titan_uranus

Our half back line will be interesting. No Salem, no Bowey, no Rivers, no Jiath. All feasibly best 23 players who can rotate through there.

Jury's very much still out on St Kilda for mine. Port are not very good this year, having already lost to North and West Coast and with wins against Essendon and Richmond only. Need to see more from St Kilda before considering them a good side.

Yes. Break the competition up into those 6 clubs and the other 12 clubs. Those 6 clubs are 1-13 against the other 12 clubs.

Turner didn't get cited, but Lever did (a fine), for striking Edwards. Is that who you were thinking of?

You are so unbelievably sanctimonious, but you're also hypocritical. So we're all supposed to expect losses, however bad, to however bad of an opponent, and we're all supposed to expect inconsistency, no matter how wildly good or bad it is. And yet your first post on this postgame thread was: "Doesn't augur well"? I thought we were supposed to expect inconsistency? And then saying you "hate to say it" but Essendon's kids looked better than ours? The same kids who looked awful when they were 0-4, whilst ours helped us beat Gold Coast (plus St Kilda and Carlton)? You're so quick to insult anyone who is disappointed by the result and yet after one bad game from our kids, and one good game from some of Essendon's, you're now arguing that their kids are better than ours?

If you assume that Richmond, Essendon, West Coast, Carlton, Port Adelaide and North Melbourne are all going to be bottom 6-ish sides, then through the first 5 weeks, we are the only club. to have lost a game to those 6 clubs, other than those 6 clubs themselves.

So Rivers was fit enough to play this game? What the [censored] is going on with him? Dropped, but apparently injured, but not on the injury list, but spoken of as injured, but then played a VFL scratch match.

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.