rpfc

When your trust between your players is just a little off, it shows when you play teams (like us last year) that; don’t second guess a quick hand pass, make the effort to run past for overlap, leave their man to impact the contest. The boys have looked ‘tight’ all year and we have not prioritised our own pressure game all year and I would love to know why. Form is not to be flirted with; if it is such a taxing game style then rotate players through the forward line. That is my main critique of the FD this year, and tbh the whole club, we just seem rather arrogant in how we go about things. Altering your forward pressure game style because your defence CAN absorb it most of the year is, I am sorry, an arrogant and misguided thing to do IMO.

In fairness, we are already very young. However, watching Lever, Kozzie, and a couple others play through obvious injuries is something that I will not understand. Part of being this good is that you should be able to use your squad. I get all players play through ‘niggles’ but Lever for instance was in so much pain and discomfort he took his boot off at half time in games for a month there.

Reality will decide that soon enough. I hold out hope.

Our scrappy forward line can get us there but they need to lift their pressure and the whole team needs to execute skills better on transition. We aren’t doing that. It’s not cattle, it’s the cattle not doing what they did do last year under pressure.

I’m learning that contested footy isn’t necessarily King when it comes to finals footy. Pressure on that contested possession and what you do with it in transition when you win it back is now our true sire. All hail King Pressure Rating and Queen Turnover Differential! Long May they reign. Avoid weddings or drinking anything at weddings if I know my GoT…

Get over the Lions and get yourself to a PF and if that forward line can click and get good connection suddenly you are in a GF and we can beat anybody. It is so open this year that we should still have expectations on ourselves to perform in a PF. As a fan of this great collection of players that is all I ask; get yourself into a position to get to a PF and give it a red hot crack.

I’m sorry, I can’t recall that encounter. I can imagine the opinion though.

We can find the space, last and least of the worries.

Well how do you think Chandler or Bedford get in?? Getting there??

How is that? We had LJ money plus the cap is going up $600k, plus Tomlinson can be moved $500k, plus delistings/retirements…

I was waiting for this bump. I was worried earlier in the season with how we were playing and I said that loading was a ‘red herring’ and this is what I meant. Loading is a real thing that the best teams do, but you’re not meant to be revealed like we were revealed with some of those performances in 2nd halves in the middle of the season. We are not moving the ball well, have little dare and run, and our forward line can’t compete against defences that are set up. And they also allow the ball out too easily.

How did you wake up? Do you realise that we are not as good a ‘team’ right now as Sydney? I honestly don’t know what you are flagellating with me about. The fact I wouldn’t fire Goodwin? The fact that I don’t agree our galaxy of stars means we should automatically win? Teams win flags, not individuals.

Not really, he’s playing an important role for others. I would suck up that structural loss, simplify the game a bit and get Chandler or Bedford in.

You could put Sparrow into midfield more and bring another forward in. Too many mids in the forward line anyway.

The problem, and it is an actual problem, is that ANBs role is built into the structure of the team both offensively AND defensively. In essence, he does things to cover players in the D50 and he helps free up Petracca in the F50. He is so out of touch and low on confidence that he does need to be replaced but I don’t think we can replace him until the summer. He does this thing that players down on talent or form do where they will get the footy but trudge into players to avoid having to try (and fail) to get it to a teammate. If it were me, I would drop him and free up the forward line immediately and say to the team - we are playing an actual forward line so you won’t have protection or blocks in congestion - just get your dare back and get it moving.

Huh? Sydney are a better team. Might want to reread it, champ. And maybe calm down. Your stream of consciousness is weighing down the servers.

What a melt down by some of you, we weren’t great but wholesale changes after you lose a QF to a great team? You all drank your own bath water on this Demons team. Last year in Perth was lightning in a bottle. We are not some god team that will CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. We are a good team with a scrappy fwd line that really struggles to move the footy in transition and good teams prey on us for that.

Also, you don’t need a period in a title. @Demonstoneweren’t you making threads specifically to address this illiteracy amongst the posters here?

The team gets a bit inert against a good team in a final and Goodwin is toast?? Sheesh. How many marriages have you been through?

This makes more sense when you accept that we just don’t move the ball forward well, certainly not like last year even before the finals. This scrappy patch work forward line is fun to root for but it is not in the top 6 forward lines in the game, and they are t helped by our inert style. Melksham is nearing the end and was fine if he could kick straight. ANB is not a forward and plays like it, he does so much work for the team (but can Chandler or a Bedford do that next year), Brown is playing manfully but asked too much, LJ and Gawn are a sitcom in the forward line, and Spargo, Fritsch and Kozzie can go for a half and not see it and they are our actual forwards with great forward craft and movement. That’s the realisation we all have to get to - just enjoy that ragtag group. The less enjoyable is how boring and inert we are in transition. Sydney showed us what we were like last year, hands after a mark, overlap running. We have turned it on for a quarter or a game (usually against the Lions) but we stick to a real battling slow movement game and to a forward line that needs quick delivery because they can’t compete against the best defences when they are setup. Sydney were great, they pressured us and then suffocated us but that is something we fell into. Unless we can find our drive, flair, and dare - we are not going anywhere this year and it is not the blame of our forward line alone.

We had 91k in 2018 against an interstate team when we played Geelong. So doable.

You seem centred… Enjoy the day.

I was sitting in front of an essendon coterie box at the G that were laughing at the replay on their screens when it happened…

I get the merit of this but that hit from Long on Simmonds was a dog act. This video lionises it. Yeah I was triggered.