Hellfire Dub

This is only good news if he gets his confidence back and SG plays him where he belongs down back. Not forward or ruck where in many games we may as well be a man down

Be fair Binman, I put my money where my mouth is. I pay for Redlegs and go to pretty much every home and Melbourne based game every year and bring my older two with me when I can. They're also junior members. I'm delighted that Goody led us to the 2021 flag, but I'm genuinely frustrated and upset by the years since and by this season most of all. You love the Dees too so you'll want us to win everything we can and be our best. You can't be happy with what's happening lately and there are contributing causes? Coaching and forward line coaching and latterly midfield issues are a big part of our struggles. I agree with VDL in that I think numerous other coaches have figured out ways to beat our setup. This has led to lower ranked teams targeting us as a scalp they can take when we should be good enough to win. A predictable thing that could change for the better might be Goody's viewpoint on the game. I think him being at the bench is a negative thing and he'd have a better view of the game from up high (like me!). Is this something that's lacking since Yze left? It's not in Goody's nature to have knee jerk reactions, but the higher seats give you a clear view of what's happening. For example when teams are setting up to lose the bounce; or when they're leaving someone outside to benefit from the contest; or when they're going chipping around our zone or whatever other tactic the oppo coach is employing. An earlier reaction and changes could have won some of those games. I think him being at the bench is a desire to have an emotional and verbal connection with the players. To me it seems like a general commanding from a bunker with incomplete information and a poor overview of the battlefield. I don't think he needs to be their friend during the game, but he needs to be a cold analytic leader. As you keep saying yourself we're not far off. On the whole the defence and contest serves us well. We do well when we don't blaze away with high aimless panicked kicks from midfield. We do well when we don't all flood the 50 at either end. We do well when it's not boring predictable slow ball down the line. By contrast I find it joyful when players take a moment to look inside for a low delivery on an angle or to a lead. Doing the same things over and over and losing is the frustration. Especially when everyone in the stands can see it unfolding but nothing changes. This is particularly the case with inductive ineffective forward patterns, delivery and pressure. A few victories would make all the difference on the ladder and for many of those games it just needed a couple more timely goals.

Hi VDL, I'd like us to be more predictable in some aspects. When your friends ask you questions like "ooh are you a bit worried about the Eagles this week?" or "any nerves about North today" that I could confidently reply "Nah we'll whip those bottom placed sides and boost our percentage". Same thing with a WhatsApp message that came in at 3/4 time last week: "season on the line, back up at 5th... For Now!" I had to ignore it and not reply because I knew our coach and his staff will find a new way to break our spirit. In reality we're too nice and too boring. We didn't stick up for Gussy and we don't call out [censored] umpiring or AFL shafting. Our coach trots out meaningless cliches and platitudes so often that I think he's brainwashed himself. Yet he's unpredictable in doing stuff that goes completely against wisdom like persisting with players out of form or position. I predict we'll still be here having the same arguments next year and the root cause will still be on his journey of learnings.

Yes, we saw that too and commented on it. It was remarkable for how significantly they celebrated it and him. I'd love to see him get back his confidence and play good football again. I think that would happen quickly if he returns to defensive duties. The poor fella seems really unhappy. Most Dees fans I've talked with over the past few weeks have the sense that things just aren't quite right at the club and with the team at the moment. It's mystifying

I was there but there was little to cheer for. I'm glad we played so many young players, but someone deserves a go ahead of Petty next week. Many of us were dying inside watching our midfield unnecessarily hack kick the ball up high and lose it to a 2v1 or straight to an opposition mark. Then not chasing back and letting a bad side score without being tackled. It felt like a car crash where everything goes in slow motion and we would inevitably let the umpires and the bottom placed side win. That last quarter was excruciating to watch and I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed a win less than this? It a truly a Bad Win

Someone has drunk too many Bevos QBD. The only reason Bevo should be taking over is if this cold snap deepens sharply and our Demon Hell has frozen over.

Did Preuss ever play in a match alongside Big Maxy?

Because we are consistently doing the "learnings"

Related to the article and not the author: At one of the games earlier this year before the bad losses, I was so frustrated at what I was seeing I resorted to shouting out from the stand "Max can't do it all on his own". That's how it felt for a lot of the game. He'd pop up in Defence and then moments later he was marking up the field. That level of effort was nowhere near uniform and in contrast to the rest of the team Max's powerful performance looked like Demonic possession . It was really frustrating for us fans to watch him battling so bravely and it wasn't the only game he'd have felt like that. I'm not sure if being a Demon fan is a toxic relationship, but it is really frustrating. We're all seeking perfection in our football club, so that's only destined to drive us mad. This preseason and Season so far with Gus, Smith, Clarry, injuries, losses, confused game plan and players have been far from perfect. It's really important in the short term that we arrest that slide in performance before it becomes really damaging. There are longer term frustrations too that are probably more corrosive to culture. I think the biggest of these is the enduring failure to secure a proper home base within a reasonable distance from the MCG. I say this as someone who loves the club and wishes for the best. If I was a player choosing between clubs I wouldn't be attracted by the prospect of commuting daily to a far flung outer suburb like Casey with occasional days at AAMI and a lovely oval with no facilities beside a busy highway at Gosch's. I think getting the home base sorted is key to the club's long term identity and pride.

I wrote this in the post game thread last night, but it really belongs in this thread instead.

It's so painful to see us kick 6:15 and that hateful team kick 14:5. Poor old Petty with twelve touches and zero score. We've carried him for weeks for some reason I can't fathom and effectively been a man down all game. It's starting to look like cruelty. Then you have Billings, Chandler, Laurie all 0.0. and Turner 0.1. I think our coaches think they're tactical geniuses who can do stuff that's never historically worked for anyone else and somehow make it work for us. The Grundy thing was wishful thinking, but the recurring effort to turn alright full backs into key forwards is just bizarre. Why do we persist with the forward coaching setup that is clearly not delivering? Many of our players are poor kicks but great competitors so why suddenly try to have them avoid all contest and force them to play some over elaborate version of the beautiful game? All around the field we keep kicking or handpassing the ball to opposition players and killing ourselves with demoralising turnover goals. The past couple of years we just needed to stop butchering the ball out of midfield and bombing it long to outnumbered contests. I thought we could keep most of the rest of the game and just lower our eyes to players who should be making leads - like natural forwards would do instinctively unlike converts from full back. I don't rate Longmuir as a coach and think he often looks out of his depth but then I look at the humiliation he engineered for us last week. What does that say about our coach. I was never convinced about the merits of our coach, but I think he's an absolute liability since Yze went. 22 and 23 were hard years watching us play, even during the games we won, but there's no tactical nous or in-game strategic responses. I wish we'd elevated Yze (or someone else) instead, because SG was a known quantity and apart from the flag I always felt he underperformed. At the moment we're not even competitive we're embarassing. I'm a fair person and don't like having a go at the man, but as a competitor you have to hope he'd be honest enough to admit he's not doing a great job, or that he's not going about it the right way. I'm pessimistic about the rest of the season and future years under him. At least if the coaching situation changed we could try to restore some spirit and pride in the team and play some enjoyable competitive football, rather than repeating the same mistakes. I fear there will be an exodus of players through retirement and frustration. From my background playing Gaelic Football, Rugby and even over 35s over here I feel like some players are lacking team spirit and pride right now. I'm not sure the cause and I know they're professionals and it's a small community, but I think we're too soft and gentlemanly. Stuff like the unnecessary friendliness to the Scumbag with the Skunk haircut doesn't sit well with me, nor does the failure to stick up for Max clearly getting belted. And before people have crack at me I am a redleg and go to almost every home and Marvel based game subject to occasional young family circumstances. I really want us to improve and turn it around because honestly apart from a flag I watched on my couch in the company of some friends on skype screens there has been a lot of frustration in recent years, such as 2019 (I know injuries etc,) Straight sets and now West Coast, Freo Collingwood and I'm dreading what we'll dish up next. Those losses and almost games were tolerable when we were being competitive, but that's hardly how I'd describe our recent form. Sigh.

Ah right so did you purchase their memberships through the club? The kids memberships for ours came through auskick and the local team so I haven't seen a way to link them to my Demons membership

Yes, same for me. The screen was flickering and I ended up deleting and reinstalling the app and resetting the thicket b@$[censored]$ password. It's really frustrating that it doesn't properly link to Ticketmaster. I've also never figured out a way to simultaneously buy extra tickets for friends or family in the same bay or one close by? Has anyone else got kids with junior membership through auskick etc where they get a club membership and access to some games? I've no idea how to add their profiles to mine or redeem their tickets and have to sneak them under the turnstiles. We're at the mercy of the gate attendants instead of being legitimate entrants. I'd appreciate any guidance please

Hi Rab and PStD, I'm from Ballyroan, in Rathfarnham, Dublin. So I know the Hellfire Club and Massey's wood really well as we used to mountain bike up there after school and on hikes with the family and scouts. Later on we used to drink cans up there and even made student movies there. I grew up around the corner from Stynesie and passed his house on the way to school each day. I went to the same school and played for the same club in Ballyboden too. We got a half day off school when Jim came to our assembly with his Brownlow medal. At the time we had no real idea what a Brownlow was, but we knew it was important. Our experience of aussies was as rugby legends whipping all opponents and massive tanned athletes bashing the heads off our innocent Gaelic football heroes in the compromise rules series! Those games were great and we loved the high standard of the visitors and the tough contests and to see an all star national team playing international opponents. Australia seemed really good at all sports in the 80s and 90s so if he won a medal here by beating locals he must have been really good. The teachers told us he was voted best and fairest in the league so we felt really proud and inspired that someone from our school and neighborhood could go so far away and achieve that. He was back again with his brother Brian in 95 when Dublin won the All Ireland final. There was another raucous assembly in secondary school where Brian and the team passed the cup around what became a mosh pit of teenage boys. Amidst the chaos he shouted into the mic asking who thought we should celebrate with a half day? It went absolutely crazy and then he told us all to just go home so we did and it was like a mini prison riot! It was brilliant! I moved here in 2012 and have been following the Dees since those darker days. I left Gaelic football and rugby behind over there and took up over 35s AFL masters over here. I've been a Dees member for 7 years and this year will be my first year as a Redleg member. I really enjoy this forum (mostly lurking) and the podcast. As for the training ground I wish we could have a base by the MCG. I'm not sure what happened to the talk of AAMI after the women's World cup though? Although it would also really suit me professionally, I know that Fisherman's bend is under huge pressure from competing commercial interests and sports. That location would be great but I don't think it can happen as the land prices went crazy with the ad hoc rezoning. Caulfield seems a bit further away geographically, but it's probably good for the team and the rest of the club with enough space for facilities and parking and near transport. It's not that far compared to Casey so plenty of supporters could get there a few times of year for events. The Casey situation seems mad to be so far from town and the MCG. That's a big commute for lots of players and staff so it would be really great to get a proper modern elite facility at Caulfield. I'm hopeful this can become a reality. Positives are that there is plentiful green space and it is a location designed to facilitate large sporting events. It seems like a good idea in principle.

This is one of the wittiest and best written posts I've read on Demonland. Thanks for making me laugh out loud!