CHF

Melksham, Jordan, Rivers and Laurie on the bench with Smith a Sub for me. I would like to see a more aggressive use of the sub. if a player is down then sub him out sooner rather than later. I know that you run the risk of an injury coming and then being one man down on the rotations but, if a player is clearly not performing then you are already handicapping yourself by not using the sub early.

Another interesting week for selections. Petty needs a rest. shame that they played him last week. Give him a week or two to rest and recover. Spargo not looking sparkly and might be in line to step back to Casey. Defence: Tomlinson replaces Petty in like for like. we know what is the best structure for our defence and having Petty/Tomlinson there with Lever and May is the way to go. besides, May looked a bit proppy last week and we may need cover for him with a tall. Smith as Sub to cover as many places a possible. Rest of the defence a is. I liked the way that Rivers got a bit of a run on the ball and I would look at rotating McVee on to a wing if the opportunity arose just to see what we might see. Mids: Lost their way a bit in the middle two quarters but overall I liked the performance without Oliver around. I think that this extended period without Oliver able to play might well be a good thing in the mid to longer term. Viney has really stepped up and knows what he is still capable of. Has taken a lot of responsibility as have a few of the mids the next step below. I like the way Sparrow has played as well as Jordon. Like Brayshaw playing more time in the middle a well. with the depth and experience we are developing in this area it might mean that Oliver and Petracca can spend a bit more time forward and/or resting. Forwards: A better balance this week without Grundy resting forward and with Brown and JVR as tall targets. I like the way they are using JVR now. A role very similar to the one Jackson played. I would give Spargo a run at Casey as he is not as effective a he has been in the past. in his place I would bring in Harmes. I like to have a good number of mids rotating through and I like the hard body he brings. I am sure the selectors will do what they believe is the correct thing and disregard what I think...... they probably think they know better than I do.

Smith to sub on for Pickett

At least there is some method to their madness.

Out: Fristch (injured), Chandler, Smith, Harmes (omitted) In: Jordon, Spargo, Woewodin and Melksham IMO this is a much better balanced side than we have had for the last 5 games. Much more run and rotations available for the mids and a good mix in the forward 50. Brown did a reasonable job last week given the conditions and I expect him to do well under the roof. I think we will see Gawn/Grundy resting mainly forward to pair with Brown a the tall. I could even see Petty moving forward if the defence is well on top. Good variation and flexibility available with these selection. We will win this one by 2 goals or 12 points.

Good one. Well done Taj. It is good to see a bit of new blood come through.

Drop Gawn or Grundy. Bring in JVR to play a Jackson role to whoever is first ruck. Brown and Petty and JVR (rotating from the ruck) as talls in the forward 50. Kossie on last chance to to turn around his form ANB and one of Spargo or Chandler in there as well. If Oliver comes back in then Rotate Jordon, Petracca and Sparrow through the forward 50 at times to help cover the loss of Fristch. Ahhh Hell! it is all like moving the deck chairs. The forward line has been rubbish for the last 4 or 5 seasons and the club ha done nothing to remedy the situation. Love to see some of the younger guys from Casey given a run. It must be disheartening for them to see the rubbish being dished up by the senior team and see that not opportunities are opening up for them. The team at the moment really do look like a bunch of plodders.

Lost that game at selection and with inaccurate kicking for goal. I will get kicked for this but I would drop either Gawn or Grundy and bring in JVR to play a Jackson like role. drop Chandler and Pickett and look to get more running rotations into the midfield/forwards. Give Brown another run at it as I thought hi was not bad given the conditions. we need to do something different to what we have been doing for the last six weeks. It should not take our coaching team his long to react.

Of the 8 named for the interchange two are key forwards in JVR and Brown, Two are small forwards in Spargo and Pickett with Pickett able to rotate into the mids if required ( he does not seem to have been required there much recently). The other four are Bowey, small defender, Tomlinson, tall defender, Petty swing either key forward or back and Melksham who has only been used recently as a HF. So no runners for midfield rotation. I think this is a mistake.

Either Laurie or Jordon as I believe that we have to few rotations for the midfield. This is the team I would put out against GWS. B: Bowey May Lever HB: Salem Petty/Tomlinson McVee C: Langdon Viney Hunter HF: ANB Petty/Brown Pickett F: Fritsch Van Rooyen Grundy R: Gawn Petracca Sparrow Int: Rivers Laurie Jordon Brayshaw Sub: Melksham

Yep. you are right.... 8 tackles inside 50 in the last four and a total of 17 tackles in the same period. I like Chandler and think he has done well this season but I see him as out of form and I would prefer to see him gain form at Casey.

Last word on this AF. I have done a bit more digging into the stats. I know that they can really tell you whatever you want them to but in the last 4 games we have laid 57 tackles in our forward 50. Of those 57 Chandler has laid 5 and Spargo 3. For reference, in the same 4 games JVR laid 6 tackles, ANB 8 and Fristch 4.

At least we agree on Spargo... on Chandler we can agree to disagree. I just do not think he has done enough over the last 4 weeks to justify selection this week.

OK. As far as tackles go, Chandler has done ok in the last 4 games with 17 tackles overall but Spargo has only 7 tackles in the last 4 games. The combined output with goals and tackles with these two does not, to my mind, justify their inclusion in the team until they improve their form. Also note that between them they have had a total of 2 goal assists in the same period. Both to Spargo. In those last 4 games, 2 losses and 2 wins, we have kicked a total of 34 goals and 58 behinds. Chandler and Spargo have been responsible for 1 goal 10 behinds of that total. Yeah. Sure...lets go into the next game with exactly the same setup in the forward line and hope that we get a different result. These guys are out of form and we need to try something else.

In the last four games we have got exactly one goal out of Spargo and zero goals,out of Chandler. Not an acceptable return for a couple of small forwards. Jordon can at least give us some time in the middle.

Brown in for Smith Bowey in for Hibberd Laurie in for Chandler Jordon in for Spargo and Melksham in as sub

I do hope that we get back to basics at the selection table this week. My team for the Alice match below. B: Bowey May Lever HB: Salem Petty/Tomlinson McVee C: Langdon Viney Hunter HF: ANB Petty/Brown Pickett F: Fritsch Van Rooyen Grundy R: Gawn Petracca Sparrow Int: Rivers Laurie Jordon Brayshaw Sub: Melksham

That performance was a major disappointment. e hear all the time that the team has the ability to reset during the game and work hard to get the basics right. We were not able to do that properly on Thursday night. Coaching failure? I just don't know. What I do know is that we need the selectors to reset and get back to basics. In defence we know what works. we have a good structure to the game plan back there and we have to players to execute. For the last two weeks we had a good team within a team back there and then they drop Tomlinson and bring in Petty back there who has not played for 5 weeks. When they selected him I thought that they would play him forward and, on a wet night rely on a smaller defence to clean up the ground balls. I was wrong. Midfield still lacks rotations and run. As far as I am concerned we need to have 12 mids in the 22 including a ruck, 2 wings and 9 rotations of mids. We do not have that. we have 2 genuine rucks and a whole bunch of small forwards that, either cannot play midfield or are not used there. Bloody Hell! Don't get me started on the forward 50 steaming mess. I got potted by on here some weeks ago for saying that our forward line was a shambles that needed to be fixed. Nah, says a bunch of people.... we have the most points scored in the competition.... Now it is more of a mess than it was. Back to basics.... Two talls, a medium, an inbetweener (one that can play either medium or small) and a couple of smalls. Is that too much to ask?

We improved that quarter and upped the pressure. I expect us to step up a bit more this next quarter. We will have to if we are to overcome the rubbish umpire's decisions. This quarter is ours.

Good time Charlie as the sub is what I expected. Could be some interesting moves made by Goodwin this evening and it will, of course depend on the circumstances of the game. Petty could play forward or back and will be effective at both ends of the ground as required. Something from left field I would like to see is Smith given a center bounce as an attending mid. might be something that would throw the cats.

Good morning DemonWorld........and what a fine morning it it’s in my part of the world.... woke up this morning (always a good way to start the day given my age), have showered, shaved and done the other thing. Had a healthy breakfast and just now sipping coffee and savouring the prospect of a great win in the offing. We will declaw the cats in t’the third after spending the first quarter seeing what they bring to the table and then upping our pressure to take the game away from them and leave their season in a smouldering heap of ashes. so, as you see, I am feeling confident. Damn! It’s good to be alive and a Demon supporter. Dees to win.

Interesting selection and it looks like the coaching team are going to be working to a bit of a different Plan A with a different Plan B as well. Bringing Petty back for this game will keep the Cats guessing exactly how we might use him. It is going to be a wet one from all BOM reports so I do not mind a smaller back 6 with Tomlinson being dropped. It is not ideal after his great performance last week but it looks to be a horses for courses selection and I would expect him to come in to balance the defence when required. He may even be a late in if there are any key positions players that do not come up. Brown named as an Emergency a well as Spargo and Woewodin. looks like Spargo will get the nod as Sub. Strong looking team with an interesting mix shown on the bench. I know that it is unlikely that the 18 named in the team will be the starting lineup... Petracca, Viney and Hunter at the first bounce???? ..... JVR and Petty on the bench can rotate into the forwards as required and Hibberd and Petty can rotate into defence as required. Jordon covers wing and inside mids. Plenty of flexibility and I can see us playing a similar way to the way we played the Pies. Strong, driving drfence and smothering corridor defence giving the Cats no space inwhich to work. this will force them to kick long into their forward 50 on a wet night so that we can run it out of defence with our agile running backs. Go Dees! a 20 point win coming up

Selections against Geelong will generate a bit of thinking from the match committee and after they have thought they will make only one change. Spargo out, Oliver in. I can see Bowey having another week off after his concussion in his last game and the defence was very good against the Pies so why change it? Petty might get a run at Casey if he is good to go. Interesting to see Oliver running laps of the ‘G’ after the game last week but there was no sign of Petty doing the same thing.

Long Car based post….. you have been warned…. Had a listen to the podcast last night in my present part of the world. A part of the world that is a giant, very hot sandpit. That is another story. The podcast was great and a big thank you to Andy, George and Binman for their analysis and thoughts. A great discussion on what was a great win. Binman went on a couple of times about V8s and Ferraris and I think I understood what he was on about. Mid-point of the season…. Evolution of the team structures and plans into something more sophisticated from our present baseline shown the game against the Pies. Mind you, we could aim for the best of both worlds and look for a V8 Ferrari. I am a car nut. Lov’em. Had a lot of them from a Hillman MInx through Ford Cortinas, Toranas, American Muscle, Italian exotic, German tech…. British unreliable…. Binman’s comments on the poddy got me thinking about automotive equivalence in our team. No so much brands and particular cars, but more about the heart of the vehicles, the engines. There have been some wonderful engines over the years. DEFENCE 6 Defenders…… 6 Cylinders. There have been some great 6’s over the years and the present crop is no exception. However, we could start the discussion on 6’s back in the 50’s with Jaguar’s 3.8 straight six that was the base of the E-Type and S-Type saloons. A good strong reliable engine that evolved and was in use for decades. Strong, reliable and enduring, all good characteristics for a defence. But it an old engine that modern times has passed it by. Definitely not our present defence. Other great 6’s? Nissan has had a string of excellent straight sixes used to power their GT-R’s great flexible engine and wonderful cars. The BMW 6 is another great engine and was evolved by their M Works into one of the very best modern engines. Both of these could qualify for our defence but there is one 6 That I think stands out above the rest. The Porsche Flat Six. It has been around for a long time going through a lot of development and evolution and placed in a car hanging over the back axel in a unique car configuration. My personal favourite is the naturally aspirated 3.8l with a sports exhaust in the 911. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new Porsche engines but they have a lot of bits and pieces added to them these days that I do not fully understand. So, for me our back six is a Flat Six. Reliable, strong, agile, powerful, sophisticated and well evolved. MIDFIELD Have to go with a V8 here. However, do we go down the track of the large displacement American V8s or do we go with the smaller displacement turbo assisted European? Hard choice. Not the best V8 produced but one of the most significant was the Ford Flathead, the first V8 produced for use in mass production. That was 1932 and with 65hp was the fore runner of all the rest to follow. Not for our present midfield. Looking at American contenders there is the Ford Boss-302 small block that was developed in 68 and used in the Mustangs and others. Over the years it was developed and evolved and was still used in 2007. A lovely versatile engine that started off simple and has developed into a more complex iteration that is still based on the simplicity of its origins. How about the LSI that powered the Corvettes from 1997 onwards? It had innovation with an aluminium alloy block making it a lightweight V8 compared to others. Was developed over time to produce 350hp. Lightweight? Not our midfield. The Daddy of all the US V8s has to be the 6.2l Hemi Hellcat that was in the 2015 Dodge Challenger. Over 800 horses in its latest iteration. Big, Brash and Ballsy….. a riot on Wheels. I drove one of these not so long ago and it is an experience not easily forgotten. I would like to forget it as it scared the hell out of me. So much raw power…so little control…. The Europeans have approached v8s differently to the US. Smaller capacity, turbo charges, high revving with sophisticated management systems makes for a potent combination. Mercedes has the 4l twin turbo charged AMG developed engine that is simply wonderful. Has all the attributes you would want in a midfield. Powerful, versatile, agile and responsive… yes please….. except that maybe BMW M Division has something to rival the Merc. BMW’s 4.4l N63. I am not talking about the original version, that had a few problems with reliability. This version was used from 2009 through 2012 with some of the kinks ironed out. A completely new version was released in 2013 and it was a beauty. Still in use today and has all the attributes of the Merc engine above with over 520hp. A contender Last and possibly best of the Europeans? The Ferrari 3.9l F154 twin Turbo…. A Ferrari V8 for Binny. It was introduced in 2013 and is used right across the Ferrari range rom the SF90 Stradale through the Portofinos and the Roma to the F8 a lovely engine with all the tributes we want in the midfield. With over 700hp and a great management system it is strong, versatile, lovely to watch with a sound under full acceleration to rival 84,000 at the MCG. Give me a Ferrari V8 powered midfield any day of the week. We have the management systems to control the power and properly direct it. Forwards I will keep this simple I am looking at 12 cylinders. Why? Well in the first half of the season we have had at least 12 players tried there. Something cobbled together? How about the Bentley W-12? It was made up of two 6’s welded together. Lots of power, over 700hp. But they no longer produce it. It is past it, old technology and very much past its use-by date. Could describe our present forward setup. Still producing the power but in transition. So where do we go? Most of the great 12s come from F1. Not sure we want to go there. Much to temperamental and requiring specialists to keep them running. I would not turn my back on the Rolls Royce 27l Merlin a 12 that was used in the Spitfire and a few specialist cars. Old fashioned but a brute of an engine that proved to be reliable and went a long way to winning a war. If we had brute power in our personnel, this is the way to go. You have 12s being produced by Ferrari, Bugatti, Mercedes, BMW, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. And these are all wonderful engines, all seriously complex and all seriously powerful. What I want to see in the forward setup in the grand final this season is the engine from the McLaren F1, the BMW S70. 30 years old and still one of the most innovative engine developments placed in one of the most innovative cars of all time. It is still the fastest naturally aspirated car of all time. I want a forward structure that develops into something that is ahead of the pack… a benchmark. I do not know what it looks like but we do not have the bits for a conventional structure so we need to innovate, we need to be the McLaren F1 Now all we have to do is get these engines working together. 26 cylinders… 2000hp with strength, power, durability and agility. I can dream can’t I?

I can understand this. I live in hope that the challenge that the filth present will concentrate the minds of our players and will turn their collective form around. Dees by 21points after a strong 4th quarter.