george_on_the_outer

Simply appalling umpiring by any measure. They completely lost it when they failed to pay a mark to Westhoff. And then they had the temerity to say they didn't see it! There is only 4 of them on the ground, and was plain to see from one side of the ground. When Westhoff complained he got a 50m paid against him. Then they realised they had stuffed up, they tried to give soft frees the other way to even up. That only compounded the lousy decision with even more lousy decisions. They went very close to losing any control of the game. And even more so with the tactics employed by Hawthorn which were never called.

Stats say a lot about Michie....30 possessions 0 tackles!

Pity is that too many can't kick drop punts with any degree of skill despite all this training time......

The Diamond defence was utilised, but in the 3rd quarter the Crows dropped either Cameron or Betts to CHB and then ran straight into the middle. Gawn kept hitting the ball forward to their hands or those players skirted the pack and took the receive to drive the ball deep into attack. It took the coaches nearly the whole quarter to wake up to it.

Jack will be on the list next year because White, Newton, Michie, Terlich (and if things keep going badly for Grimes and Lamumba), will be missing. We don't have a first round pick which means if we delist 4 or 5 as every side does, then the question becomes "is keeping Jack ( or any of the fore mentioned) better than what we could pick in the 90's or 100's?" At the moment he is playing in the first 22....all these others aren't.

on your PM's now

I'm wondering if the problem is the way that Jack leads. A friend at the game said after he was ignored " he must be wearing an invisibility cloak". Reflecting on that seemingly innocuous comparison it may have some merit. That is he is difficult to see because he finds himself in so much space on his own. It is obvious to all of us in the stands....there he is standing out there on his own...look! But it may not be as obvious at ground level. A hard running player is easy to pick out among the other players in the field of vision. A near stationary target is not. Perhaps he needs to change the way he leads, perhaps hang back a bit and then charge into space. Just thoughts.......

FIrst of all, the talk about Diamond defence is wrong to be frank. The fact that David King put it up under that name doesn't bear much resemblance to what is going on. It is a diamond set-up for the back 4 at centre square bounces. It lasts for 30 seconds in that form. We set up differently from the GC game where the wingers were swung around to come in from the HB line. In the Brisbane game we varied their starting location, sometimes wing sometimes HB. The problem with what is a Zone defence ( which is what it should transition to after the bounce) is that we don't have the players who can execute it well. At the moment defenders are getting sucked up toward the ball and forgetting about the man behind them or coming in from the opposite boundary or from the middle. We were cut apart by St.Kilda and the Bulldogs time and time again. GC and Brisbane haven't got the players or nouse to do the same. We are still defending with the same ineptitude, it's is just the standard of opposition that determines how much it leaks. Garland and Michie were serial offenders on the weekend. They just lose the opponent time and time again. Michie was the extra man back for at least 1/2 the game and didn't pick up anyone at any time. Wagner went back and showed how it should be done.

Looks like someone hit the wrong number on the keyboard. Club site now showing 38,266: https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/

Who came up with the observation first? The Age 3 days ago or the Geelong Advertiser? http://www.smh.com.au/sport/opposition-analyst-western-bulldogs-defence-learn-new-tricks-20160513-goukwu.html I had just posted this on another thread: The difficulty with the "diamond or star pattern" or whatever you want to call it, is that it is good for 30 seconds at the bounce of the ball in the middle. It doesn't work when the ball has been moved up the field and a turnover results. Or as seen multiple times in the St.Kilda game, the play is on the opposite side to the interchange and Saints players were coming off the bench and slipping in behind the defenders un-marked. Against the Dogs we saw their mids prepared to run into the open space behind the defenders and how many times did they kick goals from inside the goal square without a Melbourne player in sight? We saw 18 uncontested marks inside the defensive 50 with St.Kilda, and a good number again against the Dogs. I think Bealzebub said in another thread, who also has a basketball background, you have to be able to transition from zone to man-on-man or even a combination of both. Sticking with 1 plan doesn't always work, you must adjust to the oppositions capabilities.

The difficulty with the "diamond or star pattern" or whatever you want to call it, is that it is good for 30 seconds at the bounce of the ball in the middle. It doesn't work when the ball has been moved up the field and a turnover results. Or as seen multiple times in the St.Kilda game, the play is on the opposite side to the interchange and Saints players were coming off the bench and slipping in behind the defenders un-marked. Against the Dogs we saw their mids prepared to run into the open space behind the defenders and how many times did they kick goals from inside the goal square without a Melbourne player in sight? We saw 18 uncontested marks inside the defensive 50 with St.Kilda, and a good number again against the Dogs. I think Bealzebub said in another thread, who also has a baskeball background, you have to be able to transition from zone to man-on-man or even a combination of both. Sticking with 1 plan doesn't always work, you must adjust to the oppositions capabilities.

Exactly. Blundstone arena ( Hobart) capacity 16K. Aurora stadium ( Launceston) capacity 21K. If you are a Tasmanian who wants to see AFL in your home town, you will buy a membership to North or Hawthorn to guarantee you will get in the gate.

Putting the 2 threads together. Let's wait until Joeboy submits his analysis before anyone else starts another each week.

Keep the thread on track folks, or we will start handing out bans

Dawi03, who runs Demonology has announced that he is giving up running the site come year end: "Bad news is Ive decided I will be finishing up Demonology as there is too much work to do ie live feeds etc and general maintenance for no reward. So we will roll on till the end of the year. Hope we can continue you win!! Its a Grand Old Flag!! " His reasons are the time and the financial demands that running the site require of him. To quote: "Cheers mate. More important things in life unfortunately. The Mrs cracks it every weekend when I am trying to stream then upload the win. And would rather spend time with the little one than worry about the site. I think the chat is moving a lot to Facebook anyway " "The stream isn't time consuming. The running of the site is time consuming. And frankly I'm over it." So at the end of the year it will be Demonland alone for all us tragics! We all need to be aware of the time, energy and money that Andy and Nasher have put in and continue to do so. They also have partners and families who rightfully demand their time. They cannot do it all alone, and we should all be prepared to help out that little bit, when needed. And as Andy has shown any excess funds are directed toward the club. Let's keep making Demonland a win-win for everyone.

His contract expires at the end of 2016

Exactly.... It is an 18 team competition with 8 finals spots over 22 rounds. Doesn't matter who you play, as GNF said you just have to win 12 games with %. The predictor is based on past history and assumptions.

And this: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-2016-richmond-tigers-concede-they-are-paying-the-price-for-list-strategy-20160501-gojnyn.html What Richardson fails to admit is that Maric, Houli, Rance, Grigg, Hampson and Chaplin were all traded in to the club and it was successful. It got them into successive finals. Then they changed tack and haven't brought anyone in except for Yarran in the past 2 years. They thought that pick 12 in the draft would get them into final 4 contention. They only have themselves to blame.

Link to radio: http://streaming.gohosting.com.au/Essendon_VFL_Radio.html

He started in the forward line and stayed there for most of the first quarter. He is either injured or disinterested in football at the moment. He then did a couple of cameos in the middle in the second and third quarters, but Harmes and others gang tackled him again and again. He then retreated to the backline. Come 3/4 time Hardwick gave him a "rev up" and promptly sent him down back again...go figure! He is a 5 minute highlight reel at the best and then goes missing for whole periods of the game. Much like Richmond if you think about it!

Nasher, only in the past couple of weeks has the following been occurring: When posting or editing the post disappears due to the "server connection being reset" I've learnt to copy all posts and then keep repeating until it finally works.....very strange!

KJ...have sent you a PM

Everyone gets the correlation between success and age wrong. Good players will still be playing at 27. Poor players won't be. So sides with lots of old players have lots of good players.ala Hawthorn, Geelong, North ( at the moment) That is not to say you can't have a good team of young players ( like ourselves, we hope), because it just means those good players will be around for a long time to come. What it does say is that if you have a team of young players year after year then you will not find success. In that case all you are doing is replacing poor players.

What a forward line....Lyon, Neitz, Schwartz and Farmer.....and all fit and firing at the same time!

While the team had learnt to stack the backline, not a single one of them stood forward of the 50m arc, and most well back from it. The danger was a single kick by GWS from the centre. There was no-one set to rush into the centre square and help the mids, and it left space for the ball to drop or for a GWS player to lead. No-one was needed on the goal line. We were lucky that the single kick wasn't marked. More work needed