D4Life

St Kilda were disgraceful and didn’t chase or even break into a gallop all day, it’s easy to look quick when nobody is chasing you! We will see how good North is next week, they lost the week before. At some point we will beat North it should have been last year, hopefully it is next week.

Hannan plays one good game in five or six, two average games and three games where he hardly touches the ball. Bugg puts some forward pressure on, but agree his disposal is poor.

Whenever Demons stop running as a team they struggle! Lever is a great 3rd tall intercept defender, and we’re trying to turn him into a 2nd tall man vs man defender. Pick Frost or Smith and let Lever do what he does best.

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.

Agree a few good performances in the twos are required before getting back into the ones, and Frankston will be close to the worst VFL team, so wouldn’t get to carried away by one weeks performances by a number of players. Two changes after any game is about as many as should happen, with exception of injuries. Agree with Frost for Wagner and I don’t think we can have Lewis and Vince in the team together. Would like to see Brayshaw come in and get given half a dozen games. I only saw last 15 mins and highlights from last night, but Lewis looked poor. In: Frost Brayshaw Out: Wagner Lewis A few players on watch include Salem (doesn’t do enough week in week out), Hunt (is he injured), ANB (not doing enough).

Replace Wagner with Frost and let Lever play the 3rd defender.

Agree, he should be running with Casey!

No, he did the wrong thing, but with his usual disposal going astray perhaps he was unlucky to flush a punch. Anyway snipping is bad, and he learnt his lesson!

Thanks Vogon Poetry, great insight on the players sitting outside the current team. I thought Kent was gone after a horrible 2017, so terrific to hear he did well and pleased to hear Frost went well, as his speed could be an asset.

Our Demons have a way of letting us down, that is way there is the negativity and nervousness on this site. Fingers crossed, today is the start of something new and we pump the Lions by 10 goals, play four quarters, have 22 players turn up to play, and keep going when we get in front!

Max kicks the goal on Sunday and he would have been a match winner. If you look at Richmond they had still have: Martin (Trac) Rance (Lever) Riewoldt (Hogan) Cotchin (Viney, Oliver) Your correct all of ours listed above are in 20-23 age range, so not quite mature enough in body, games and mind, but over the next few years we should be in the zone! Then add Gawn, Hibberd, who are both only 27! and the Dogs only had: Bontempelli (probably misspelled) and 21 players who put manic pressure around the ground! Our list is no worse than what the Dogs snatched a flag with in 2016! Still let’s win enough games to make finals this year, win a final, then next year & beyond we should be good to have a crack at an elusive flag!

Bugg threw his fist out and caught the guy right on the chin while he was running along, he did the wrong thing, but stiff to hit him flush!

Agree. Thought Brayshaw would come in for Wagner!

6. Gawn 5. Petracca 4. Oliver 3. Hogan 2. OMac 1. Jones

I’ve paid a heap to these guys, I feel like I’m getting something back?

While a flag would be brilliant, finals and winning a final would be a big step. At least we weren’t done for ball tampering and lost our last ten wickets for 50! That’s something to really worry about!

Agree Lever fitting in will take a little time, but we will end up with a stronger defence. We didn’t run in the 2nd quarter and the Cats with time & space are very clean, great foot skills. So very hard for the defence to stop. 2nd half we ran, pressured and tackled, Cats struggled and only kicked two! Would be great to see a four quarter effort next week and a 22 man effort, rather than 10 maybe 11 players giving a four quarter performance.

Wow, I thought we were very ordinary against the Cats, but it’s a little too soon to write off the season just yet. Half the team didn’t turn up and we still only lost by 3 points. Give it till mid season before finishing us off!

People definitely have a diverse range of views, I wonder how much is influenced by where you sit at the ground, vs watching TV and just some players being easier to recognise others! Still I shudder when Wagner gets the ball, reminds me of Matt Jones! Coaching was average, when Geelong skipped away in the 2nd Maynard seemed in at almost every centre bounce and was often joined by one of our 3rd tier mids, as Geelong had Ablett and Selwood in the middle. It was poor coaching. We also seemed to stop running in the 2nd, a Melbourne trait for way too long. I’m still not sure why we seem to have 3-4 guys jump up in a pack going for marks so often and only one player down. Hopefully it was just a bad day, at least 10 if the players had really bad days. If it keeps happening, we need to weed out the guys who play spasmodically, one of which I’m worried about is Hannan, great skill but goes missing a lot. Still after over 50 years I will be cheering on the Dees next week.

I focussed on Wagner today, because I didn’t think he was up to it! Perhaps his pressure & tackling was good in the 2nd half, but he is just awful when he gets the ball, always picks the wrong option. Maynard the same! pick any of the other 4 who missed out from Tyson, Brayshaw, Bugg & Frost and we win today!

Maxy was also good. Pity he missed the last shot. It felt like a lot of the guys were down today, so let’s hope there is a lift in performance next week.

Tackling was poor and kicking was very poor at times into the forward line. We also stopped running and manning up particularly the 2nd quarter. Conversely Geelongs kicking was very good and made the difference! There are a few players who really disappointed today: - Wagner incredibly poor decision maker & disposal, occasionally good aggression but should be playing VFL. Replace Wagner withBrayshaw! - Maynard skills are only VFL standard, got the ball on his own in the last with time, terrible kick goes to Geelong and then they break free and kick a goal. Tyson has the odd butcher ball but is well ahead of Maynard. Replace Maynard with Tyson. - Hannan occasionally does freakish things, but just doesn’t get the ball enough and as previously mentioned playing him in forward line with Fritsch and Garlett not enough pressure. Replace Hannan with Bugg! Garlett, Melksham, Jetta not on today, but have done credits in the bank. The positive was Oliver, Trac, Jones were very good but not enough support. OMac held Hawkins to one. We only lost by 3 points and had a very average day!

Agree, Wagner not even close, Maynard VFL and Hannan doesn’t do enough week in week out. That quarter was atrocious, disposal poor, not running, not tackling. Hopefully it can only get better! Good to see Ablett give the umpire coaching tips at qtr time, he and Selwood get a dream run!

I agree, Maynard doesn’t get it enough and isn’t clean, at least Tyson gets s lot of the ball, his disposal needs to improve, must be his calf and Goodwin being cautious.

Stats are one indicator, but watching the player gives you a clearer indication. Jetta rock solid usually picks right option. Wagner turnover are usually really bad and he often seems to pick wrong option. Ocassionally he just goes and gets it right. But these two are chalk & cheese!