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All the best Jimmy.

Dom Tyson helped hold the midfield fort for a few seasons while we were battling and Salem’s had a pretty damn good 11 season career. Premiership player and permanent fixture of our very good back six. Yes his past two seasons haven’t been quite as stellar but I’m okay with that deal. Kelly is a very good player but he was touted as destined to be a ‘top ten player in the comp’ at one stage and ‘future Brownlow medallist’. He has never reached those heights. Just the one All Australian blazer and finished 5th in the Brownlow once, back in 2017. That’s good but not in the game’s elite.

No, the reason it failed was not to do with Grundy. It was because the FD and Max thought that Max could play an effective role forward, which he couldn’t do. Grundy was there to fill the ruck hole effectively. That's it.

Gotta love the Richmond Doctor

I agree 100%. Spargo has high footy !Q. I was so disappointed with Chandler. If it's a choice between the two, Charlie wins by a country mile.

I hope it's okay to 'take the honours' to start this week's thread. I wanted to acknowledge Aimee Mackin's debut this week and the unfolding repeat (surpassing?) of Melbourne's Irish Experiment success. The Goldy/Macca/Macca story is so uplifting, to have and to watch. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1435443/mackins-moment-aimee-to-debut

Imagine lining up in the West Gippsland Footy League and having to take on the Moose? Massive loss for Casey. Heart and soul of that club.

Congrats Adem. Demon forever! When was the last time a MFC Assistant Coach was appointed and Senior role? Me thinks it’s a reflection on our club too..

Great news for him and well deserved. He’s served a long apprenticeship under some great coaches and has been involved in multiple flags. Wishing him all the very best!

Goalkicking mid , with poise, speed and accurate left foot yes please I hope we get him and push up to the pick we need to secure him with our first pick. Most phantom drafts have him at 3-5 range Absolute jet! just what we need

Yes, the shade being given to Brodie is rich considering he had NO FORWARD CRAFT before we recruited him. Goodwin and co thought Gawn was ready for his next and finals phase of his career but he wasn’t and maybe never will be - I fear Max will go out of the game in the blink of an eye and a turn of the knee and not gracefully from a forward pocket years later…

Ok clearly you don't rate him Against the Blues He had more disposals and less game time than the following. McVee Fritta Bowey Jordon Smith Chandler TMac He chases hard, can tackle and when he gets the ball he is creative and does hit targets consistently. If you don't think that's correct, I'd suggest you don't watch too many games. I'd be sending Chandler packing well before Spargo - Chandler did SFA during that game and the same can be said of Jordon. You find out a lot about individual players when it really matters (finals)

8 seasons. Drafted end of 2015. Makes it even more damning that a player has only just made it to 70 games after 8 seasons on a list as he’s constantly injured. He’s also below average when he does get on the park, and at one stage mid year had lost more one on one contests than any other defender in the league. He’s not athletically gifted either. He’s worth a third rounder. He’s basically a less durable and worse version of Tomlinson. It’s mind blowing he could get them first round compo or that any team is willing to pay him more than 200-300k.

Outside of Reid, he’s the other player I would spend chips to move up for. What Duursma does well translates directly to where we are deficient forward of centre.

That we didn’t have Bont on the radar at that pick (and likely would have selected Billings had we held the pick) are the bits that rankle. That said, Salo was excellent in our premiership year and should have been AA. Has not reached those heights since (injury seems to have played havoc with his form), but was crucial for us on GF day.

Excellent appointment by the Tigers. Wish him nothing but the best. A great servant of the Demons.

I still don't think Blaithin got enough credit for locking down a position in the premiership team in her first season of the sport. We heard a lot about the cross coders in the early seasons, but considering the development of the league since then, her story is more impressive!

He had a bit of a up and down year, but its also his first year of consistent senior football. So perhaps a dip understandable. In 2019 he played in the last game of the season and was a tackling beast that game. In 2020 he was consigned to the VFL/COVID In 2021 he was sub for 5 games making it onto the ground once. In 2022 he was sub 4 times making it onto the ground 3 times. So quite a jump playing 23 games this season, plenty to build on. 3rd at the club for goal assists, 5th at the club for goals, 9th for tackles etc. Fully agree he dipped a little at times but also hard to judge the forwards when the forward line rotated as much as it did (due to injuries or what not), a lack of cohesion didn't help. I like both Spargo and Chandler, yes they have things to work on don't really want to fob either of them off But as stated above, who knows what the greater plan is for drafts/trading etc.

Would not have enjoyed his last game. The way the VFL competition is run is farcical and an insult to players like Munro who give their heart and soul every week of the season that’s not interrupted by yet another bye or the withdrawal of half of the team’s best players because of fixturing issues created from above.

Bloke will be a absolute weapon in country footy.

Great reward! Good luck Yze

We should go after Luke Jackson from Freo, he looked good and in the right age bracket to replace max in a coupla years. Our pick 5 should get it done.

...and she's been great this season so far.

Newsflash, they do an internal review every single year. Or do you think they've packed their bags and gone off to Bali? So little credit being given to a club that has finished top 4 for three years running, and won a flag just two years ago.

Spargo to hawks according to sen hope not

So much unfounded speculation and nonsense in this thread. Grundy wasn’t selected in our finals sides because his partnership with Gawn DID NOT WORK and because Grundy had little to NO FORWARD CRAFT. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it than that. You can pot the non-activation of Schache in the second half or the non-selection of Hibberd as the sub all you like, no problem. But please don’t revise history and pretend Grundy and Gawn was anything more than a spectacular failure during the regular season. Goodwin didn’t banish Grundy to Casey for no reason. The FD rolled the dice 🎲 on ‘Gawndy’ in 2023 and it didn’t work. Okay, it happens. We lost out on that gamble for one season and can now move the player on to Sydney who will likely take on his full contract and we’ll get a half decent draft pick back from them. Time to move on. Also, don’t feel too sorry for Brodie, the bloke is making close to a million shekels a year to tap and kick an inflated ball of pigskin around a mowed field of grass. He’ll be fine. He’ll survive.

We'll be back after the Grand Final for our annual Season Review show. I'll post a thread in a few weeks to advise of the format and open the floor up to questions and comments. Then after the trade and draft period I will see if I can get Jason Taylor back on the podcast to chat about our trade and draft picks. Thank you to all the Demonlanders who provided content for us in the form of your questions and comments. We really appreciate it. The best way you can help the Podcast out is by providing us with a 5 Star Review on Apple Podcasts. Bring on 2024.

Your questions and comments form a large part of our podcast. So thanks to these posters this week that posted questions/comments. @Supreme_Demon @Demonised @danielE288 @rpfc @DemonWA @Webber @At the break of Gawn @monoccular @Clintosaurus @Doug Reemer @BDA @layzie @Gunna’s @Great Northern Summer @deespicable me @Pipefitter @Demons Rule @buck_nekkid @Dr. Gonzo @everythingsablur @Roost it far @Demonsone @Hawny for Gawny @spirit of norm smith @Wodjathefirst @nedleg @Super Sub Schache @Jibroni @deanox @whatwhat say what @ElDiablo14 @John Demonic @Bates Mate @OhMyDees @Garbo @58er @D4Life Don't forget to leave us a 5 Star Review on Apple Podcasts and write a review and we'll read it out on the show. And also if you have an account on YouTube we'd love it if you can Like our videos and Subscribe to our Channel Demonland YouTube Channel

Without any inside knowledge, the selection of Schache over Grundy was truly bizarre. That he was unused made it even more bewildering. I fully appreciate revealing the full explanation may not have been helpful on the day, albeit announced only 1 hour before the match. Also understand an emotional post match press conference may not have been wise. However, like it or not, this will continually be raised when our finals exit and the new club for Grundy is announced. If Grundy's head was elsewhere and the club felt this, then as disappointing as this would be, most could accept that. Hopefully, the club and player are still on good enough terms to talk this through and have an agreed and amicable exit strategy. As it sits, fingers will continually be pointed which is not fair on either party.

I'm delighted to see that Bannan's injury is not too serious. It looked nasty when it happened. Perhaps Aimee will replace her if she isn't fit in time for this game.

Loved the passion and effort Moose brought to Casey. Will be missed, big loss for Casey. Wish him well at Cora Lynn.

Congratulations Adem Yze you came to us when we needed you most and you have received your reward, good luck at the Tiges but not against us.❤️💙

Let’s stay on topics folks and please refrain from personal attacks.

As well as her pace Blaithin has a serious right leg on her, particularly for a cross coder. Gets good distance and is pretty accurate. I struggle to think of a better ball user from those imported from other sports

I’m thrilled for Adem, and his appointment to Richmond will force a change to our coaching panel, which won’t necessarily be a bad thing.

I'm happy for Ooze but not emotionally ready for this picture 😂😭

Official. Posted on MFC socials. Best of luck to Yze! He’ll always be a demon. Been trying for years to take the next step and now he’s senior coach of one of the biggest clubs in the land. Now we’ll need a new midfield coach. Timing is right for both him and us.

Great career move for him. Well done Ooze and good luck at the Tiges, except against us! Thanks for helping to crack our first silverware for some time!

Caroline Wilson reporting Yze has the Richmond job

Agreed. Gawn did not hold up his end of the bargain. It also did not help that he got injured early, was slow to get back to full fitness, and when he played forward it was wet and windy. I actually thought he impacted the contest up forward against Carlton, but his goal kicking is an abomination. He is just not a forward. Neither is Grundy. Our desperate need to get a tall forward working, thanks to injuries to Tmac, BB and then Petty and then Melksham, meant that we tried to force a square peg into a round hole. It did not work, and having a million dollar bench player who can't do much else but ruck, is a luxury we cannot afford. Grundy can't play forward, but he also can't play behind the ball or take a contested mark like Gawn. Which means he can only do one thing, and that is be a first choice ruck. But is he as good a first choice ruck as Gawn? No he is not. Having said all that, the reality is that Gawn is 32 next season. He has had a long history of knee issues. He cannot go on forever, and the irony is that if Grundy did not choose to leave, he would probably end up getting a lot more game time next year.

Why don't you just enlighten us?

If a review is a systematic evaluation of what is working and what is deficient, with input from all sources and 'ranks', then, yeah. Ideally that should be a near-continuous process but it is difficult to maintain under sustained operational pressure. It is certainly something which should always be given a solid chunk of resources. Consultation and continuous reform is something that has to be kept ahead of the need. If your efforts to invite and seek out opinions get too far behind the pace of people forming opinions, they're going to feel a need to start expressing them in less constructive ways.

Why? The guy is as smart if not smarter than anyone in the room when it comes to football analysis.

Not to mention reduced his trade value significantly. Who would want to bring in a player who cracks it and doesn't want to play in a final to help his side win?

I listened yesterday morning. I'm rarely able to listen live on Mon night and I didn't see that it was Tuesday so I assumed I was late to the party so that's probably the best thing that's happened to me in these last two weeks. Excellent show guys, I think a lot of our questions were laced with some chili due to the mood we were in but you guys dealt with them exceptionally well. You struck the balance between positivity and complete despair well too and I think a lot of people would have found this a good listen and easy to relate. The 87 prelim feeling was a great comparison which I hadn't thought of, mainly because I was very young at the time. For some reason the reference point I compare this feeling to the most is the end of 2017 when we missed finals. Different scenarios of course but if then there's so many questions, what ifs and promises of being so close but for whatever reason just fluffing it. Binman nails it when he talks about the need for elite or at least very good field kicking skill. The main catchcry is for a KPF which we do need but I’m not convinced it’s all we need. One or two elite kicks of the footy through the middle would open up more possibilities when it comes to moving the ball through there. Another thing Binman noted which I’ve been too annoyed to realise is that most teams are playing the forward half pressure game in these finals. So while I still wonder if the gamestyle is giving us the best chance with the players we have, I do see that this is still a proven method in finals. The difference is that when the forward 50 isn’t open, the Pies, the Lions and Giants have that bit more skill and are able to thread a few more passes into 50 than we are. That and we need to kick a lot straighter. Andy also brought up something that I’ve never heard one person in the media, commentary or expert opinions say. How is a player considered an A-grader if they aren’t an elite or at least very good kick? This to me is a requirement of an A-grader, if you are excellent at winning the ball or make great decisions but have Simon Godfrey level kicking then you are B-grade at best along with names like Parrish, Libba, Mcrae, Steele etc. Great stuff, I really need to stop thinking about it for a bit. Both of these games I've felt progressively worse as the week has gone on for some reason. Thanks anyway though guys.

Blaithin has been absolutely fantastic with her run and carry....and Aimee is supposed to be better! Wow!

Interesting, roos might not get pick 3 after all.

A fitting week to make her debut following the passing of RDB, who I’m sure would be pleased to see his masterstroke still reaping rewards for the Dees after all this time. The fact she’s playing seniors so quickly suggests good things - it’s not like we’re scratching around needing to play the kids.

Re set shot kicking, before every match some of us are in our position directly behind the goals for two hours before game time. We watch the warmups and on most occasions we see our players nail shot after shot, from every angle and from various distances, only to see the same players during the match miss what should be easy shots on goal. Clearly this speaks to the psychological aspect of lining up for goal.