Altona-demon

Yeah Marty Hore? Fritta came through Casey didn't he?

CONS Weidemann couldnt force a contest when it mattered late. Fritsch did his best impersonation of a turnstile - zero pressure. May looks disinterested When Gawn comes back into the defensive 50 and spoils our own players to the advantage of the other team it makes me want to throw my remote across the lounge.... PROS Petty builds his reputation Lever stood up under ENORMOUS personal pressure. Class act. At that level of pressure you quickly can identify where players deficiencies are as they bubble up. Will be an interesting review. Also now we understand that when the game is played like that the maggots keep the whistle in the pocket.

I'm seething. Who wants to get around the rematch and actually give those Crows players a special sort of hell when they come to our home ground. I want to boo Tex so hard that's all he hears for the next week.

I've noticed that a lot of the Dees podcast/media material focusses on Melbourne's own strengths/weaknesses etc. Was wondering what the appetite might be for a thread on "opposition" analysis. I've been tossing up the merits of doing a video podcast focussing specifically on our main opposition (Bulldogs, Richmond, Port etc) with an angle of their strengths/weaknesses vis a vis the Demons. What do people think? Is there enough even to start a small space on DL for this sort of discussion. The reason I've become interested in this sort of thing, as i've noticed that there are some popular narratives around certain teams and the way they play and I want to see whether that stacks up when we look at footage and statistics. And, if it is true, what does it mean for our system and the way that we like to play?

It's a real shame that Jack doesn't look like he will be ready for that Bulldogs game. I think Jacko straight in and Weid out. Will find out soon enough I guess.

Can't kick goals without the ball. Winning the ball at contest is vastly underrated. The Bont looks great because Libba is jet.

This is very much not 2019 or even 2020. If Carlton wants to see what an accelerated trajectory looks like when a list "gels" - they are about to find out on Sunday afternoon.

@Craig Hutchinson- I too am feeling cured. Can testify to feeling nowhere near the same levels of anxiety that I used to feel even when the team gets behind. THis is in contrast to not so distant moments in the past where I thought the sky was falling in when we gave up a lead and went down by two goals or something similar. This must be what opposition team supporters feel like when watching football. It's great!

Wow that Geocities reference took me back - love all that. Yeah I think that CFC supporters are heading towards that somewhat nihilist niche that MFC supporters have occupied for a while. Probably helps you to be even handed.

Oh didn't know about that one @AmDamDemon - Slavs and Glove where do I find that?

Does anyone else find their week increasingly becoming a little bit structured around Melbourne Demons content (leading up to the big game on the weekend)? 1. Monday take in the DeeBrief Podcast - usually good, but a little insular and in-jokey sometimes, but a good humorous take 2. Tuesday DL Podcast - a little bit slower paced - but with some heavier stats analysis so I like it. 3. Wednesday - bit of a deadzone - look at some Melbourne Football content - especially Gus and Gawny, Talking Points, and Injury Report. 4. Thursday - Deeluded - great guests, but a bit light in places. 5. Friday - bit of a deadzone (ideally game day). So on, am I missing anything, I know that some people listen to RSN Podcasts? First time Dad, who love to listen to a podcast while walking the little demon. My personal gripe: 1. Not enough VLOGs 2. Not enough video analysis based around statistics and strategy.

I assume one stands for "syndrome"

Many thanks for the kind words @Demon17 - they are much appreciated!

My god - its all suddenly clear to me. MFCSS can be as a deep as the entire universe being aligned against the club, or as simple as disbelieving in the efforts of the MFC on game day (and by obvious extension the maggots internal bias against the MFC faithful). It's deep explanatory power of all negative phenomena makes it hard to shift - so what is the yin to this yang. Is there a possible state where everything and anything aligns for MFC winning? Because seeing some of the injuries (and suspensions) that other teams have suffered prior to playing us - I have begun to wonder.....

Thanks @TRIGON - agree 100%, it's strange we might look back at this group and look at those first 4 games in a completely different light (pending on future results) - certainly felt and feels like something has changed or turned.

Winning this much is a strange feeling right? But it's caused me to reflect on what it means for this team and club more generally. A couple of observations. 1. This might not gel with some people on DL, but our squad was dominated by losers. Repeatedly our stars (Viney, Brayshaw, Jones, Oliver) had lost lots of games. And when the blowtorch came on in the Norf game it was interesting to watch Brayshaw in particular start to fluff kicks, or just heads start to go down. That all too familiar MFCSS started to come on, that familiar old feeling as we waited for our team to roll over like good trained losers. But we didn't - and why? Because we are now starting to build a winning culture - people who just win. It has been instructive to watch conditioned winners in the young team (who have probably always been winners in their younger careers) come in and play with that youthful exuberance and unencumbered drive to win. These guys don't have the baggage of being habitual AFL losers like some of our more senior members of the squad. I think this makes a HUGE mental difference in pressure situations and has been one of the most positive changes in this team, this year. 2. This team still plays with the yips. When Dusty Martin takes a forward 50 mark - you can see he is relishing the moment and wants to kick the goals to win the games. Oliver, Petracca, Max, Brayshaw and Kozzie are still not there yet. Look out when this winning confidence starts to do what it is doing to someone like Tom McDonald (confidence 200% atm). There are more gears to this team. 3. MFCSS is just another way of saying you don't trust the club. I've been trying to put my finger on why I suddenly don't feel anxious about the club during games. Then I realised, I actually trust this team. They say trust is something that cannot be given it must be earned. And being a generally positive person, I freely admit I've given my trust quicker than some other DL'ers may do - but jesus when they keep working through games I knew that they would lose in the past (in my heart of hearts) - then trust will flow. It's a strange feeling to trust a team to win - feels good. A last point, if you want a reflection on where this club is now think about how Carlton FC must feel about their team and squad, because I can guarantee you they have a really strong case of the CFCSS. Put another way, if we really want to beat Carlton this weekend all we need to do is get inside where we as a club have been at for the last three years before we began turning this corner. So here's how you beat a mentally weak, habitual loser of a club: 1. You niggle them, pressure them constantly, and beat them early. In short you bully them on the park and let them know that they are not at the same level as you are. They lack resilience 2. You play a four quarter game and never have patches where you aren't competing. You are ready to pounce when they inevitably have that patch in the game when they question whether they are good enough to win and they go quiet. 3. You hit them late in quarters 4. You get on chains of scoring - once they are down they struggle to bounce back and lack resilience. If these weaknesses sound all too familiar, that's because they are, that was us less than 12 months ago.

Some stats based reflections: 1. Much has been made of Melbourne's average of 12-15 inside forward 50 tackles. I wonder what the key drivers of that stat are, because I think there are a few things that need to be considered: a. This could be correlated with poor entries inside f50 - a trend that Melbourne has had for the last 4 plus years. Is efficiency going inside forward 50 (defined as entries resulting in score involvements) negatively correlated with forward 50 tackles? b. Are inside forward 50 tackles normally distributed across forwards - assumption is no, as tall forwards are likely to create contests resulting in small forwards making tackles. c. Are certain forwards (Melksham/Fritsch) correctly judged based on argument 1b. above? Intuitively without analysing the data on the tapes, it seems very clear to me that if Ben Brown, Fritsch, Tom Mcdonald are tackling, then the system is not working perhaps as we intended it to work.

I think this is a fantastic post - thanks for that analysis. My other thoughts were that the delivery method into forward 50 was down on previous weeks. We couldn't kick to space, but seemed to kick floaty balls to aerial contests - which I wouldn't classify as a BBB strength. Wider open space, more direct kicking, and as you say drawing two defenders, let's see how he goes on the "G". It's very exciting. I think the comment that Bedford and Chandler breathing down ANB's neck is very on point, he can't afford too many quiet games with that talent in the 2s.

He was very poor. Just bombed into forward 50 when he had unpressured possessions - EXACTLY the sort of behaviour we are trying to eradicate in our midfield group. Sticking hard tackles - again something we are defining brand on. It's not terrible for Oskar but he's not at the level of this group yet.

I think maybe Hibberd to Papley - similarly explosive in first 20 yards. Rivers is also very quick.

Much better to have had Sparrow - but he did play on Thursday. He is the like for like replacement, even improvement on Jones or Jack. Was v. impressive in the 2s and was surprised he was dropped earlier in the season, I thought his role playing through the first games was a large part of early season wins..... If this is Jack's foot now what will his foot be like in 3-5 years. I am seeing a lot of downside.

What is the reason that the membership portal is done through Ticketek? It is beyond abysmal sign up experience. And working myself in digital, I often wonder what the drop off rates are in that membership funnel? Do the Demons get access to that data, or the meta data like when and from where these people are signing up to better inform our marketing activities? For example, if it is (as I suspect) that people sign up post game - probably makes sense to do targeting e-marketing in and around that time (ie promos etc). Just a thought...

Agree @DeeSpencer he's not a pressure forward, that is not what he brings to this forward line. At the moment based on watching the Casey games his role (in that system), is more of CHF roving quite far up the ground. His work rate was more impressive (in terms of Ks run) in the 2s then Ben Brown was in the 1s. However, that can be system related. His efforts to get up the wing and then back to the square to split contests where a notable part of Weid's game against Norf. I wasn't seeing similar efforts from BBB, and I am not sure he has that tank and speed anyway to do that. Second thing I think that Weid probably does slightly better than BBB is protect the drop zone of the ball and body up on a defender a bit better - but again small sample size to see whether BBB can do this. For now Sam probably stays in the twos. Only change I can see is Petty coming in for Tomlinson and Sparrow should play. Cannot state enough for those who watched the Casey game last week how good Sparrow was - not only is he tough on ball, his entries into forward 50 where bullets to advantage. The comparison watching Oskar Baker enter forward 50 this weekend was stark. Not only that, he is silk inside and outside - with his decision making, he is a real Viney replacement. Would love to see him get a game.

Hard to judge BBB on one game at AFL in this set-up - a better sample size of three-four games will tell. An early observation was that our inside 50 entry was not good enough to use a lead up forward like Ben Brown. Reminded me of the last two years watching our players sit the ball on top of Tom Mac's head time after time. Oskar Baker, Clayton, Christian, ANB, all wasted un-pressured forward entries by being unable to kick to advantage. It seems that Charlie Spargo, Kozzie Pickett, and Melksham (one beautiful flat entry) are the only forward of centre players who can be trusted... I couldn't believe how incredibly lack-lustre and poor some of our players where in this game - especially vis-a-vis Richmond. Max was terrible - and so is the umpiring, you cannot continually whack him in the back of the head, the club needs to raise this with the umpires as per Clarkson, it's not on to protect the head in some situations and yet ignore it in others.

Weidemann is a 5 year plus forward for us still building into his frame. His forward craft running patterns, marking above head, team first etc i'm a very big fan. I think we are flag contenders two years from now, and Sam is a large large part of that.