The Taciturn Demon

Tholstrup barely sighted. Laurie was good. No idea where he'd play if he returned to the AFL - in a Spargo role? Sestan was better - same question with him. Seems to be doing Bowie-style work off half back.

Summed it up well. This has come as a complete surprise to me, mainly because the North game seemed like a major milestone on a serious descent. It was an absolute disaster any way you looked at it (I actually think they're building quite a nice list, but they're still a long way off making finals). The Essendon game was almost as bad. Goodwin said in a press conference six or seven weeks ago that things can change quickly. I didn't believe it; I thought the best we could hope for was to grind out four or five dirty wins against mediocre teams and maybe sneak an upset or two. This, though, has been a complete shift. Anyway, what a thread from @Adam The God! There were definitely good signs in the Hawthorn game, but this still a ballsy declaration. Finals still seems a long shot to me, but I still reckon we have a really shallow list, so I didn't think we'd make the eight at the start of the season, anyway. I'd love to make finals and see what we can do with far lower expectations than in 22 and 23, but if we don't, establishing a new way of playing, getting games into Lindsay, Langford, Windsor and Tuner (as a permanent defender), washing away some of the stench associated with the 'culture' problems... I think this could end up being a good platform to build something on in 2026 and beyond. Imagine if we could find a way of keeping Kozzie!

In my day, it were Nathan Carroll and Brad Miller trying to keep margin below 15... ...goals! Aye. Goals.

I often think this forum is intellectually stimulating ... and then someone mentions Champion Data.

I'd be a bit disappointed if Turner was squeezed out of the backline. I realise swingmen are valuable, but he looks like an out-and-out defender to me.

Code Sport still absolutely baffles me as a concept. And when you see stuff like this, which is identical to Herald Sun [censored], you have to question how it's still going.

They're un-learning to an extent. Goodwin talked about a sophsiticated version of "just kick it" several times during press conferences in 2021.

I think this may be what happened. The goal was lovely, but Goodwin was still thinking about the very ordinary decision from earlier. (I think "body language" analysis is mostly [censored], but Goodwin dosn't look his usual encouraging self and Chandler looks chastened.) If Goodwin is trying to change the way we deliver inside 50, that kind of slamming it on the boot would be infuriating at any time, and certainly in Round 10.

He'd be no fun at all to play on as a defender.

Extremely keen to see this.

Didn't see this coming at all. Honestly thought we would struggle to beat any above average, let alone very good, teams this season. And at about 20 minutes into the first quarter I thought we were in huge trouble - as in ten-goal loss trouble. Brisbane seemed to be finding players forward of centre with ridiculous ease. The most pleasing thing for me, which I think Goodwin hinted at in the press conference, is that we saw a problem and adjusted - those easy marks dried up. They still got us several times with the 'slingshot' from half back, but it wasn't devastating. Also pleasing to dominate a team as good as that in the last quarter, albeit still having problems with accuracy. Loved Turner, Lindsay and Langford's games. Bowey's scorching hot form continues, as well, which is delightful to watch.

He was extremely good. Exceptional game.

I think Geelong get some very handy (in some cases unfair) advantages simply unavailable to any other Victorian team. But they also have a huge number of ANB types. Medium-level talent who bust a gut, do the team thing every week and don't put too much pressure on the cap.

This sounds harsh but is completely fair. I'm not a huge fan of Goodwin, but I find the idea that he (and our other coaches) simply fail to teach basic things like leading patterns or say "Just stand and wrestle" difficult to believe. Again, I don't think the gameplan is looking scorching hot at the moment and forward entries aren't exemplary by any means, but I agree with this. We're clearly trying to bomb less and so the importance of getting separation and presenting hard at the ball carrier is more important than before. It could be that coaches aren't instructing him well enough or it could be that he really struggles with this part of the game. He's clearly a capable player, but being a key forward in the AFL is EXTREMELY difficult. And it's much more difficult when people are looking at you as THE MAN. He's badly out of form and I think he can get out of that funk. I'm hoping he becomes a solid forward line contributor, ideally when we find a tall to complement him (I like Petty and Turner a lot, but both seem like natural defenders to me). Whatever happens, I'm not expecting him to become a reliable 50-goal-a-season gun.

My question would be what, other than wishful thinking, makes us think Jackson's professions of loyalty to Fremantle are disingenuous but Kozzie's to us are legit?

Do they veto much?

Very interesting. Thanks for the insight. (I thought the one they wanted badly and were desperate to trade up for was Humphrey.) Statement of the bleeding obvious, but Cadman would have been great. Funny to look back and see the widespread enthusiasm for players like Tsatas. Everything's relative, I guess: he may well have looked exciting in what turned out to be an extremely shallow draft.

80s/90s-style banner snark. Love it.

Wrong about one thing, wrong about everything. Got it.

I think our bailing efforts have sped up and we're not sinking quite as fast as we were. My concern is that even if we got all the water out of the hull and patched up the holes (which I doubt very much), the vessel still isn't in particularly good shape. I love optimism - I come to Demonland in part to read about hope for the future - but I wonder if the optimists are a touch too focused on how good Langford, Lindsay and Windsor look, and too nonchalantly overlooking how shallow the list is. We've had players spectacularly out of form for weeks on end and there is a very large group of players either doing very little at Casey or putting up decent stats but not being considered. That either points to outrageous stubbornness from the people responsible for selection (I'm sure there's a bit of that) or a whole heap of players not capable of doing it at AFL level. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when the vast majority of supporters agree with Goodwin et al that Melksham is an immediate inclusion under every circumstance, you know your list is still a way off. I didn't think this was a finals team at the start of the year. I don't think it's a finals team now.

That was brief.

Maybe I'm completely blinded by nuffie glasses, but I'd expect if Pickett for Jackson was the start, we'd also want quite a buit more in addition.

Yep. I agree. If Jackson was an extremely strong contested mark and capable of kicking 1.5 a game as a resting forward, this would be super exciting. It's great that Jackson may want to return (although this is Seven West Media, so enormous grain of salt), and very handy that we once again have an obvious Gawn replacement, but I'm not thinking net positive at the moment.

Taking out where they want to be (which I concede is a big thing to take out), Kozzie every single time.

Ah. Interesting. Thanks.