Kozzie4PM

Can't wait for this game. We were 8/9 against the top 5 in 2021. Didn't win a game against the top 4 in 2022. How you go against the other contenders is a good indicator. Not saying Port are a contender but they are going pretty well atm and this will be a good test.

8 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Why, oh why, have the TV broadcasters gone back to using so many close-ups of live action? It becomes impossible to determine what the action is that we're supposed to be watching. I'm OK with using the close-up for replays when detail might be of interest, but the flow of the game is impossible to ascertain when the close-ups are being used of live play.

For the last year or two, possibly more, they had abandoned the close-up for live play. That was so much better. Whoever the bright spark is who thought it was a good idea to re-introduce it should be given their marching orders. 

Agree. So annoying. Found myself screaming "show the [censored] game" about 4 times on sat.

22 hours ago, A F said:

Obviously, he's brilliant, but quicker ball movement and targeting the central channels/lanes rather than the pockets increases the likelihood of positive conversion. So as usual, it's never just one factor.

The 'expected' stat takes into account where the shots are from.

19 hours ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

I’m heading down the M1 for the game, I’m also taking my 7 year old to his first AFL game, I certainly hope we’re switch on at the first bounce, the game at the Gabba wasn’t a great outing for Demons supporters (especially those that cracked the [censored] and left when the lights went out……)

Have a great time!

23 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Couldn’t find the best place to plant this but given this is the main thread in the lead up to game day though I’d share.

Hoiney (spelling?) from CD tonight on SEN mentioned our #1 PF scoring is a bit misleading on the quality of our footy. Good kicking is good footy I know, but I think the message is that we aren’t flying as the top 2 position might represent and that we come back a little on the ladder if we were afl avg in set shot accuracy.

 Similarly the Pies are abysmal  in the turnover scoring game. They didn’t really talk about our downside atm  but given there was nothing glaring is a good sign that we are just not in the best form - which you don’t want to be I. April / May. 

My understanding of that goalkicking thing is we are 11% above expected. If you subtract that from our scores our win/loss record remains the same.

That said - all that matters during the season is winning 16 games and beating the other contenders. We are 0/1 in the latter. Looking forward to the Collingwood and Geelong games to see where we're at.

Awesome stat. Choco had a massive impact on our field kicking when he arrived and now he's working his magic on our goal kicking.

6 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

We should not ever relax and be complacent after missing the finals in 2017 because of a couple of goals worth of percentage.

Lucky we won by 15 then.

5 hours ago, BDA said:

Bernie Vince is one of my favourite former dees players. The first decent trade in Yonks , provided great service during a rebuild and you can tell the club means a lot to him. Great bloke. Not sure about that Sunday evening dross on fox footy though but no one’s perfect. 

Loved Bernie. Brought a bit glamour to the side during the at times dour rebuild.

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Coaches votes are a lot more accurate about a players game than the Brownlow.

I agree. But surely track pinches votes off clarry in the coaches award just as much as the brownlow.

16 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Bloody Trac is why Clarry won’t win a Brownlow by the way. And why Trac won’t win one either.  Rude 😂

If clarry can win the coaches' award he can win the brownlow.

Fair to say my concerns about the 5 day break were ill-founded.

1 hour ago, Demon Disciple said:

Heading in to Flinders St Station to meet up with brother before game. Any good eats suggestions?

Good potato cakes on platform 1

47 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

If it’s any consolation the two teams (Dogs and Crows) that have a played on a 5-day break so far have both won. It is what it is unfortunately, will happen to every team.

Scrap that, Saints lost last night after 5 days. Carry on.

That's interesting. I checked those results and they were both playing sides that had a six day break like we are tonight. I always thought that once you get have a 5 day break if the other team has a longer break you are in big trouble. But those results show otherwise - thank you. I'll revise my prediction up to a 45 point win 😂

I'm surprised there's not more mention of the 5 day break. It's a huge factor. Clarkson can easily get them playing a really defensive style that keeps them in it until 3 qt. I'm thinking an ugly, tense 25 pt win.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

Fair point; Hibberd's 2017 season was a masterclass of the mid-sized defender.

Mind you, even that was only an incremental step up from his time at Essendon where he was an extremely promising young player. 4th in Essendon B&F in 2013 and 2014, and 8th in the 2015 team slump (Year 'off' in 2016, of course). Remarkably only 6th in our B&F in his All-Australian season.

I should refine my point to say that even when the numbers and the fanfare dropped away dramatically after that first spectacular season with us, he continued to be an immense contributor by doing a difficult job extremely well.

I mean, the poor guy has spent years being the go-to match up for Charlie Cameron and I'd argue has done as well as anyone at that. Actually, I looked through some figures and the interesting stat that caught my attention is that CC averages just one mark inside 50 per game against us, and I think that would be substantially the Hibbo effect and the culture of defenders working for each other which Hibberd has so greatly contributed to.

Also had a very good GF. 

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

Strangely enough, he played his 'best' football for Essendon, but he has played his 'most valuable' football for us.

Could easily have retired at the end of any of the last four seasons and nobody would have thought it was too early.

He's smart, persistent and role-focused. Those things don't decline with age.

 

Was an all-Australian at the dees.

Maxy is such a dangerous forward with his contested marking. His kicking is below average but not as bad as many think. Having Grundy means that Max can spend more time forward - which is a huge plus.

What about when we could've got Kelly, but we got Tyson, Salem and Hunt?

Any time you're on a 5 day break and the opponent has a 6 day break, it's a massive danger game.

3 hours ago, FritschyBusiness said:

Brown kicked 4 goals in both the first two games of the year and looked great. 
He plays on the oppositions best defender and we don't kick it well to his (or anyone inside 50's) advantage. 
That is the problem, the players dump kick half the time to the oppositions advantage wasting 40% of our inside 50s. 

And yet we are the second highest scoring team in the comp.

12 hours ago, Superunknown said:

I know it’s early, but gee the ladder looks grim.

Need to get a wriggle on, what!

I don’t know what’s in the water down at Moorabbin, but I’ll have some, please!

16 wins gets top 4. 15 wins gets top 4 about half the time. So we can only lose 4, maybe 5 more games. 

3 hours ago, binman said:

Agree.

One of the biggest myths in footy is wet weather is an equaliser.

Teams with good skills, like we have shown this season, are advantaged in the wet over teams with poor skills because generally good skill is a function of good technique and good technique stands up better in wet condtions (and when windy too for that matter, not to mention pressure).

I'd add we are a contested ball team, which is another advantage we bring into this match as wet weather usually means lots of ground balls.

All that said, we could luck out and miss any heavy rain. radar look ok and the heavy rain and thunderstorms are not forecast to hit until the evening

I reckon the wet weather being an equaliser thing is a throw back to the days when rain would make the ground muddy. Now it just makes the ground an ice rink.

On 4/12/2023 at 8:46 PM, FlashInThePan said:

In the podcast he mentioned that they typically use the bye round to do an additional running load block which helps set up fitness levels for the back half of the year. He mentioned that last year they didn’t have that ability but he didn’t say how heavily it impacted the program.

Hmmm.

Thank you for that.

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

And no proper bye for the 2nd year in a row (as Selwyn mentioned on the Demonland podcast).

Did Selwyn say it had a substantial impact?

2 hours ago, demon3165 said:

Would not get carried away with a win against a completely undermanned side but you can only play against what is there, so,

I still stand by my statement that Viney has no football IQ and the first half showed that but in the second half he did what he did back in late 21 and through out the finals series see ball get ball and pass it off no thinking plays a lot better and does hurt sides when he does this.

Brayshaw, not sure what is going on there, seems to be either not happy he's playing H/B or confidence is down seems to be second guessing what he wants to do with the ball.

McVee, getting better and better, Salam might spend some time at Casey if he keeps improving ( adds that Hunt speed ).

Tmac, not much competition against him and the ground suited him, still backup for me.

Chandler, well here is a surprise on how he has come on, makes good decisions always thinking of the next move, good goal sense.

Kossie, I am one who believes his best position is in the Forward line, not sure he can handle the heat in the middle on a regular basis. 

JVR love the fact that he crashes the packs hard chases at full pace, but needs work on his marking, he need to keep his hands forward not bent backwards in trying to mark it causes to lack of strength in the hands, but still like him there.

Petty, bit at sea but the way they brought the ball in no wonder, when all your forwards fly at once you don't have much hope, the forward line still needs a lot of work, cannot fathom why when the ball is around the H/F line everyone stands still move for heavens sake open it up, learn to make holes, take your opponent out of the area.  Is it worth persevering only if they change the set up.

Grundy, played against well not their best, but the best part of it for me, he got great game time and fitness time will only get better.

If Hibbo is injured, and after watching Casey Disco would have to come in and would be a good replacement.

One thing I was happy about there was several times that 2-3 players held back on the backline so when the eagles the ball chipped around in the backline, players were there, not to give them a chance to move it on quickly.

I would love to see a change in set up in the forward line, instead of all lining up like ducks in a row take the H/F's further out, same with pockets creates a hole, can give you multiple aiming points, radical I know but we don't have a real power marking forwards.

The second half the Eagles stated to run out of steam and class but like some of there young ones.

 

We are the highest scoring team in the comp by a mile averaging 114.25 points per game. I think the forward line might be operating a little better than you think.