Bang Bang Bang

One of the best Demons players I’ve ever seen. 2020-2022 May was an absolute colossus and I don’t think 2021 happens without him. But the time has come, and that’s not even factoring in the off field stuff. I was in favour of it at the time but signing him up for 2026 before a game was played aged like milk.

Really impressed with how he spoke today. It will be harder to impress the fan base once the losses start, and it will be hard to implement a game plan that focuses on ball movement when you have Viney, Petracca and Oliver putting the ball inside 50, but it sounds like he knows exactly what he wants tactically and also has an element of that Sam Mitchell, Craig McCrae style new age style of coaching to go with it. I liked Goody but a fresh voice is exactly what this club needs, and I’m really buying it.

Shocked by this. Thought Bucks was a monty or we’d go for the fresh style of James Kelly. Thought the announcement would be next week. Truly shocked, kudos to the club for the tight lips they kept. Don’t know too much about King, I remember he was an amazing player who once kicked Jeff White in the head, and has spent years holding whiteboards up in huddles. I wonder what swayed the board to pick him ahead of Bucks? What’s his vision? I hope whatever magic he spun that he can persuade Trac, Clarry and McVee with it too.

He’d be looking at 10 straight blazers if he didn’t tear his hammy off the bone in ‘17 and if we didn’t try the horrendous Gawndy experiment in ‘23 (he still nearly made it that year too). Wouldn’t surprise me if he gets to 10 for real. King!

Trac turns 30 next year. History and science would say his best days are behind him but he should still have 2-3 properly good years left in him, and 4-5 years left total. Twomey puts his worth at a pick 10-15. Let’s say that’s accurate. It will get pushed out 5 picks or so by the time free agent compo and bids come in. So let’s just be broad and say we would get a pick around 12-20. Let’s take a look at some of our picks in that range in the Jason Taylor era. Jake Bowey, Bailey Laurie, JVR, Matt Jefferson, Koltyn Tholstrup How many of those guys would be worth trading Trac for? I count 1. An ageing, uninvested, inaccurate Christian Petracca is still better option than 80% of those guys listed. Worth noting too that it’s a weak draft. Players of Linday’s caliber aren’t there at 11 every year. Keep Trac. Draft picks are overrated. Glorified lottery tickets!

I think he’s good enough to go around for one more year but surely he’ll be heavily managed and no longer taking the oppo’s best forward. He may even not get a game at certain stages. He’s barely best 22 now and will go further south after a long summer on the track. That’s not a dig at him either, being 34 isn’t what it used to be but sixteen seasons as a key back is a pretty significant innings no matter how you look at it. It staggers me that other clubs might be interested. He’s cooked.

How can the club be desperate for him to go when we don’t even have a coach? Like, surely Bucks will have an opinion either way, and that opinion would hold some weight. Maybe Ken Hinkley thinks Clarry can get back to his best, maybe Danny Daly thinks his issues outweigh any pros. Maybe, ok you get the picture.

1 touch and It was dead set the worst handball you’ll ever see too. The guy sucks. Sorry but he does. One of the great mysteries how he keeps getting games.

That entire game was more predictable than a Jason Statham movie. Would have loved to [censored] with Collingwood’s season but we all knew that was never going to happen. Whatever. But Bucks has his work cut out - a lot of our players have absolutely no composure when it matters. Langford is one player though who has it in spades. I could name a ton of things I liked, but keeping the ball in at the end in the back half and gaining significant territory was so … I dunno, cool? And not what I’m used to seeing from someone wearing red and blue cloth. Then there was that 50m goal off a step. Geez he’s good, hope he doesn’t [censored] the bed Windsor style next year because he could be our best player very soon. KEEP CLARRY AT ALL COSTS. The last month or so he’s clearly getting back to, not his A grade best, but something not too far off. Please don’t ship him off to Geelong for a second rounder. Trac I’m not quite as invested in but if he wants to buy in to the club, then I’m happy for him to stay too. Congratulations to Max Gawn on 8 blazers. Congratulations to Kosi on (likely) making the squad. Worst season since 2019 but we’ll be back! Go Dees.

I would envisage all those players bar McVee being there next year. May would be a chance to retire, but he’s already signed for ‘26. Maybe TMac?

Sharp retains his spot, just wow.

Stop bringing Sharp back please.

His entire footy story doesn’t make any sense to me. Looks really really good. What’s the catch?

Looks like he was trying to hit it to Viney. Terrible idea to be honest.

One of the best games of the season, a lot to like, but we can’t be happy either. Would love an analysis on our close games from 2024-2025, I feel like we never win them. Never. I really enjoyed Fritsch, Melksham, Langford and others kicking snags and reviving the crowd up, was really fun to this game without too much pressure on the result.

Defence has held up well. Adams doesn’t look amazing but has done a couple of nice things. Naughton and Darcy have three goals but none from actually impacting in the air. TMac should play next year. I was actually thinking when Rivers hit up JVR on the lead that I haven’t seen that from us in so long, but it’s been more of the same since then. Not a huge fan of Melksham giving the young guy a spray, but can definitely empathize with him. Should be way further behind TBH and that non deliberate on Busslinger is low key one of the worst decisions I’ve seen. You were right there!

Blind Freddy can see that it’s going to be Bucks now. I know the bloke is arrogant but there’s not a chance he’s sourcing out assistant coaches without clear knowledge of where he stands in the queue. Some people on here are going to hate him right off the bat but I think this is the right choice, especially with Horse out. An untried assistant would be great if we nailed it but is just too risky (it was 14 years ago but I haven’t forgot the Mark Neeld hype), and Adam Simpson is just too uninspiring, in fact keeping Goody would have been preferable to that!

These ex-coaches who all have big egos. Remember Ross Lyon turned down the Blues because he had to go through a process! I feel like Horse and Simpson’s comments show they might be interested in the job, but they don’t want to embarrass themselves if they miss out. So they are deliberately sitting on the fence. What surprises me is how eager Buckley was and it leads me to think he may have been headhunted for the position. Why else would he be so interested on the public record? Not that anyone cares but my personal preferences would be 1. Longmire, 2. Buckley 3. Untried assistant Honestly if we got Horse and became a good H&A side who often choked in Grand Finals but still won one, then that would be fine by me and better than 100% of my life as a Demons fan previously (including the Goodwin era). Not as sold on Bucks but his reckon is pretty good and the aura he’d bring would be enormous.

Logic: The St Kilda game was always going to be hard to come back from. The timing is a little strange, but if anything it came 7 days too late. Doing it this early gives us the jump on Carlton who are in a nearly identical position to us. Emotions: Still really sad news. Goody is a Demons legend for life. Absolutely no question. Breaking the drought on 25/9/21 with THE best football ever seen by any team ever. Doesn’t get much more satisfying than that. The 2017-2020 era was fun at times too. Shame it hasn’t worked out and the right decision was made, forever grateful to him.

We must have kicked more against the Giants in 2013 when Michael Evans went bananas.

First half was pox but the team did what they had to do in the second half. Can’t whinge about 83 points. If Langford can become more of an aerial threat (not seeing it yet) then he could become a Top 5 player in the comp. He’s going to be a gun either way, in fact he already is. Was also not expecting Culley to look that good! And of course who would have thought playing Windsor in the guts would bring out the best in him. Clarry’s best game of the year too. We can’t be expected to win a game from year so it will be interesting if Goody has done enough to save his job. I still say no, but wouldn’t surprise me if it goes the other way.

Pretty much going to script so far. A 4 goal win over this team will do absolutely nothing to benefit the club going forward. Salem and Gawn have been great. That’s about it. Kosi doesn’t seem interested, Trac looks petrified of contact, and Fritsch is playing like a millionaire. Sparrow needs to go to Specsavers. I want a 10 goal win or a loss. This [censored] serves no purpose.

If there was a ladder for “Dumb [censored] 50m penalties that have led to goals” we’d surely be streets ahead of any other team this year.

You can see how starved of success that mob has been with stuff like this. Don’t get me wrong, it was an epic comeback and I’d be going bonkers too for a while, maybe right through to Tuesday, but they’re carrying on now as much as we did in 2021! At the end of the day it was just an H&A game guys and a dead rubber at that.

Bringing back Sharp ought to do the trick! Why didn’t Goody think of that earlier…