Altona-demon

Sam strikes me as one of those players that everyone wants to come right, but might never do it, and there you go you've gifted 80 games to a player before you realise that while he looked good, looked like he could, and had all the "traits", he just wasn't very good. I've heard arguments that we have done it before (Oscar Mac may be another example) - but this is not an argument for the club doing it again, if anything the reverse is true, we shouldn't make the same mistake. Is there a better KPF talent that we can obtain ? Some thoughts - Carlton in disarray, could we chase a McKay? Gary Rohan out of contract at Geelong - can play bigger and would be a great addition to our forward line? Callum Coleman Jones also OOC. Mitch Wallis at the Dogs - could be a handy mid-sized pressure leading forward. I admire what the Lions and the Doggies have been able to do with Daniher and Bruce respectively to top up their forward lines. Do we need to think about the same thing?

Just a post to share some analysis of the video highlights of Sam on AFL Stats Pro Discover - StatsPro (afl.com.au) Involvements Analysis: 1. 1:19 (1st Quarter): Gently pushed under the ball - but misses a mark he should take. Follows up with second effort to make close proximity tackle (split contest/territory gain) 2. 2 minutes into 2nd Quarter: Ball down the line. TMac goes at the ball, Weid stays back and makes immediate behind tackle once possession is gained by Brisbane player. (territory gain/split contest) 3. Contested possession (although very debateable) 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter. Nice handball to a bursting Max Gawn. Working high up the ground (almost defensive 50) 4. Uncontested mark on transition play off half back - 12 minutes into the 3rd quarter. 5. Contested possession - gets in front of defender and drops (?) mark he maybe should have taken. Second effort to handball to space and advantage of Melb player. 6. Fourth quarter: catches touched kick, explodes and creates separation, then turns the ball over to Lions. 7. Fourth quarter: groundball get and low handball to Sparrow - which Sparrow spills and then kicks an unlikely goal from edge of 50. Summary points: 1. He is working very high up the ground, and also being able to get back into forward 50 and create a contest. That's a tick. 2. Game is suffering from inaccuracy - but he appears to be in the right place at the right time. So promising.

Hi DL'ers hoping to get some help here on best way to get tickets for this Friday's game. I am a GA Member Home and Away, but have about 8 non-member friends and we want to sit together. What's the best approach? Do I just buy all the tickets in my one transaction? I've found ticketek very confusing this year so a bit lost. Is it right that we will have to wait until Wednesday to access tickets?

Would be great to get a huge huge crowd to this and really let them know what sort of hell is coming for their irrelevant booing club.

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.