titan_uranus

The pressure stats are published by @WheeloRatings in the Stats File thread every week.

Well we are 3-0 in Sunday 3.15pm games at the MCG this year...

PS: @Adam The God see what I meant earlier this week when I said losing today would undo our efforts vs Gold Coast? On the field we took a massive step backwards. Off the field, how many do you think we'll get to the Brisbane game next week off the back of that?

Heath or Kentfield for TMac. Rivers or AMW for Salem. If Melksham is injured, I expect Laurie to get that spot back, although personally I'd go with pretty much anyone else (shame Cross is injured). Jeffo another option but I think we're already too tall, so I'd only be considering him if we decide to drop JVR. If Rivers is fit, we could bring AMW in for Salem and then Rivers in for, say, Culley, Windsor, Langford or Lindsay, if we feel we need to get one of them to find some form at VFL level for a bit.

I knew going into this season that we were going to have bad games. I accept that we are going to have bad games, and we'll have more before the season's done. But I can't accept losing by 45 points to the worst side in the competition on a 17-game losing streak. A side who had only won 4 out of 16 quarters before today. Not when just six days ago we played finals-quality football against a flag-contending side. So whilst I can stomach losing, and 3-2 after Round 5 exceeds most Demonlanders' pre-season expectations of where we'd be at this stage, today has to be seen for what it really was - a stinking failure, not just a standard bump in the road. We won't compete with probably any of the 17 other sides if we can't/don't run. King mentioned in the presser that we were "lethargic", and that we have to learn to be "unconditionally ruthless, selfless and connected" (his buzzwords). I'm guessing he's seen a bunch of our players who just didn't work hard enough. I'd be surprised if we don't drop a few. The other thing was him acknowledging the "hunter v hunted" mindset issue. No doubt in my mind he thinks we struggled dealing with the pressure of expectation. Not exactly surprising, as this group of leaders has been struggling with expectation for years. But I appreciate that he raised it.

Different situations though. 2018 was our first finals campaign in 12 years and our opponents were Geelong and Hawthorn. The excitement for us fans that year is probably incapable of being replicated, even this year. 2022 was the year after we’d won the flag, still some tentative COVID restriction hangovers, and interstate opponents.

If the AFL listened to fans we wouldn’t have a wildcard round.

I wonder how the Demonland wildcard supporters will feel if we somehow finish 7th or 8th this year (which, FWIW, I strongly doubt will occur).

If this is true…[censored] me and [censored] the AFL. We’re so commercialised that we’re not only going to deprive 7 and 8 of being in the finals, and we’re not only going to make them play an extra game just to make more money and because some people can’t go one week without the “content” of AFL matches, but we’re then going to deprive those sides of home ground advantage, again to make more money. 10th will have more losses than wins in the H&A season but if their home state pays the most money, they could be given a home final against 7th. What a [censored] joke.

In Fritsch Out Laurie (omitted)

Nah all three of those were clear cut and get paid every week. Two were GC forwards not coming back to “the 9” when we had the ball on the line in the back pocket, and one was a GC player coming off the mark after standing on it and getting called to stand by the umpire. Hardwick would have been furious with them, surely.

Culley’s not playing forward, he’s playing wing. Whilst I’d like him to get more of the ball, his two-way running is on display and he ends up floating forward when he can to stretch opposition defences.

Gives Gawn the lead overall. 29 votes from a possible 40 is supreme. Bont is second on 28, then Butters on 25 and Daicos 24 (from 3 games though).

I’ll take your word for it, it just surprises me.

Were we favourites v Carlton? They were coming off the (uninspiring) win against Richmond and we’d just been belted by Fremantle? As for the whole “undoing the GC win”, my view is that early season positivity, and wins, is critical to driving long term success on and off field - we need our players to believe and we also need our fans and supporters to get on board. We’re building that now. Losing to a side on a 17-game losing streak and who have won just 4 out of 16 quarters for the season is going to put a dent in those things (like it or not, but you know as much as I do what Demonland is going to look like if we lose). I’m very much accepting of slip ups, bad games and beltings coming our way this year. I fully expected Sunday to have been such a game, and next week v Brisbane is obviously another one to watch. But the opening month of the season changes things a bit, and IMO there is a lot to lose, overall, if we lose this weekend.

Ages don’t show on mobile I don’t think. We have an interesting age profile. 8 players from Sunday are over 30. But then there was not one player aged 27-29. Just two players are 26 (Petty and Chandler), and just one 25 (Sparrow). The other 12 players are 24 and under. So it’s just over half under 24, a third aged over 30, and a tiny amount in the “prime” ages of 25-29.

A really different challenge this week. First game for the season where we’ll be favourites. How will we deal with the pressure of expectation? Being the hunted, not hunters? It’s a big test IMO. All the gains of yesterday will be undone if we lose to Essendon.

We did though. We were actually pretty good after the disastrous first quarter. Just can’t give Fremantle a 40-point headstart at home IMO we’ve only played two “bad” quarters so far - first vs Freo and first vs Carlton.

Here's one. We have won 11 out of 16 quarters so far. No matter what happens tomorrow, that will put us 2nd in the competition overall, behind Sydney on 12. 4 of the 5 quarters we've lost have been first quarters - have lost every single one of them. But that of course means that from quarter time onwards, we have won 11/12 quarters, with the only loss being the third vs Fremantle where we weren't even that bad, we just got trampled by a flag contender at the top of their game.

Good shout here @Kev . Low possession counts for all three, and Culley didn't touch it all that much after quarter time, but on TV at least I felt like they were constantly presenting in the forward line and getting back on defence. Langord kicked 2 and Culley should have kicked at least 1. I'd still like them to be getting more of the ball but we are the sum of our parts and gut running wings are key.

Presumably the Dogs eased off? Agree with you though. All the gains from today will be undone in an instant if we lose next week. Team-wise, reports are we want to get a look at Kentfield but I'm not sure we want to change our height/forward set up right now. If we do, we'll have to drop one of TMac or Petty, probably the former, but I'm not convinced that's the right call with the way Petty is getting involved as second ruck. Is Rivers fit? If so, he can have a go in Laurie's spot, on the proviso that he runs both ways and lays some tackles.

I missed the game today but have been able to watch the replay. We are playing proper top 8 (let alone top 10) footy. Time will tell if we can keep it up all season, but if we can dominate Gold Coast, with their level of talent (particularly in the midfield), then we should all have hope that we can be better than just a mid-table side. We are combining elite pressure with both a willingness and an ability to move the ball quickly and score. We still get opened up the other way, conceding another 89 points, but today a lot of that was their accuracy (their expected score was 74 - they were nailing their shots). I felt we were on from the start but just missed some early shots (e.g. Culley and Mihocek missing sitters) when they nailed theirs at the other end. Probably never should have been 3 goals down early, but yet again we kept our composure, maintained our belief, and backed ourselves in to turn it around. That also applied when we were 2.7 at one stage but then righted the ship and at one stage were then 12.9. Steele is getting better, which is amazing. But he's not on his own for defensive pressure, with Chandler, Sparrow, Sharp and Windsor all pulling their weight. Petty works in the ruck, which I didn't have on my 2026 bingo card. Anything is better than JVR rucking but getting Petty involved in the middle is working, he is following up at ground level and we're not losing forward structure. It works particularly well when he can follow an opposition tall forward who goes in as a second ruck. The intrigue will come if/when we want to take a look at Kentfield as another tall forward, because we can't afford to get any taller than we are now. Interestingly we reduced the number of players we ran through centre bounce today - just Steele, Kozzie, Windsor and Sparrow. No Tholstrup tag in there, but also no Culley or Langford, continued to be pushed to wings. A tick to King and the FD for that decision though, as whatever focus we had on stoppage worked today. I'm still unconvinced by Laurie, though. To be fair, I was unconvinced by Sharp going into 2026 and as each week goes by I look more and more wrong about that, so I'm prepared to be wrong about Laurie too, but I just don't see it, I'm sorry to say.

6 - Gawn 5 - Steele 4 - Kozzie 3 - Sparrow 2 - Melksham 1 - Sharp

@Lucifers Hero why did I doubt you! Amazing. We are far more the real deal than I had wanted to let myself think.

With Heath, Kentfield, Jeffo and AJ all having good games and the latter three kicking 11 goals between them at Casey today, but with Adams being well beaten, I think we have no choice but to continue to back Petty in as a defender. There’s nothing else on the list in the KPD area, but (untried or not) there’s some KPF depth.