D4Life

Jackson Rivers Sparrow Kozzie Jordan Petty all played under 30 games, form will vary and don’t have multiple seasons and pre-seasons into their bodies. Looking at forward line, really seem to be missing a Hawkins, Cameron, Lynch, Naughton or Dixon type. Teams that win grand finals usually have some very hard or outright dirty players. Hawks think Lewis/Mitchell/Hodge (Clarkson) Tigers Nankervis/Cotchin and most of the team are dirty (Hardwick coached taught by Sheedy). Looking at these three categories, ins and outs for me: In: VDB hard as nails, skills ordinary, but some players make teammates walk taller, e.g. Giants are a much better team when Mumford plays. In: BBB give him 4 -5 weeks, at least he kicks straight, will earn some frees, take some heat of TMac & Fritsch, will bring ball down for crumbers. At least with a 4-5 game stint it’s enough of a crack to know. In: Melksham drives me nuts but has the skills for inside 50 connections, good kick for goal, sounds like had a crack in twos last week, and 5 tackles last night. Out: Kozzie lost his zip/sparkle give him two weeks out one off one at Casey Out: Sparrow let him keep building this year, Casey games won’t hurt him. Out: Viney running up and down on the spot, a week out or at Casey. He just needs to build over the next 3-4 weeks. For all the arm flapping and end of the world types that thrive when the Demons lose, we are close, we’re only three straight kicks off 14-1. But to win finals and a GF, it feels like we must have: - extra tall in forward line - extreme hardness in a VDB ( I still can’t believe I’m selecting him, as skills are big ordinary) - not too many youngsters and freshen up ones who can make a diffference, e.g. Kossi - kick straighter, that’s why I’d have BBB & Melksham in team.

Totally agree: - provides target - contesting marks will help with spills for smalls - TMac gets number 2 defender & Fritsch #3 - will kick straight - good at earning frees

Double the effort in goal kicking practice. 7.13! 10.10 we win irrespective of how we played and no matter what umpires do! Other fix to goal kicking problems bring in BBB, and he will certainly help!

Maggots maggots maggots

Getting screwed by the maggots & bad kicking

Tackle by the legs is okay!!

Umpires inconsistent, absolutely hopeless!

Aside from obviously just wanting a win, can we kick straighter, a 14.8 or 15.10 would be terrific vs the usual 9.14! It means we keep Giants to 10.7 and have a comfortable 4-5 goal win. Kudos to Binman and others for your strategic analysis that I really enjoy, but FFS can the Dees just start kicking more goals than points, and that will be about the greatest strategic improvement we can make in the run home! Think about it, 2 more goals rather than points per round and we have 140 more points onto our percentage, so would be sitting at 148%, have another win (Crows) so would be 13-1. My wish is for Demons to kick straighter!!!!! Plus generally keep winning and win the flag(Tokyo Olympics bringing nice symmetry with 64)!

Spot on! Demons missed 6 shots last week they should be kicking. Problem is that it seems to happen nearly every week. I hope we have upped the anti on practicing goalkicking! Hawkins and Cameron both didn’t look like missing when they were kicking for goal. Amongst worst nightmares is losing a final to Geelong seeing Demons kick 8.15 and cats kicking 10.4! It’s also another reason I would like to see BBB in the team.

I’d rather see a win tonight and a Demons premiership cup in September!

How often do you read from AFL players, had a great pre season and was able to build my season strong performance off preseason. Weideman and BBB had significant disruptions to their preseasons, and both are struggling. Agree with others Weideman confidence shot and it seems BBB not fully fit. Weid hopefully better next year after full preseason, and BBB comes good after the bye, following his 6 week mini preseason. As TMac is proving a great preseason focussed on speed, agility, endurance and strength will help both Weid & BBB for next year.

What percentage would you have given us for being 11-2?

While dropping Weid is the right thing to do, there are a few things worth remembering: - his preseason was heavily interrupted - last year he put in half a dozen really solid games working in conjunction with Jackson in the forward line, if he had of improved off the back of that batch of games, he’d hold his place this year - TMac was poor 2019& 2020, same as Harmes, so I wouldn’t write off Weideman, he needs a very good preseason then let’s see what he can do in 2022!

AFL should be hammered for letting this happen: - Mummy & Nankervis thugs, opponent beats me oh I’ll hit him in the head - if DeGoey got sent off for a quarter would have a better effect (replay should be used on this type of crap)

Umpire 22 isn’t up to standard, but seems to get game after game. A few shocking decisions, but at the end of the day, three things stood out to me: - Demons just didn’t run, incredibly flat - Our disposal was poor - A few selfish actions cost us goals When you look at how poorly we played, hard to believe we were within two goals with two minutes to go!

Agree, as a few others have previously posted. Demons looked flat and didn’t run. If we’re not willing to run we won’t win many games! If we run we are very hard to beat!

No run nails it, equates to lack of effort! Very disappointing, but still at 11-2. Weideman is a liability at present, hope he can turn things around, but we can’t keep picking him! Limited preseason often bites!

Kossie to kick nine after half time wearing the cape!

I went to VicPark once, behind a happy family, little nugget running down to the fence, Dad telling wife to shut up or he’d smash her, in between trying to pee into his empty cans, lovely atmosphere!

Totally agree, just let them argue with Port supporters about whose right it is to wear the prison bar jumpers, so they can feel at home. No need to call them Bogans or criminals!

Having suffered through 57 years of agony watching the Demons and hoping for our miracle run in 87 to keep going, then in 90 hoping we might have snuck a flag because no team stood out in home & away, then 99 prelim loss to North going close, and either 2004/2005 when we were top with 4-5 games to go and came to a grinding halt, this team is different: - we have star firepower (Max, Clarry, Trac, May, Lever, Salem, Langdon, TMac reborn) the first three are elite! - team first football exemplified by Brayshaw, Viney, Spargo, Jordan, ANB, Hibberd, Harmes, Sparrow - youth & excitement in Pickett, Rivers, Jackson & Petty - class from Fritsch, Even Melksham who is doing his role - Weideman competes just needs to believe, grab those marks and kick straight - very solid defensive unit, protected with team defence (just need to clean up on those roving goals from forward stoppages) - we fight back in games, think Tigers & last night, just fantastic - we RUN and RUN and RUN and RUN and tackle, MFC have never ever done this before! - we can improve and will as the belief in this team continues to build - We can win FLAG, fingers crossed for just a bit of Lady Luck! - As my kids would say, last night was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weid has to impact when he gets it, because he doesn’t get it often!

I really enjoy your analysis and you have really added to the terrific podcast! Hoping you are spot on tonight, slightly concerned about Langdon missing and still waiting on either Weideman tonight or BBrown to click in the forward half, as neither have made our forward half better with their presence! As always go Dees, am hoping they start same as last week against Dogs, happy to take any winning margin!!

Max gets zero protection from the umpires, and gets targeted every week by opposition. His impact is huge, covers a lot of ground, he is just super Max!!

Good call, would like to see Lockhart get a run, and love Rivers acceleration, it would be great going into forward half.