D4Life

Richmond dipped to 13th after 3 years of making finals, before winning a flag. Hardwick was riding the players too hard & evidently he realised or was made aware of it, made some coaching and cultural changes. Football approach was simplified, players started enjoying the game and boom - flag. Pies after slowly going backwards for Six years under Buckley, as he was too hard, changed his approach, Nick Maxwell influenced the culture, players started to enjoy playing and they got within 45 seconds of a flag. Melbourne players evidently very happy with Goodwin, shows in continued improvement and with a bit of luck will go close 2019 or 2020! Sounds like club will extend him before 2019, he has been part of developing the right culture, it would be hard to see him leaving if he gets signed up for a 2-3 year extension.

While a few weeks on I’m still disappointed that Hogan wanted to and has left, drafting May, KJ, and Preuss has strengthened our obvious areas of weakness. Add Lever coming back and hopefully Viney having an injury free year, and we have a strong platform for success in 2019. A little more zip & skill on the wings, and another good small forward and defender would give us almost a perfectly balanced list. The Hawks kept winning flags after Buddy left, and I’m hoping that our best wins in the last few years were without Hogan in the team, is an indicator we can cover losing him. Looking forward to another successful season in 2019, making top 4 and being in a position to have a real crack at the Flag would be terrific! Go Dees!!!!!!!!

Assuming one of the reasons Pert on board was big sponsorship experience, although he did have Eddie in his corner previously.

All Demons supporters turn up and make it profitable for the club. A good chance to start the season with a win.

Bernie was very good for the Demons, really made a difference in our growth & improvement. Seems like a great bloke! He looked pretty relaxed playing golf and having a few beers and snacks at Riversdale GC yesterday afternoon!

I’d rather punt on some kids and maybe find a gem later in the draft. We got both Macs at 53!

Bundle numbers 43,47,48&49 for Kelly!

The best thing about this draft is we already have a strong 22 with 6 decent players as depth. If we could snag a player ready for2019 would be great. Seems like a zippy small forward and another outsidemid with speed & skill would complement the list.

Agree. Be pleased to see Lever in round one, however might be Preuss to stand next to Cox!

Agree the best teams just make it happen. Collingwood got to 3rd with only one win over a finals team, being us unfortunately. Then played a strong finals month. The Demons dropped 4-5 games by under 10 pts, Cats 2&3, Saints 2, Port 10(robbed) and Swans? We win 2or 3 of those and top four spot was ours!

The biggest thing about an easy draw is you win 2 more games and finish top 4! Collingwood & Hawthorn in 2018. North were only in final contention due to easier draw.

Eagles rag dolled us in Prelim, adding May & Preuss will definitely help!

I’m a fan of Jeff G, as the crumbing role isn’t easy to play! His challenge to overcome, is not playing more very good or average games, it’s turning his shocking games into at least making a contribution to the team!!

Looking at 1 page in 30 for this thread and not missing much! FWIW: Hogan for 5&6 - very good Hogan for 5&11 - okay Hogan for 5,23&30 - okay Hogan for 5 - feel screwed I’d still rather keep him! Fast forward 24 hours, to put everyone out of their misery!!

Very good 22, slight changes for me: Salem ahead of Lewis Fritsch ahead of Hannan Jones ahead of KJJ Joel Smith in 22 replacing Hannan Frost & OMac close between these two!

Outside the best 28, and a few younger project players, could nearly rotate out rest of list each. Probably leaves about 10 spots to move on. Sounds a familiar number!

That was crumber not crumpet!?

Pretty good team. Need a crumpet in forward line, so Spargo in for Hannan. Lewis by season end may be replaced by a Stretch or J Smith. Will see if KK better than J Smith, Hunt, Hannan after another preseason. Will be surprised if we don’t bring in some more talent over the trade period! Outside mid, small forward come to mind, in addition to May, Preuss and KK or maybe it is KJJ!

Hogan is two top ten picks, one goes to GC for May, we have an extra to trade or high pick from so called super draft! Kent played 5-6 games for season, his 3rd or 4th round pick can go to GC for KK, who they said to go look for a trade, so can’t expect much in return. Vanders played 5-6 games for season. We will get something extra in a trade for him, probably 3rd pick. Tyson 17 and most weren’t great, looked rock bottom on confidence. He goes to North for Preuss, plus possibly a 3rd pick. So we end up with a top ten pick and 1-2 extra 3rd round picks on top of May, Preuss and KK! Still rather we keep Hogan!

Freo won’t accept pick 4 for Lochie Neal, so what do they expect to pay for Hogan? It certainly isn’t just pick 5.

Agree with your view. Would be good to see a list of last 10 years number 4 and 5 picks. How many as good as Hogan?

How old is Kennedy of Eagles?

Thanks to Andy and the rest of the Demonland crew for a great site. Often informative, a bit offbeat, but a pleasure to hear from other Demon fans, and what a season we had. We’re getting very close!

Correct, so does May. Eagles manhandled and bullies us last week. A couple of beasts in the team will definitely help. Another big factor will be our gun mids getting another preseason and a year older. Clarry, Brayshaw, Harmes, Petracca, even Viney, they all become bigger bodies. Eagles were almost a year and a half older on average than us, so a year makes a difference, also another older guy in May helps in that 26-29 bracket. Even Pies midfield of Pendle, SideB, Treloar, Adams that bit older than the Demons. Adding a few big tough bodies a bit of Outside run and skill, plus another year into our 20-22 yo players, it’s exciting thinking about next year.

Fair comments, like the old/young concept, only area I feel we’re fine compared to you is the mids. Rotation 1 - Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes. Rotation 2 - Viney, Petracca, Jones. Others - ANB, Salem. From my recall of finals matches Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes, and Viney covered about 80-90% of centre bounces, so get Petracca to play a little more mid time. Tyson, AVB didn’t get much time in middle. But maybe amongst the 8-10 picks we look like having, might find another inside mid in the mix. To date keep hearing a lot about ins: Preuss great to support Max and if anything happens. May gives us a gorilla tamer and hard but which is good. Thought he was going to Pies! KKK who may be an outside mid for us, particularly if his skills are good as reported. Outs: Hogan - big loss. Kent - while occasional very good game, lots of so so games and injury prone, which is unlucky for him, so minimal loss. Tyson - first two years were very good, but last few only fair and skills fell apart. Losing a reasonable depth / interchange back up mid. AVB - love his pure aggression and tackling, skills ordinary, will be missed as a handy bottom six player. Always felt he was similar to Bugg. Delisted guys - can all be replaced. Should be interesting to see what trades we do, assuming Hogan gone if we have 5 & 10 as replacement, might go for one of the gun kids in the super draft with 5!