D4Life

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.

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

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!!

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?

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!

Forwards: If Spargo steps up to 1-2 goals per game, and Weideman continues on his improvement, with TMac, Melksham, and Trac it looks very good. Better ball delivery into forward line will make the highest scoring team in 2018 even better. Hogan is a loss! Recruiting a quality quick crumber would be good. Backs: Lever coming back will help and if May joins, he adds that gorilla owner that we lack. He also has a bit of mongrel that premiership teams need. Mids: Give Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes another year, Viney a preseason add Max with a backup and they are elite. Tyson and VDB were rarely used, covered by Petracca coming in occasionally. Outside mids: This is a soft spot, for mine Fritsch should take a wing and hopefully Stretch is fit and steps up. Maybe Salem, but I like him in backline. We need to recruit a class outside mid. Depth: We lost Lever, Hogan and Stretch when he finally looked good, and managed to win two finals, so I think our depth was pretty good. I always compare depth to other teams, and only Eagles, Collingwood and Richmond were perhaps slightly better re depth and not really sure on Tigers as they didn’t lose any of Rance, Riewoldt, Cotchin, Martin or Nankervis. If they lost Rance as we lost Lever and Riewoldt Vs Hogan, they couldn’t replace them. So they have no spine depth, only Eagles & Pies with better depth for mine! Next year a different ball game, looks like we have 8-10 players to replace, so once trading is done, will then be able to better judge how we look!

Lewis played some good football for the Demons this year. Shocker on Saturday but had nearly 21 mates in the first half. Obviously next year will be it, as falling to ground, speed etc will just get worse. Trade was worth it! Not sure if alternative pre season with martial arts training incorporated may improve his balance & strength, for one last season!

Thanks for all the years and blood, sweat & tears, and terrific effort in 2017. Gun in VFL, just lacking the little extra to be a permanent fixture in The Ones! Best of luck for the future.

Media like umpires not held to account for rubbish calls!!

Player said I’m staying! Coach said Hogan staying! Manager said he is staying! Kicked 47 goals, handed off plenty, also played up field and in middle, typically has 2-3 opponents, missed a few games. Guy is a gun, give him another preseason and 20 more games, will be elite next year! Well and truly time to close this thread!

OMac is a good mark and a very good kick. Still building strength and not the quickest, but continues to improve, and hasn’t been beaten very often this year. Only 22, on his way to developing into a very strong full back. 2018 has been a year of great progress for OMac. Probably one of the most enjoyable facets of watching the Demons has been across the board improvement of our 20-23yo players: Brayshaw Harmes OMac ANB JSmith Oliver Petracca Hogan Weideman Stretch Salem Lever While we’ve been very good this year, give them all another pre season, extra 20 plus games and will hit next years finals as an awesome machine! Fingers crossed for the finals, our best is very very good, and our composure is definitely improving!

Tyson is slow!

Plus we had Tyson last night. Looking forward to Hunt getting fit and in form, to provide more run out of the backline!

Roos on Demonland highlighted that games in Darwin & Alice don’t make sense when you are in and around position 6-10, as it may cost you a final spot, that has other sponsors kickers attached to making finals, and other benefits!

Well said. He has improved out of sight, still has things to improve, but the signs are bright.

Oscar is holding down fullback and doing pretty well each week. He has improved significantly from last year and becoming reliable. If he continues to improve at the current rate, he will become a top fullback.

It will be a positive sign for our depth and form if he plays well in the VFL and struggles to get a game in the ones.

After multiple concussions and then wisdom teeth out, having one week out and then a run in the twos makes sense. Would be good to see him get half a dozen games in the ones, as part of centre rotation, and see what he can do. He deserves an injury free season, so we can see what he can deliver.

Best of luck to JT, hard to get over vision of him against North being left 20 metres behind one of the Roos players. Looked as slow as treacle!