition sides.!!!

Common thread that is positive and worth whispering about is a little bird....Viney MK2 ...guess?

As Jimmy Barnes might say if he was our list manager "You got nothing I want You got nothing I need"

Jackson was very will he won’t he. The words out of the club seemed fashioned so that they were hopeful more than anything. Jackson will be remembered by dees fans as a premiership player but a decade from now he will be known only as a freo player. I never want kossie to be anything other than ours. I’d be gutted to see him tear it up for another club. He’s a champ and I hope he gets some good security in his next contract reflecting his value. In the Jason Taylor interviews he seemed supremely confident of pickets signature coming. Would be nice to get it done early enough. I still remember the media beating up Cyril being worth a million in his hey day before he signed. Best to get ahead of that circus

Purely as a contingency, I'll be death-riding Port as well as Freo in 2023, just to make sure they can offer us at least a top-5 pick and change. ;) But seriously, Kysaiah Pickett is a rare player. Not many forwards - let alone small forwards - top 40 goals in a season in consecutive seasons, and he has managed in every full season he's played!