Wiseblood

This is a needless post. I've got no problem with anybody still 'loving' Jack Watts - they are well within their rights to do so. Seeing Watts dropped is not an opportunity to sink the boots in, but a chance to reflect on the trade and understand that for us it was the right decision going forward. Nothing more than that.

All I get from this is, as you say, the vindication that the club made the right decision. Even in a new environment, in a new state, he is still doing the same things that frustrated us for so many years. There have been flashes of brilliance but too much of the inconsistency that has plagued his career. It also means he may not be playing the following Friday night against us.

The bloke can play though, and has shown it at this level. So what's wrong? Dew doesn't like him? Has he already told them he wants out? Not putting in enough at training? You would want to know more about it, but he isn't languishing in the reserves because he doesn't have the ability to contribute. It's something else.

It's a fair point, BD. When you think about it, how many new senior coaches come in and have instant success? Chris Scott is the exception to the rule as he inherited an unbelievable list, as is John Longmire, but coaches like Buckley, Hardwick, Hinkley, Richardson, Bolton etc have taken, and are still taking in some cases, time to build their knowledge, list and ability to take on the best coaches in the game. Goodwin has inherited a very good list, but like any second year coach, he is still learning the caper. He's been beaten this season by 4 very experienced coaches - Clarkson, Scott, Hardwick and now Buckley. I don't think that's just coincidence. He will no doubt be learning from these experiences and will become a better coach for it.

Spargo is going to be a ripper. As a kid he still fades in and out of games, which is understandable. but his second term was fantastic and he was one of the players to get us back into the game. Unless they really feel he needs a rest he has given no reason for us to drop him.

As much as I hate Collingwood, it would be a little hypocritical to decide we want the game with someone else after they happily allowed us to make it our home game each year so we got the money from the gate. There is absolutely no reason why the game needs to be changed now, and I don't mind it rotating as a home game as long as we get another good fixture somewhere else during the year (eg. a few Friday night fixtures).

From all reports he's been doing enough of that already this year. The one thing Trac has still been terrific at, even during a little bit of a form slump, is his ability to keep his feet. He is really adept at picking up the footy and shrugging tackles without going to ground easily. The next thing he needs to do is take his time - often he'll find the ball, break a tackle and almost panic with it by hitting a handpass that's ill directed or just a quick, 30 metre kick out of a pack. Once he learns to stay calm and make the right decision he'll be a real weapon at stoppages.

Not to mention rolling the Crows in Adelaide minus Hogan and Gawn and rolling the Eagles in Perth. Demon supporter memory can be painfully shallow at the best of times.

If I'd added a question about JW, would that have inspired you to contribute more? I jest of course...

Not good timing for him as you would assume he may have been a chance for a call up over the next few weeks. Hopefully he's out for just the month rather than six weeks.

Cheers for asking! I thought I'd let others put their thoughts forward before I did the same! What do you rate our performance out of 10 to this point? Why? I'd give us about a 7.5 at the moment, almost an 8. It would be around an 8.5 if not for the disappointing loss yesterday. To be 8-4 is a great position to be in and we've played some excellent football. In the past we have struggled to put sides at our level or below a way and we've improved greatly in this area. Our next task is to bridge the gap with those sides that play quicker, higher pressured football. Which player has impressed you the most? Jesse Hogan. I could easily have gone with Tom McDonald, Angus Brayshaw or Clayton Oliver, but apart from an off day against the Pies, Jesse has been terrific. Has 30 goals playing both deep forward and as a midfielder and has improved out of sight after a tough 2017. Which draftee has made the biggest impact? Has to be Fritsch. Spargo has been awesome as well, and has far exceeded my expectations, but Fritsch has been consistently good for longer. What has been our best win to date? It sounds strange but the Carlton win is our best to date. I know they stink, but to smash them by a record 109 points at the G was amazing to watch. It might help that I absolutely detest the Blues and love seeing them struggle, but everything about that win was awesome. Crows a close second. Which player(s) needs to improve in the second half of the year? Petracca is the first that comes to mind. I love the bloke but he needs to do more, and he has struggled since his finger injury. Does a few good things a game but is yet to impose himself on a game this season. Hibberd could also improve, but I think his role has changed slightly. What has been our most disappointing performance? Has to be the Hawks game, although yesterday wasn't great either. We made a super start against the Hawks and then got smashed for the rest of the game. Where do you see us finishing? Give a win/loss and finishing position I see us finishing in 6th position with 14 wins and 8 losses. I think we can win at least 3 of our next 4 before snagging a few in the final rounds to secure our place.

Afternoon fellow Demonlanders! With the bye well and truly upon us, and a poor performance in our back pocket alongside 6 rippers, it's time to reflect on where we are at. Here are some questions that I thought might be worth answering and I'd be interested to see what people think. Try and look at the season as a whole - it would be easy to let yesterday cloud our judgement, or even the six games before it, so take a deep breath and look at the whole 12 rounds so far. Here are the questions to answer: What do you rate our performance out of 10 to this point? Why? Which player has impressed you the most? Which draftee has made the biggest impact? What has been our best win to date? Which player(s) needs to improve in the second half of the year? What has been our most disappointing performance? Where do you see us finishing? Give a win/loss and finishing position Remember - it's your opinion, so knock yourself out. Fancy us to still finish Top 2? Reckon we'll fall at the last hurdle again? Let us know. Positive or negative I think it's a good time to reflect on the year so far, so if you have the time to answer the questions I think it would be great to see what everybody thinks. Enjoy!

Oh yay, they only lost one game. My point is still more than valid.

I'd subscribe more to the 'we haven't beaten anyone' brigade if we hadn't smashed these teams off the park. If they were run of the mill, poorly skilled and hard to watch wins then I'd be in that camp. But we did what good sides do - we won, and won very well. That's the sign of a good side. We will have blips along the way, but no team goes through a season without a few losses.

There is still far too much water to go under the bridge in terms of the season. Injuries, form slumps etc. will all play a factor. I can't see North winning 15 games either. I still think 13 will be enough to get us in. We have a chance after the bye to win 4 in a row (I think we can roll Port) and be 12-4 going in to the final 6 rounds.

BPP predicting us to miss the finals? Get outta town!

It shouldn't, and I didn't suggest that he made a 7 goal difference. It was more that you could see we went back to our previous structures when Lever was still settling in to the backline, and it looked like we had that problem without him yesterday. It certainly would have made us a better side with him there, but not a 7 goal difference. I'd like to believe though that our structures would have been better which would have kept us in the game longer, giving us more of a sniff in the final term. But that's assumption more than anything.

Another 'flip-flop'. One minute we're flag favourites, the next minute we are absolute poo after one loss against quality opposition. There's never any in between. I've always thought we're a solid, 5-8 finals side and nothing about that has changed over the course of the season. We are still learning to deal with immense pressure from sides, but we're also doing what we've always wanted - consistently smash sides below us and win the games we're supposed to win. I've never thought we were flag favourites and we're far from a terrible side. We are a good side that needs to continue to work hard at taking the next step and becoming great. It doesn't happen overnight.

There's nothing 'apparently' about it. His leadership at the club, from what I've heard, has been excellent since the day he arrived. He's never been quick so why we're all up in arms about him being slow is baffling. He hits way way way more targets than he misses (and plenty at our club are prone to horrible turnovers) and his discipline this season has been good. DS has just decided yesterday that he needs someone to sink the boots into. Lewis seems to be his man. He's done this before though where he huffs and puffs and stomps his feet (Tom McDonald) and has been made to look silly, so there's no reason why it won't happen again.

Woke up this morning and nothing has changed. We're 8-4, in the eight and well placed to achieve what we all wanted from this year - finals. I can't ask too much more than that at this stage. We can now have a short break, recharge the batteries and come out firing next Friday night. I'm backing them in to respond in the best possible way.

Don't argue it. Just be thankful that Tom McDonald hadn't had enough of us.

Bigger things to talk about though, like: How come your 'SemenDemon' moniker lasted barely an hour?

I'd go for either Weid or Tim Smith. Not fussed who it is. But I think we've seen all we need to with Pedersen. His time as an AFL player is pretty much done if today is anything to go by.

I'm not against rewarding form, but Pedersen was rewarded for it and we all saw how he went. It's how he's gone for a while now, with the odd good game as the anomaly. Either way, my point stands. We won't be making wholesale changes unless we end up with 3 or 4 injuries.

Haven't we? That's funny. I thought we'd smashed 6 teams off the park recently, but there you go. We played nobody. One loss doesn't equal panic stations. It's why Goodwin is in the chair and not one of us. They are slightly more sensible than any supporter after a loss.