D4Life

This is the year to get on board, Demons raging hot favourites to win the flag, can just see big Max holding up the cup in 2020! Why? After 50 plus years following the Demons, seeing two shocking GF’s in 88 & 2000, how ironic and MFCSS would it be for us to win in a lock out GF! I would still absolutely take it!!

A plus for loyalty. A grade player. Be great to see him get to 300 and play finals in 2020. Will be able to provide value off the bench this season, and would love to see him chase opposition players, as a leader been my greatest frustration with him, a pity when he has done so many things exceptionally well!

Yes perfect delivery into forward line would be great. My initial point was if TMac is struggling give him a run around in the ruck to get him involved in the game, getting a few touches, the wing was also suggested after the initial post. Leaving him stone cold in the forward line was the problem being solved. Forward delivery is another to be solved, lowering the eyes seems the answer often suggested, not just bombing kicks and better leading patterns are others. Getting the ball in faster is perhaps another option, before opposition flood. I’m sure there are other options some astute Demonlanders can provide.

The idea was if TMac is struggling up forward, if he is okay re toes/feet/knees, throw him in the ruck for 15 mins or on the wing for that matter, so he can get his hands on the ball and find some form! Then put back in the forward line, rather than let him struggle!

Assuming TMac foot/toes are okay I would throw him in the ruck occasionally when he is struggling in the forward line. Let him get his hands on the ball a bit, then put him back in the forward line! like the sounds if what we are doing in the practice matches: - Wings fixed with Langdon & Tomlinson, adding run, options & defensive cover. - Harder to score against. Backline standing up better with May / Lever playing, OMac adds structure, Jetta typically beats his man, Lockhart going well, with Salem, Harmes etc. - Small forward options with Pickett, ANB, Spargo & Bedford, medium forward options Fritsch, Melksham & Jones, bit of Petracca, only seemingly soft spot is tall forwards with TMac, Weid, LJ, & Brown ..... if just one of them steps up we’re looking good. - Ruck Max, fit Viney, fit Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw coming good, Harmes, Jones as cover. Bring on round one, Demons looking promising!

First full pre season, possibly in the last 5 years at the Demons, so that will be a huge help. Disposal needs to improve, but when it comes to leadership and capability on field he stands up on the big occasions, finals in 2018, the WC win mentioned earlier in the thread and with broken foot still took Port apart in one quarter in 2017, plus the pressure from his tackling is immense! I can’t believe how much crap he cops on Demonland, carried significant injuries through last 4-5 years! Judge him in 2020 when he gets to complete a season fully fit! Go Jack, bleeds red & blue, and polls incredibly well in Melbourne B&F’s even when injured and missing games. Give him a break Demonlanders!

Point well made, he went backwards last year, but played some very smart football in 2018. Give him some injury free time and see how he goes in 2020. Great to hear the team finished strongly yesterday, and while only a practice match a lot better start than last year. As previously mentioned bring in Max, May, Brayshaw, Fritsch and a Finger’s crossed on an injury free year for Smith, and the team is looking a lot better than last year! Go Demon’s in this even Olympic year!

Hope Jesse’s mental health comes good, he has been dealt an incredibly tough hand, with his Dad and own cancer issues. While it would be great in many regards being paid to do something you love, assuming he loves footy, 24x7 scrutiny on your life would be difficult and I can see how it would impact your mental health! Even though they are incredibly well paid, I think of my own life as a teen and in early 20’s and I definitely wouldn’t have liked the scrutiny being in the AFL, even if the drink cards would have saved me a bucketload of cash. Good luck to him in getting better!

The Demons have so much potential upside this year, we can only hope they deliver: - Better drawer - Better pre season by miles or km’s for youngsters (getting to practice drills with a full team makes a significant difference in connection) - Appears Burgess is driving them to a new level of fitness that is better suited to our style of play, plus greater running endurance, leading to strong 4th quarters, rather than fadeouts - Fingers crossed, seemingly few injuries amongst our top 20 players, then depth looks a whole lot better, totally different team - Hopefully a settled back six of Jetta, May, Lever, Salem, Hibberd, (OMac or other), only Salem didn’t have serious injury issues last year - Oliver, Viney & Brayshaw in the middle, all having full pre seasons relatively injury free, Petracca better tank to spend more time in the middle. Max is max, and Preuss getting fitter as backup! - Langdon speed, ball winning & distance gained, Tomlinson endurance & coverage - Harmes providing flexibility and backup for backline, mids, wingers & even forwards - Forwards with TMac full preseason, Melksham & Weideman the same, starts to look very different, add Fritsch full time in the forward line, Petracca cameos - Then just as bonus, VDB, Smith, Jackson, Rivers, Pickett with hopefully players like ANB, Hunt getting back to their best, and possibly Jones having impact off the bench - Richardson joining as a coach will help improve our game plan, as he so easily picked us apart Maybe as a long long time Demon, I’m overly optimistic, or just thinking eventually things must turn, but it seems we have a massive upside. 2018 showed we could do it, from round 5/6 we played some exhilarating football smashing teams for 6 weeks, then the last 6 matches including two finals wins aside from the horror prelim, we had some terrific wins! The other factor is our star players Max, Clarry, Petracca, Viney, TMac & May are getting into the 24-28 age bracket, aside from Clarry at 22/23, that their bodies are strong enough they know what footy is about and should be ready to roll! Look at when the Tigers broke through, Rance, Martin, Cotchin, & Riewoldt all were over 26yo, look at Eagles as well, the Hawks threepeat, our time is coming Petracca will have a breakout year, so will May being fit and TMac will be closer to 2018 form, and who knows how well Viney will play after having an injury free pre season, his first for many years, even Clarry had the two shoulder ops at end of 2018, will be in better shape 2020 an even year, an Olympic Year, my prediction - a hugely improved year for the Demons! Top 6 maybe even top 4, memberships for family locked in months ago. Go Demons!!!!!!

For $3m over 5 years, who didn’t want to talk to us, and has been a very inconsistent player in his time at Gold Coast! All of a sudden he’s become a star! vs A risk on an injury prone player that they believe with new operation might make, for little cost! If he doesn’t come through, we just pick up another rookie! There is just no comparison between the two players!

After only winning 5 games making finals is a pass Making prelim a good year Winning a prelim a very good year Flag better than excellent Making a GF would be exceeding expectations after 2019

Agree 100%, as if we can fix the flaw St Kilda and others exposed, and have our mids run both ways and backline not sit so high, both will make a big difference!

I often wonder when we are getting beaten out of the middle why Max doesn’t belt a few forward and just have our quickest midfielder heading in the direction we are going! Once or twice a quarter could be planned! Re the 8 reasons, my eight would be: - Better drawer - Less off season surgeries - Nearly 40 players getting a full pre season - In particular be great to see midfield of Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw all getting a pre season so they can actually run - Complemented by new recruits in Langdon and Tomlinson(crap pre season) providing outside run, I also think Harmes could play wing role even if training with half backs - Backline with May & Lever In it, plus having trained as a back 6-8 will help, add Jetta, Hibberd, OMac, J Smith all fit must help! - Players able to play in correct positions, e.g. Fritsch thrown all over ground last year to cover for injuries, let him play forward all year will definitely help forward line - Due to better pre season for nearly 40 players, the team will be fitter and run out games much better, also have gut feeling that due to better fitness base will have less injuries during the year! Bonus points: Run, endurance and confidence are three keys to success in AFL, we had none last year, add those three into the mix a bit of luck with injuries and you will see a totally different team in 2020! Go Demons!!

Kim Smith

Can someone please post the 8 reasons, Haven’t got access to the Herald Sun!

I think this thread is about the MFC Captain! Cotchin of the Tigers is now the poster boy for captains, but I can remember during 2016 and midway through 2017 he was hammered for not being a real leader, then miraculously he becomes a great captain! Viney showed great leadership in the 2018 final wins and I can recall a number of other games where he has shown exceptional leadership to drive the team onto wins. It will be great to see him play after a full pre season, rather than going in unprepared and carrying significant injuries. Judge him at the end of hopefully an injury free 2020! Max strikes me as a different kind of leader, but I’m sure if he becomes captain or co-captain, will lead by example and having another terrific season. Jones disappointed me as a leader for one key reason, have hardly see him chase a player over the last two years, maybe it was due to injury, but as a problem MFC has had over a number of years as a team, that really disappointed. I know it’s simplistic but I think of a root cause for one of our problems. The other leadership we lack showed up against Port in the first game last year, with Max being attacked the whole game and getting no support! Also happened in 2018 prelim against the Eagles! I think this is where the likes of May, Lever, and Vandenburgh were really missed in 2019, not sure if Viney played that game, but at some point you need to stand together! Hopefully we show this leadership across the ground in 2020! In my view this is one of the reasons we lose to Collingwood so often, they look like they believe they can just push us around!! So standing up and being counted is what I’m looking for from all our players. Richie Vandenburgh led the Hawks to change their mentality particularly against the Bombers, to go from victims to the aggressors! Then onto Being a great team. Leadership starts at the top, but it’s up to all the players to step up. Go Demons in 2020!

When your the worst 4th quarter team in the league and mids don’t chase, I think fitness will make a significant difference, plus a couple of outside runners added to the team. Richo will help Goodwin! Your entitled to your opinion, I just hope your wrong! Go Demons!

It will be great to see Viney play after a full pre season, and hopefully an injury free 2020. If both happen, he will have a great year! Fingers crossed!

There’s glass half empty and glass always empty people! Personally I’d rather start with the glass full! Demons are just about to enter the window re ages of best players, Max, May, TMac 27/28 and then 25 or under Viney, Oliver, Petracca, Harmes, Brayshaw, Lever, close to 100 games and Fritsch. If 2020 is a bust then MD can go to town, but after few surgeries and majority of players getting a full preseason and the above players getting near 100 games, Demons will give it a fair crack this year. Plus we’ve addressed a few of the running issues in the draft and fitness issues with Burgess! 2020 is also an Olympic year, all good vibes for the Demons!

Team looks really good, well done. I really like Smith at CHB, would like to see him play in mould of Sean Wight! OMac good backup. Hopefully Pickett up to it, Hunt is good as a back up. Would change Weid & TMac.

Burgess inspired, super fit Demons, best 4th quarter team in the league, resulting in 15 win season for 5th position. Win 2 finals. AA: Max, Oliver, May, Petracca Viney fully fit wins B&F - many Demonland posters retract trade request!!

Re game plan, I will be happy if our backline does the following, similar to the Tigers: - back six hold position, so don’t chase opposition or kicks into our forward half of the ground - have a defender who generally covers the goalsquare - don’t all fly for the mark/punch, so we have someone stay down for crumbs - for boundary throw ins have someone goalside ready to stop opposition smalls waltzing through for give me goals Apologies for repeating this type of post, but I’m hoping might see it happen in 2020!!

Fingers crossed Viney completes a full pre season, think it might be the first or one of very few in his time at Demons. This will make a huge difference to what he can do on the field and how he can lead. Viney & Gawn would be a solid combination.

While it’s been 55 years since we tasted ultimate success, at least the club has a plan and isn’t taking knee jerk reactions to this years poor results! The number of AFL players when asked why they had such good seasons often attribute it to having a complete pre-season. Little wonder our year was poor, with many last quarter fade outs, when you look at limited pre season of our midfield, then injuries we kept getting during the year, add lost confidence and it all led to a poor year, only 5 wins was due to throwing away a few games, Crows loss immediately comes to mind. As with a few others comments, being caught by the 666 impact, doesn’t look so good, but KK and VDB not making it due to injury didn’t help! It highlighted needs for specialist wingers and the game became more about running both ways than ever, lack of preseasons for many of our midfield players just accentuated the problem. Going into 2020, hopefully with good pre seasons behind the majority of the team, some good positional drafting and a better draw, should lead to a huge improvement in 2020! It will be really interesting to see how Viney goes after a full pre season, boy did a lot of supporters unfairly tip a bucket on him last year! I think back to a few games he dragged us to wins in 2017/2018 games, finals in 18, that away game against WC, off one leg against Port, At his best a beast! 2019 was crap, but the club is holding the course, and let’s hope it pays off with a flag or two in the next 4-5 years! Panicking and throwing all the toys out of the pram doesn’t work, Richmond - Hardwick and Collingwood - Buckley just highlight the point.

After a poor season, either our players are not as good as we thought, or shot on confidence and at best not up to scratch on fitness - we probably had close to worst record for 4th quarters in the AFL highlighting lack of fitness! These probably combine to us rating many players a level below their actual capability. It felt difficult last year fitting in players for round one, so let’s hope last years form was an aberration and we see a lift across the whole team in 2020. Hopefully we can find a small forward in the draft who can make the grade in 2020, that would help as this seems to be the one area we haven’t addressed at all, but a lot of improvement has to come from within, a much better run with injuries will help. Improved fitness and more run via Langdon and Tomlinson should certainly help the Demons in 2020!