Demon Dude

LOL this is just complete rubbish. in the first qtr i saw Sparrow, Jordon, ANB, Jones, Chandler and Spargo lined up as a direct opponent on Daniel at various times. the players rotate through the forward half these days, hardly no one lines up on a direct opponent for a whole qtr anymore. and even though players start lined up on each other from a centre bounce situation that doesn't mean much anyway, from there its all about keeping the structures and how you want to play instead. the biggest problem we had with Daniel was our mids just couldn't get their hands on the ball enough to move it forward, so Daniel just did as he pleased instead of defending. i only saw Spargo on Daniel twice that first qtr and one was from a kick out and Spargo burnt him for pace running back inside the F50 but didn't get used. if you were 'watching closely' i suggest you need to go to spec savers. seems your hatred of Spargo is making you blind.

i see Cam Smith just announced his retirement. he comes from a different code but has been a big part of the strong winning culture at the Storm. i wonder if we could find a part time role for someone like him to come in and work with the players mindset and help build our culture into a winning one.

i'm not surprised really. we look light on for defenders with a few injuries about and Jetta's moving like he's ready for a mobility scooter these days.

because they're probably not concerned with tagging anyone in a pre season hit out, let alone in the first qtr.

it also concerns me the club talking up Rosman as a future winger. he was a speculative pick and looks a long way off it at this stage, and i doubt he will ever have the footy smarts to play the role at the level required anyway. meanwhile we recruit a natural winger in Bowey then decide to play him as a defender.

yep i came here to say the same thing. Tomlinson was better than anyone we've tried on the wing since and he can run all day so wont need to rotate much. move him back there, put Petty into defence, and Baker goes out.

i'm pretty sure Cotchin pushes Harmes in the back and in doing so takes his own team mate out lol.

i really liked his game yesterday, thought it was very impressive. he ran with the ball at pace, kicked a goal, spun out of traffic, took a couple of good grabs out on the wing and took off quickly then hit his targets by foot. he seemed to be taking on more responsibility to move the ball to the outside with ball in hand, or by kicking, and then to link up in general play. maybe Choco and Yze deserve some credit as well for teaching him a few tricks to add to his already dominant ball winning game to become more of a well rounded player, but however it happened, i say long may it continue.

Bowey, Petty, and Laurie all looked like AFL level to me. Bedford looked good in a couple of brief cameos when he turned the speed on, but like the rest of them, he didn't look at the level required for a promotion yet. hope Neitschke is ok, fingers crossed.

i reckon the surprise packet will be the forwards that lead straight up at the ball with this new/old man on the mark rule. it'll have forwards licking their lips, so i'll go for TMac as he's coming off a lower base than most. the whipping boy will be Lever for the same reasons. i think it's gonna be harder to defend now with quicker ball movement from marks upsetting flooding and zone patterns, so with likely less bombing into stagnant forward lines it means he will probably have to try defend the lead and play 1 on 1 more instead, which is not his strong suit.

yeah Bowey might be able to release Salem for a bit of that. i think Bowey will end up on the wing eventually once his running is up to it.

i doubt it. from what i've seen of him he looks a winger/flanker type.

must still be groups of 10 only i'd say.

no doubt Goodwin will just bring in Jones to replace Melksham.

it seems a wise enough decision to have Majak train with us. he can provide cover in a number of positions if needed, and that's what you want from a depth player. he might also help protect Jackson from being over worked a bit during the year as well. and maybe even like our last ex Roo boy back up ruckman we can then trade him to GWS at the end of the year in return for a second round pick!

that would have to be one of the most talented half forward lines you would ever see, and it's also probably my 3 favourite all time Demon players as well.

Weideman finished 10th in the B&F last year so he's a bigger loss than most here are recognizing. yeah he struggled towards the end of the year, but i thought that was understandable given the backing up of games on a short turn around and without getting much help in the way of key forwards to share the load. but he was averaging 2 goals a game up until the last 4 rounds. but the bigger picture is the accumulative effect this has on the team. if they weren't injured it'd be B.Brown drawing the number 1 defender, Weid gets the 2nd, then Fritsch or Jackson gets the 3rd or 4th. someone is likely to get off the hook. now on last years form we'll probably have Jackson and Fritsch getting the first and second defenders, then TMac getting the 3rd, and M.Brown the 4th and that's if they even bother putting anyone on him at all seeing as he usually leads up far away from goal to gather easy kicks. now that looks a lot less likely to me that someone gets off the hook and kicks goals there. hopefully BB will be be back in action early enough, but there's still a question mark over that knee of his, and can Tmac get back to his best and have an impact this year? can M.Brown be a productive goal kicker? can Petty be swung forward to draw a key defender and kick enough goals? there's plenty of question marks on this lot still.

i think that's likely to continue with Jackson on the scene. Jacko might start in a forward position then they'll have him come up to the ball and ruck the forward half stoppages while Gawn continues to drop back behind the ball for the intercepts.

it's a non issue for mine. he might lack 5 metres penetration with his kick but i don't think it's been an issue as he still hits targets better than most in our team, plus he will only get stronger the older he gets. everyone has a limit on their kick and they just play accordingly. maybe even a few others in the side should try take 5m off their kicks and try spot up a target more often themselves instead of indiscriminate long bombing.

i remember Jordon looked slow when he started playing on the HBF. might be the reason they moved him onball where he was workman like. hopefully he's come on a bit as he has matured.

Yep i think you're right. Jordon played most the year from memory and Sparrow missed about half the season with a knee injury.

yeah I'm not really sure how Melksham fits up forward anymore. he seems to lose a lot more 1v1 contests than he used to, and to my eye he looks too slow for it these days as he doesn't have the leg speed to pressure and tackle, or to even get around an opponent with ball in hand anymore. instead he usually just tries to kick around corners in general play most of the time which has seen his disposal efficiency go well down over the last few years (Jones also has this same problem, but i am heartened by the reports of Williams trying to eradicate it at pre season training which will also hopefully carry through to team selection as well). i also think Melksham doesn't really work hard enough to be a mid either, we already have too many like that as it is, and as a 'run with' player i'd prefer Harmes in that role anyway if we were going down that path. i find it hard to find a spot for him in the best 22 to be honest, as he's been on the downward slide for a while now.

Salem should be playing playing wing or high half forward imo. he needs to be used on the outside of the contest to put some polish on our inside grunt work.

Well that's the thing about volunteer work, if you don't want to do it, then you don't have to! Big deal about nothing.

looks like he'd be the perfect replacement for Melksham on the HFF and push into the midfield at times.