Nairobi_Demon

We rectified the clearance differential in Q3 and it made all the difference, particularly because if we lost the centre clearance and they got it in their forward 50 we couldn't for the life of us get it out. We managed to rectify clearances largely because Petracca spent more time in the middle.

Super excited that Salem is back - that is all I have to say 😁

This is certainly a valid point of view and worth considering. I guess it comes down to the intention of the name change. It could be about the club respecting the traditional owners but it also could be about popularising the use of aboriginal language and particularly place names amongst us all. My understanding—and I’m reaching back to my undergrad anthropology classes so happy to stand corrected—is that many important places have multiple names, some of which are more sensitive/secret and some public. My assumption is that narrm would be from the public lexicon and thus appropriate to use. As an aside, my understanding is that Geelong is derived from the aboriginal word jillong and relates to the location a certain bird is or perhaps was commonly found. We use quite a few aboriginal place names and other terms in our Australian English, often unknowingly.

Can’t recall if we discussed this last year, but is it possible to change the name of “demonland” to “narrmland” for the next two weeks? Realise that Narrm replaces Melbourne, not the demons per se, but it could be a nice nod to the club’s initiative.

I heard the government was planning to call it Monarchy Day but I’m a long way from home - any truth to that?

For a few weeks now I’ve felt our handball decision making has been poor and passing/receiving skills sloppy and often fumbly. The Choco kicking clinic has for the most part worked wonders, do we need a Choco handballing clinic?

Fantastic interview. Seems like such a relaxed and genuine chap.

There were multiple times that he seemed to be fanning or patting his chest, I think towards the bench. Like he was having trouble breathing. Does he always do that?

I’m excited by JVR but it looked like he was well beaten by Balta for the first three quarters. Was it only after Balta moved forward or was perhaps rested and a much younger player was on JVR that he found his space and groove? The fact that JVR didn’t hang his head and grabbed the opportunity says a lot - he’ll learn to play on more experienced defence but it’s that attitude that excites me most.

Grateful for the panels comment on the lack of pressure and run through the middle - it seemed we just couldn’t go with them and they had spare players everywhere, they just waltzed through the middle, and could enter their fwd 50 with little pressure on the ball carrier, thus asking the impossible of our defence. The question is why? Reading between the lines of Goody’s presser, he acknowledged that they would review their preparation during the week but he seemed to suggest that he didn’t think this was the reason for why it didn’t look like Melbourne. I don’t buy the missing player argument and I don’t think Goody was entertaining it either: a game should still “look like Melbourne” even with a few missing players. Indeed, that is why we have Casey playing with the same approach. If it’s not preparation, not missing players and not niggles so early in the season, it must be effort/attitude. Even if you don’t fully agree that attitude was an important explanatory factor, I’d be curious for the panel’s thoughts on what concrete actions the coaches can take, particularly when it’s not about the performance of one or two individuals but seemingly most of the squad? You arguably can’t just single out one or two players and push them back to Casey and you also can’t dump half the squad but, at the same time, surely some accountability is necessary if a ruthless culture is to be built and sustained. Sorry, this has turned into a long question and commentary so feel free to weave into the discussion as you see fit.

Fantastic interview, very insightful, and for me it confirmed loading around the bye is a thing 👍

Cats can’t get it into their fwd line at all, Pies helped by favourable umpire decisions on around their half back, but gee the Pies play fast

Which team do you think is our biggest threat?

McVee seemed to be on him quite a lot

Thanks Heart Break. I’ve been receiving other emails like voting at the recent AGM and this week a 40% voucher for the store, but I’ll shoot them an email 👍

That seems very inefficient

Not received anything yet

Can someone post the score? (can’t watch unfortunately)

Thanks for sharing. I’m surprised fitness was summarily dismissed by Richardson. For me, we just couldn’t physical run out games in the later half of the season including the finals.

A fit Melbourne the only team that could have got close to the Cats this year. Makes me more confident that the Dees game plan still stacks up - will be interesting to see how the Pies and Swans play next year. But Cats are the team to beat next year. They’re strong, fit and there’s no clear weaknesses across the ground. We need to respond.

More than team changes, I’d like to see changes to where individual players line up. Specifically, and as others have noted in other threads, I’d like to see Brayshaw back to the wing, Harmes rotating through the middle, and more of Max in the ruck.

Re-watched the second half last night and I was pleasantly surprised to remember that we were competitive until about half way through the third quarter and then really struggled. Indeed, we were ahead on the tackle count well into the third quarter But my sense was—but others at the ground would know better—that it wasn’t everyone that was struggling in the last third but mostly the centre/mid-field cohort, particularly Viney, Brayshaw, Harmes, Jackson and obviously Petracca. These players were often slow/late to effect a spoil, failed to provide overlap run, were caught ball watching, and struggled to defend and tackle. They certainly did not look like they were running over the top of the ground and hitting their peak in terms of performance (unlike round 23). They can’t have suddenly lost the fitness levels they possessed in round 23, so some key alternative explanations are: a) they went too hard last week and got the bye training schedule wrong (still a fitness variable, but a short term one) b) more of the team were effected by gastro than the club has let on (a health/fitness variable) c) there were knock-on effects from Petracca’s injury in that others in the middle had to compensate for his poor movement and thus they ran out steam (a mid-game fitness variable) c) the mid-field group under-estimated the Swans and/or were deflated by incidents like Harmes giving away 50m, the Melksham-Spargo goal debacle, Melksham and Gawn’s poor goal kicking when it mattered, etc which gave them a feeling that nothing was going right on the night (more an attitudinal variable, but one that may have compounded the above) When I make this list, it forces me to realise that they’re all short-term variables that can be remedied, and quickly. And therefore I’m quietly confident that we’ll see a different performance on Friday and in the PF. That is not to say that there aren’t other issues (we need another tall forward, I still feel like we’re waiting for the Choco skill improvement, etc) but they are medium-long-term improvements and they can’t explain the difference in performance between round 23 and the QF. Perhaps not so “quietly confident” given I’m posting this on demonland 😁

Really thought provoking comment Xecutioner. Our game plan/system is kryptonite for team's like Brisbane (as is Tiger's, hence their close match this round) as well as the pre-2022 version of the Cats game plan. But it does seem like we struggle against teams like Sydney and Collingwood. It's one of the reasons I was not as confident that we could repeat round 23 against other teams in the finals. I still think our best can beat the likes of the Swans, but just focusing on our respective strategies/systems, does the esteemed panel think our system can beat the systems/strategies of the Pies, the new Geelong, and the Swans like it can beat the Lions, Dogs, (that is, thrash them)? Or should we and the team prepare for closer, more hard fought games? P.S. I know our system requires a high level of fitness, but I'd be curious for you to discuss system vs system. That is, assume we have adequate fitness to play our system and they have adequate fitness to play their system, e.g., we're not unduly effected by loading and they are not unduly effected by end of season fading out.

This is the key question/issue for me. AFL's All Access Areas (AAA) had some good vision of us continuingly bombing it to the pocket during the Swans game but, as Deeminion points out, we seemed to use a very different approach when our top 4 spot was on the line in round 23. Did we underestimate the Swans and opt to keep our powder dry for the PF in terms of our a forward entry strategies? As AAA suggested, do we need to take more risk going forward if we want to secure a winning score? And does the low risk but taxing long bomb approach expose us on the rebound and/or mentally drain the team when we don't manage to score?

Like @Hatchman, I use the Watch AFL app. Specifically the version available on an Apple TV. Works very well. You receive a subscription with the international MFC membership, which is about the same price as a yearly subscription with watchafl.com. But you get to support the club for the same price (I assume they get a discount on the subscription price). You can also buy short-term weekly and final series packages subscriptions on the watchafl website. We had a thread on this late last year if you're looking for more info: P.S. I'll be watching from Nairobi on the odd chance there are any Dees fans here. We usually host a small GF party but currently only know of Hawks and North supporters.