rpfc

6 minutes ago, A F said:

Yeah, good call, he wasn't dropped, he had concussion. But he didn't come back for the Geelong game, which was well outside the concussion protocol period, so essentially had to bide his time.

In retrospect, that was a mistake not to play him down there.

His kicking is elite and needed but he can be found out in 1-1s. I don’t envy MC towards the back end of the season and finals.

Some hard truths for fans to accept to live more comfortably:

The Demons are a defence first team in the Ross Lyon mould.

Demonland:

Gawn’s days of AA footy are over.

Deeland:

Pickett’s games are earned on his defensive work.

Dland:

BBB is our best tall forward.

Andy’s house of pain:

They should just fold Freo and WCE together…

Re: Melksham - with Sparrow’s sealer, Melksham engaged his defender leading at the ball at exactly the right time to protect his teammate and not give away a free. I think it was Howard?? Anyway, this is the more nuanced forward craft and selflessness that I have been banging on about - do we work for each other? Do we lead out of space to allow others? Do we protect our teammates and help them excel? 

Jake is in his last season in football and he is still contributing and we should applaud it and be thankful. We are in between forward line eras atm and he may help to bridge it and keep us competitive this year.

Just ride with it.

Freo was always going to Freo this up, but to do it with Carlton as the antagonist?? With the writers on strike right now it’s as good a plot to a movie as any… 

If AI wrote that not only did Freo lose at home to put themselves in the bottom 5, but they did it to Carlton AND by ten goals… if AI wrote that you would be like ‘what is this stilted, tired, fantastical nonsense…’

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

They could win only one of those games and I wouldn’t be shocked. Likewise they could win 5. They’re an enigma. 
Hopefully with their season dead they’ll stop trying. 

With Eeyore Longmuir in charge I would think they will give up and find other hobbies in their life; woodworking or paint-by-numbers…

11 minutes ago, deejammin' said:

Freo’s run home:

Collingwood at the G

Sydney in Perth

Geelong in Geelong

Lions in Perth

Eagles in Perth

Port in Perth

Hawks at the G

At worst we’re getting pick 7 at best, 4!

1 hour ago, Demon4ever said:

God I hope not. He does look a bit flat at the moment. He doesn't scream confidence. 

You have seen the best of Max.

Deal with it.

The FD have decided the 4 more years of Max as back up/fwd is better than 2 as the primary. 

I would have made a similar gamble if it was me - but I would also have a stern talking to Max about how to be a fwd and keep him in the theatrette at AAMI Park watching video every week for 3 hours…

We all need to realise that for us to be great the next few years; Grundy is our number one and Gawn’s first duty is as a forward.

4 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

🤣🤣

I ******* hate Melbourne. Pack of elitist arrogant underachieving [censored].

At least they shouldn't go anywhere this year. They are s**t. They are the most unlikable small club on earth. I love an underdog but they are lepers. They need their own island.

For most of my life I'd only ever known them and their fans as the perennially rebuilding, miserable blokes. These RM Williams, puffer jacket wearing, investment banker *s need to get back down toward the bottom end of the ladder.

Well that’s not nice.

8 minutes ago, Abyssal said:

Quote all the stats you like, 

Grundy was poor, Gawn was a long way from his best, Pickett was a passenger and MFC were unimpressive winning against a side who lost 3 players to injury early in the game.

If We lost in the same circumstances as StKilda, everyone on this Forum would be bemoaning how Unlucky we were.

GCDee’s original post was completely reasonable and certainly NOT Dreadful.

PS. Do you get “paid by the word” ?

 

So… lots of upside?

3 minutes ago, old55 said:

Ross Lyon's teams rarely lose big. That was St.Kilda's 3rd biggest loss of the year, they've list by more than 5 goals only once and their two biggest losses were to the two highest scoring teams Brisbane and Adelaide.

We held them to their 3rd lowest score of the year and we did it at their home ground.

St.Kilda played very high pressure football and are 5th for a reason. Yes we needed to win after they were down 2 rotations (not 3 as many have posted), but they were down two talls not 2 runners. Yes the talls play high gametime but that's because they don't run as much.

We're "defence first", the 2nd best defensive team, and we just out defended the 3rd best defensive team after beating the best defensive team on KBW.

Our game style wins big finals. We lost last year because we were too beaten up, not because of fundamental game style flaws. We're always in the game and have only lost by more than 3 goals only once this year.  

Someone is going to have to beat us to win the flag and that won't be easy.

Yes, I do sometimes stop and think about that. No team relishes playing us, and as I said in another thread last week - we should always be in games and a chance to win, even with our known forward issues.

6 hours ago, A F said:

Yes and no. Tonight we got some of our slingshot ball movement going again that's been missing since Round 10.

Coast to coast goals have been rare in the last 6 weeks, but we got a few of them tonight.

We relied heavily on stoppage goals early, so our turnover game was not there, our press was cut through early too. Quick teams will always do well against a press. Thankfully May is a great backstop.

It was hard to see on TV but we looked like we weren’t as aggressive with the high press and allowed more chains off half back - by definition it creates more spaces for forwards if you with it quick.

6 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

Riiiggggggghhhhhhhhhhtttttttt?

Theres a lot of ‘from my couch the players look lazy’ going on.

Are those that went to the game doing wind sprints in the aisles?

Give me a break. 

Ross the Boss has that team committed… what a great pressure performance from them.

I think that we only won because of our efficient forward line and our desire to lower our eyes (on occasion). 
 

Ahhhh.

Let’s just take the contested possession loss as an aberration. 

Move on.

Sigh

1 hour ago, A F said:

This is what I was implying in my post.

When Channel 9 used some data from one of our recent games, they didn't compare it to our shots across the entirety of the season, they used one game earlier in the year as a comparison. That's not a big enough sample size, and they basically used a small data sample to fit the narrative that we're suffering forward connection and taking harder shots from more difficult angles, hence inaccuracy. It's a really shallow, lazy analysis. 

Further, many Demonlanders have bought the line that we don't go central and are too safe with our ball movement.

Our problem in these situations I believe (as you say above), is that we go too slowly to the central hot spot, but we're still taking risks by going centrally. As you and @WheeloRatings have pointed out, there are more exits for the opposition to expose on turnover in these situations.

Compare this to last year in the second half of the season, and I reckon the data would tell us that we went to the pockets far more often than this year. Therefore, I'd argue Goody has changed this too up, but managed to maintain defensive integrity behind the ball even when we do go centrally. Part of this is likely allowing the opposition the +1 at the contest and using our player as an interceptor across the forward 50 for dump kicks, and to potentially prevent the opposition chaining out.

I don’t think we are as bad as last year when it was obvious (to me at least) that we were kicking long to the near side pocket to protect our beaten up and beaten down mids and half forwards and minimise the sieve that we were for most of last year. 

So we are not as bad but you can’t argue our entries are anything but troublesome atm. We rarely spot up 65m out and go to 20m with a quick direct kick, we rarely hit to a lead after some forward movement and craft, and at our best we get a few transition ‘lollipop hands into the square’ goals.

On the forward structure; the MC is putting its faith in the smaller and older brigade to provide that lead up and movement and I can’t blame them for moving in that route - for example, JVR was being ‘trained’ to the slow play pack form movement and it’s hard for kids to lead into spots the ball never goes…

As for our defensive structure; it’s great, we can rarely turn the screws, but that’s when you need smart delivery and forward craft even more, when the ground is smaller because you made it smaller.

Great player, perfect blend of skill and hardness. 

Still would take him, Dom and Jayden over Kelly…

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah we are in trouble, you haven't watched us the last month?

I still have hope our best tall forward can right the ship. Although I recently rewatched mighty ducks 2 so I might be just affected by that.

11 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

But was Tomlinson dropped?

Fair chance he would have been told before selection for round 12 he would come in for X number of games to cover X player so there would no reason to be huffy about it, if in fact he is.

He went out for Petty.  It is Petty's spot.  The defence has been very settled since his last game in round 13.

This is the time to bed down our best 22 for finals.  There isn't room for Tomlinson in defence. 

Petty was coming back from injury and came back after repeated noises from Goodwin about him playing forward. Tomlinson shows a 3rd tall is still intrinsic to Lever performing well and our press clicking and then suddenly the Petty Forward Experiment is done…

Adam can feel hard done by.

38 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

64,976 as of today.....now less than the same time last year!

I think prospective members like points more than Inside 50s… 

#territorygame #kickitlongbutdontsingthesong

2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The selection committee have lost the plot. Where the hell is JVR? Who is going to kick our goals? I'm not too concerned with the other changes but they had to recall JVR, that's a shocking decision.

If we are relying on a stifled and poorly supplied 19 year old to kick a winning score - we are in huge trouble.

20 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Yeah wouldn't you hate to be that [censored] who talks rubbish about players personal lives on an internet.

Stick to the banner thread.

Oh, and can they just do some dusting at Marvel? It’s all coated in dust.

The MC must be really worried about their pace off HB at the Saints on that deck…

Surprised at JVR but this just means I was right - he wasn’t ‘managed’ he was dropped and that is ok, he should come back in soon and be better for it.

Glad Melksham gets to 100 with some semblance of form and Brown can straighten us up to some degree. He has great forward craft and leading patterns - we need to unlock it this year to win finals, especially without Fritsch.

19 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Love the touch of having Yze announce it. 

Special. Loved his old man back in the day - preaching to the choir here obviously. Can’t wait to see how Taj goes. 

I love the way we build our young players in the VFL and let them loose when the time is right. It’s common in this team now for players to be well im to their second or even third year before they get picked. Great development.

I feel like we have done that so well that now I am pitching in the other direction - get Howes and Woey in, JVR needs to be a regular next year, Laurie needs 6 games to see if he is up to it, Turner needs opportunities etc. 

This is why I am comfortable with some turnover of more than just the obvious players (Harmes, Jordon etc) - we need to provide opportunities.