demoncat

HUGE grab McAdam!

No, no and no IF we were to go after him the time would have been at the end of 2022 when he had just come off a strong year at Freo In hindsight that may have been a better choice than pursuing Grundy, but even then there were doubts about his competitiveness and ability to perform consistently He’s now two years older and hasn’t done his credentials any favours since crossing over to the Dogs Unfortunate for us because in an ideal world he’s exactly the type of player we’re in need of…

A big yes from me - he’d be a top four mid at our club from day one and would add enormously to our 25 and under brigade We’ve also lost significant midfield depth with the retirement of Gus and departure of Jordon and Harmes - and with Viney in the back end of his career there would be a clear role for him long term We couldn’t match the best offer of a club like the Saints, but if he’s looking for a consistent role in a successful team in Victoria, there’s not many other clubs that would be more attractive

Bumping this thread in light of the growing noise that Bailey will be leaving the Doggies at the end of the year: https://www.sen.com.au/news/2024/04/12/bulldogs-ceos-frank-admission-on-smith-contract-talks/ https://www.sen.com.au/news/2024/04/15/two-key-dogs-expected-to-stay-but-club-none-the-wiser-on-bailey-smith/ Would you want the Dees to go after him? 12 months ago I would have been a hard no, but with Gus retiring we’ve been exposed for midfield depth and despite some flaws Bailey is still a top end player who will be coming into the prime of his career and would add to our 18-25 age group of players

A disappointing loss but not an unforeseen one given it was our third game in two weeks and we were coming up against a Premiership contender desperate to make a statement My question for you all is how much of the loss can be attributed to being physically exhausted after our Adelaide road trip vs the systemic problems that were identified around us consistently losing inside 50s, contested possessions and time in fwd half in our last few games? In other words, would simply having fresher legs allowed us to better employ the ‘Red and Blueprint’ binman has been discussing? Or were those statistical losses in our previous games a canary in the coal mine that pointed to larger issues and suggested we were playing in a way that wasn’t sustainable? Look forward to the discussion and go Dees 🔴🔵

Thanks @goodwindees If I’m not being too greedy, do you have any info on where Max Holmes is at with his contract situation? He’s felt like the one that got away from us ever since 2020… Appreciate the info as always 🫡

A very good player and one I’m glad we’re linked to But if I had to pick one player for us to chase this off season it’s Max Holmes He’s an absolute jet and just the type of player who would compliment our existing team Just a shame the Cats beat us to the punch when we wanted to draft him in 2020 😭

Very much looking forward to the pod this week after what was one of our best wins since the 21 GF 🏆 I’m sure this is something that @binman will touch on in his stats file, but I’d love to hear some more discussion about how we set up in this game to score more from turnover and D50 transition To me this game perfectly reflected what Daniel Hoyne said in the clips from last week’s pod - that we’re prepared to wear some bumps early in the season (losing clearance, contested poss, inside 50s etc.) to improve our transition, ball movement and efficiency in F50 And I think we perfectly saw the risk reward element of that style of play - letting Port dominate possession and have more shots on goal, but putting ourselves in a far stronger position to score on the rebound (one stat we did win was rebound 50s) While it will take some getting used to, I think this is a necessary aspect we need to add to our game in order to take that next step (hopefully) come September - but I would love to hear what you all think Go Dees 🔴🔵

Marty Horse sub?

Well Petty better come in and kick six if that’s the case… seems one step forward two steps back with selection these days, although the TMac inclusion looks genius in hindsight, so who knows 🤷‍♂️

Don’t say it don’t say it… CULTURE PROBLEMS

Let’s throw the competitive balance of the league out even more…

Looks a much stronger team than last week (although we’ll be missing Bowey 😢) I’m guessing if BBB is listed then TMac has been bought in to play back? I do like the flexibility he offers and the fact that he can chop out for Max in the ruck Tomlinson stiff but perhaps it’s that flexibility that TMac provides that has him ahead as a preferred tall defender Taj to come on as sub to provide some run in the second half? Would love to see it

I’m as loud and one eyed at the footy as any Pies fan, and there are certainly some Demons fans who could afford to be louder and more demonstrative when the whips are cracking But this narrative from Roffey and Pert that we need to be louder - even if it’s not their intention - is a bit of a kick in the guts to Demons fans who are paying their hard earned to rock up each week At the end of the day people can support the club however they choose. Further - without wanting to put down our players - it’s hard to get loud when we’ve kicked 6 straight behinds and then the opposition waltzes down the other end of the field and kicks a goal to knock us out of finals… Win finals and our membership will grow, play exciting football and fans will cheer louder than ever

Both fair arguments and there is a part of me that agrees And while I do think we have one of the best lists, I don’t think it’s considerably better than that of Brisbane, Pies, GWS or Carlton (and we certainly have certain deficiencies in fwd and depth personnel as described) But I think the key difference is that we’ve seen the potential of our list in 2021 and that potential is considerably higher than what we’ve seen from these other sides (at least in finals) I think that’s what’s hard to get past for so many Demonlanders - when you win a finals series in the manner we did and you’ve got a list that looked ready to compete for many more years (as opposed to Geelong in 2022) it’s difficult to reconcile that with our recent finals failures (despite the legitimate reasons for these losses) It’s all a matter of perspective I guess 🤷‍♂️

Not to turn this into the ‘Is Goody the Right Guy’ thread, but I do think this will be a defining year for Goody Anything less then at least a finals win will be seen as an abject failure and rightly so given the calibre of our list Having said that I actually think Goody’s coaching was much improved last year and our finals exit was more about our fwd line injuries than any one coaching decision And there have been signs this preseason that he’s been trying to adapt our game plan to address our fwd connection and slow ball movement issues But at the end of the day the proof will be results on game day, and we’ve already seen another selection head scratcher with bringing Spargo straight in at the expense of Billings who was one of our best preseason performers The last thing our club needs is to have a Bevo situation where you’re beholden to a coach off the back of a Premiership win, but we also don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water given we’ve shown a lot more consistency than most teams over the past three years Hopefully we won’t need to be having these conversations come the off season, but if you think this club has one of if not the best lists (which I do) then our results need to start matching it, and sooner rather than later

Agree with all of the above My point was more around that intangible feeling that some teams seem to have when they’re on their way to a flag - almost a sense of inevitability And yes I’m very aware that’s perhaps the least analytical way to look at the game 😅

Credit to Carlton - those are the types of wins that Premiership teams look back on as season defining moments that show just how much belief they had in themselves And to be honest the last time I remember a Dees game like that was Round 23 2021 against Geelong Don’t get me wrong - I still think we can win a flag this year and could have won last year if not for our fwd line injuries But jeez sometimes teams just have that intangible aura around them that just propels them to victory - Collingwood had it last year and perhaps the Blues will have it this year

As a young(er) demon in his mid 20s, I can say that the content the club puts up on Tik Tok and other socials doesn’t for it for me at all GWS is easily the best in that space - entertaining content that lets their fans laugh with their favourite players while also providing insight into the day to day of their club life They also post great banter with other clubs - although I recognise with our older supporter base that isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea Our content just seems like we’re always trying to manufacture an entertaining clip, rather than just capturing our players in their element GWS - among other clubs - also does a far better job with their more serious content. Their training, match sim and interview content goes far beyond ours in terms of length and insight If I was a Giants fan I’d feel so connected to the individual players at my club, as well as really in tune with the culture and day to day operations It’s clear we’ve got a long way to go unfortunately

Good analysis @Binmans PA - but I’m curious why you think we should trialling May and Lever as our two defensive talls I thought that was when we looked our most vulnerable defensively last year and thought that having Tomlinson as the third tall settled our defence and allowed Lever to play his intercept game I guess the coaches need to weigh up including a NQR third tall for the sake of structure, or playing only two talls but having more quality and run from our backline That’s why losing Disco for the first half of the season is a big blow - I was really hoping he’d come on and replace Tomlinson early in the season

Thanks for the intel @goodwindees - it isn’t the most exciting free agency class but these are two players who would instantly improve us and be walk up starting 22. I hope the club is putting in some work if they’re not after a bigger target.

The coaches need to find the right balance between maintaining our defensive structure while allowing us better opportunities to score We applied no pressure and our defensive structure was a mess against Richmond - I’d like to see us improve in these areas next week while still putting more speed on the ball to create a more open fwd line A challenge but that’s what the coaches need to do for us to go deep this year Oh and less turnovers pls

Is it a new directive from Goody for our players not to make the distance? So many kicks falling short and dribbling along the ground

Much more positive that qtr - great games from Brown Jr and Windsor in their first outing, and Billings ball use has really stood out

Do I think they’ll play with as little pressure as they are today come Opening Round? No Are there still concerning signs about our disposal and decision making (which have been an issue for years now)? Yes