D4Life

The Bulldogs did pay Boyd big bucks, but was part of their salary cap, so they can’t spend more than the max cap. Unless your allowed a special marketing allowance like GC & GWS. But the Dogs don’t have anywhere near the money of the following: Crows Eagles Freo Pies Bombers Tigers Hawks And probably a few more! more money means better facilities, not selling home games, more money for FD, medical etc. But at least the salary cap gives most teams a chance! Nothing like the soccer leagues in Europe, where no salary caps, make it totally unfair!

The Dogs won in 2016 without being flush with cash!

While stats can be helpful, as previously mentioned the interpretation can become very subjective and depends on the boundaries. While I really enjoy AFL and have an interest in most teams, there is really only one team, the Demons! Demonland generally gives a pretty good guide to who is our best 22 and who is playing well, other than the odd bias towards/against a particular player, which is often funny to read! But for now, screw the stats, I can’t wait to see: Hogan Petracca Brayshaw Salem Gawn Hibberd after full preseasons. With a reasonable draw and fingers crossed a good run with injuries, it looms as a terrific year!

A few simple rules for the backline to follow: - 2 up 1 down for marking contests - boundary throwins one person stay goal side to stop the easy roved goal - Salem to kick in, never a MacD or Frost for starters

We need three things a reasonable draw - tick and average year for injuries- who knows, Demons have a massive upside and with a little luck/mental strength, we could be top 4 & then it’s a roll of the dice. 2018 roll on!

We’ve come from a hopeless list when Roos took over, to one that coughed up a finals spot 4 years later, even after a shocking run with injuries and ordinary draw. Next year our draw is okay and if we have some good luck with injuries, if we miss a finals birth, there will be no excuse. Our team is getting older and in the right age bracket. Yes, Richmond has 6 players 22 and under and another 5 players who haven’t played over 50ish games. But everything else went right in their season, virtually no injuries, very good year and peaked in September. Take Martin out of Richmond and they wouldn’t have even played finals last year!

I want Salem to be the go to guy for kick outs!

Richmond key players Martin, Rance, Riewoldt & Cotchin all sit in over 26yo bracket plus, over 100 games, and hardly missed a game for the season! That’s why they won the flag!

Team looks very good, couple of minor tweaks: Harmes in FP, (Hannan to bench) & ANB in for Vince & Pedersen. I would swap Hogan with TMac.

See where we stand at the end of 2018. Another pre season and 20 more games into Oliver, Hogan, Petracca and Lever, plus injury free seasons for Max and Jack, the Demons will have their fair share of A graders!

My initial post was could mindfulness help our consistency within games and from week to week. As it seemed from the article to have made a significant difference to the Tiggers! Maybe, maybe not but well worth investigating. If we could consistently repeat mid 2nd quarter - end match performance vs Crows away, finals here come! I would also be interested in threads on: 1. How do we improve our backline 2. How do we improve our forward line 3. Suggestions on changing our gameplan There are a lot of supporters on Demonland who seem very astute observers of the game, and get to see the Demons play every game and train. As someone who gets to about 5 games a year and maybe sees another 5 on TV, Demonland contributors help round out my understanding of our team.

Was Jade Rawling the backline coach last year? Another thread said he was highly regarded. If he was so good I don’t understand why our backline had four fundamental issues: 1. Goalsquare often left vacant and easy goals would just go through. 2. Three or more defenders would jump up to spoil, leaving a free opposition forward to shark the spoil and goal. 3. At boundary thrown ins in the backline, there would often be a clear path to goal without a defender goal side of the ruckman ready to block a direct path to goal. 4. Kick outs. We should have two or three max designated kick out players, Salem, maybe Lewis and not sure who the third might be?

Reading about the Tigers focus on mindfulness on the weekend, will the Demons take this on, as poor starts and switching off during games, seemed to be our greatest issues this year.

Sounds like he would be 0000 if related to his yearly contract!

Agree, he takes some great marks, competes hard, seems to have a really good attitude, but perhaps his consistency issue relates to being good, but possibly not quite good enough. But is okay as a depth player. He played a few really good games last year and hopefully can do the same next year when he gets a chance.

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!

I think both Harmes and ANB are still only 21 and haven’t played 50 games yet. Give them both another pre season and 20 more games each, then they will believe they are AFL players and build some confidence, then we can better judge them if they reached their respective peak. I’ve read and heard from many sports people trying to break into professional sport, believing they are good enough and belong is one of the major hurdles to overcome! Just look at the Tigers this year, got on a roll, great run with injuries and a good draw, got used to winning, developed confidence, won a flag! The most exciting thing about next year is 10 of our best 22, fall into the 20-22 age bracket, that will pass the 50 game bracket next year, all with major room for improvement. 2018, bring it on!

Agree 100%, unfortunately he just isn’t good enough, he doesn’t dominate in the VFL, and massacred in finals. Would rather TMac, Pedo combo and bring Weideman into forward line.

While R23 was a terrible way to end the year and some supporters were distraught about Jack Watts, I’ve supported the Demons for 50 plus years and will continue to do so regardless of wins or losses and players who come and go. We have a massive upside in our younger players including OMac, Lever, Salem, Hunt, Oliver, Petracca, ANB, Hogan, Brayshaw, and Harmes all who sit in 30-60 game bracket, that’s almost half the team. Another pre season into these players and as they move into 50-80 game bracket we should see them become more consistent, play out the season inc round 23, and then finals! This team has the upside to be our best in the last 50 years, so fingers crossed, keep supporting the Demons and sign up if you can for 2018.