Dappa Dan

The whole time we did, I was dreading exactly this in 2017. lol Must have heard that half a dozen times during the game last week. Agree.

Oh god I hope not. Frost has some weapons, but smarts isn't one of them. Dusty will kick 6 if he gets him. I can't think of one guy that can go with him one on one. Whatever double team he gets, Vince should be one of them. High footy IQ required.

I'm more interested in the McCartin vs Weed comparison. We missed out on the big guy we thought we'd get, and a year later we do a trade to get a big time early pick and take Weed (who we may not have gone for had we had McCartin). Right now neither has done anything, and McCartin has 12 more months in the system. For what it's worth, I'd still pay a good price for Paddy. I think it comes down to having "types" of KP forwards, in the same way we have types of midfielders (fast outside vs in and under). To me, Hogan does everything. Gets up the ground, crashes packs, leads, always has a lighter handy... I'm not saying 2x Hogan wouldn't be Amazing. But realistically if we had two Hogans, that would be a huge chunk of our cap, and one would get poached. I think it's the right plan to have 3 contrasting players. That's why we went for the Adelaide Tom Lynch. Can do all roles but is best when he's using his engine and being the link man for Betts and Walker. How does this relate to Weed and McCartin? Both are lead up forwards. Weed is looking disastrous this last couple of weeks because it's all he does. Yes, he's light framed so we give him a pass... but what worries me is he's only got that lead up, mark, turn, goal skill. He doesn't bring anything else to the game. Is McCartin the same? But taller and heavier? Neither is doing well, but I'd be interested to see which one of the two people prefer going forward... taking parochialism out of it for a second. What if Saints offered us McCartin for Weed, hypothetically?

I see him as our go to guy when we're struggling going inside fifty. I love our mids, but by gee they can spray it. Hunt, Jones at times, Viney, Tyson... They often bomb it into space or into the vicinity of whatever tall they see. We have just a handful of players now who are great kicks inside fifty. Tracca is prodigious, Salem's good, Oliver always look for a target, Braysh is super smart and Lewis obviously. His position is off half back, and that's fine. But anyone there at JLT1 when we couldn't find a target inside fifty despite having heaps of the ball will attest to him drifting forward to good effect. I love that move too, since he's not a shut down defender with a job on someone dangerous. He'll be hard to pick up wandering all over the place. Well done Goody. Put your good users where they can do damage.

That's VERY glass half empty. We've scored 120, 86, 97 and 104. We've got firepower now. Even without Jesse, and with one KP down on the day (Weed) we still kicked almost a hundred and over a hundred without them. I really think we're doing most things right. Just our defense is two players short. Against Tigers I like Jesse and Watts against Rance, and I like Tmac against Riewoldt. I rate our midfield to belt the living snot out of them like they usually do. Then after that, Lewis into backline will do what he did in the first two weeks. bingo bango... 5-2 lol

Yeah I know I'm not in the popular camp on here. Demonland are glass half empty sometimes. You think we'll lose to 2 of Richmond, Essendon and Hawks? (I assume you're chalking up Crows as a loss, and who wouldn't after last night). My thoughts have to do with Hogan and Lewis coming back. They're just so important. Hogan. Against Blues, we kicked a winning score without him kicking a goal, and that was partly related to the dump kicks by midfielders always heading to Hogan, with Jesse crashing packs and cleaning up 3 players. Or at very least, drawing two defenders. If he kicks 4, and the team kicks another 6 from his involvements... we win the last two games easily. A player like him simply cannot be replaced. There isn't anything he doesn't do. And how often does he get to a contest and NOT win it, or spill it to advantage? How often is he absolutely beaten one on one? Now compare that to Weed, Smith, even Watts. Weed and Smith haven't done a damn thing for the club in our two losses. Literally nothing. Watts has done great, but is often spoiled and taken out of contests. I really do believe we're at minimum a 5 goal better side with Hogan in. Lewis is a lot of similar things, but in the backline. Not often beaten. Makes about 3-4 other players better. Think about how badly we cleared the ball with Melksham, TMac and Vince. Going back to the bad old days, our worst kicks were always blamed for delivery, when it's more down to the targets not leading. Lewis out there directing traffic, we clear the ball SO WELL. We create 5 opportunities a quarter based on good zoning. So Lewis alone, again, we're a 3-4 goal better side. Both players straighten us up remarkably, and not only get it inside fifty, but to good places that it's easier to kick straight from. I'll be interested to come back to this in a month. I think by the bye we'll be as far as 7-3.

Since there isn't room for him in the midfield anymore, he'll do one of three things. HF with those long bombs. HB and designated kickout guy with Salem. And against certain players he gets a job, Dangerfield style. He's had a bad couple of weeks disposal wise (no surprise given hes had surgery), but people are having a laugh saying he's a poor kick. He's a prodigious kick, always has been. It's stupid because you've avoided now, how many times, 3-4, giving any mention of the BOG performance week 1. And what fresh recruits? Melksham? The backline is far from settled. We're two defenders down. Bernie is best 22 easily. Assuming he's fit. Which I don't think he is. Viney either. You don't have to agree. We ARE trying to win games. We're 2-2, 4 games into a season. Every fan believes we can make finals, and before the Freo game most pundits had us as probable to make finals despite a loss to the Cats. Weideman played because we had no other KP forwards ready to go (Smith isn't an AFL footballer). Hannan played because he's not youth. He's mature age. And yes, he'll reward good form in the VFL. That's what you do when you're trying to win games.

Searing stuff. I want to come back to this in three weeks. I really think we'll be 5-2. I know that's poor form and you shouldn't do that. But I've not seen much to make me think we've lost the respect we earned this first month. Just for what it's worth.

Because it's not about how he played today. You jump on a players back routinely after 1 bad game. He was BOG round 1 and then missed a game. Take the whole picture into account. Exactly. So why are you claiming it's all about how he played today? You can't have it both ways. Cooked? no. Still looks useful to me, and smart. Slow? Yes, and sore. I still don't think he's fit, but we don't have solid defenders with good kicking skills to put back there at the moment til Hibberd comes back. And frankly Melksham isn't showing me any reason to believe he's going to be a 100 game super player at the club. So Vince it is. Saying he won't be on the list next year is stupid. The same as hating on TMac. He would walk straight into any list in the league. And without him we'd give up another 6 goals a week to KP forwards. But every poor disposal he creates is met by you with vitriol. Even if the preceeding 20 plays were goal savers. I'm just saying look bigger picture. The guys you want back in the side, sure... I'd like to see Brayshaw back in too, but he looks slower and more cooked than Bernie does at his worst. Right now the club is trying to win games... not blood youth.

Didn't mind Frost's game when called upon. Can't blame him for the spoil not quite making it to the line. TMac also fought well but was on his own. Kent was good for a lead up forward lacking height. Though you did miss one. Hogan: Minus 8 points

He wasn't good, but he won't retire. That's a bit of a stupid thing to say given he got us the win round 1. He wasn't supposed to even play since his surgery. I still have him in the side. I'd get rod of Melksham first. Hibberd in.

That kid is unreal. Would cost an arm and a leg to get. Remember when we tried to get Adelaide's Lynch? Another one is Hipwood. Fantastic footballer already. All would take huge amounts to get a hold of.

Wowzzie

Yup I did mean heavier. Yeah I'm loving Goody's selections so far. I have a lot of time for Bugg, and I'm loving his selections that commit to a team plan. Noone saw Hannan and ANB coming round 1, and that was inspired. I am absolutely NOT a Frost fan. Having said that, with Garland hurt he'll be important. And yes... I'm in the camp that wants Watts deep forward or spreading off HB. Noone sets us up better, besides maybe Lewis. We lose nothing by having Frost as the backup ruck in terms of the taps themselves.

Yeah sensible post. I think my only query would be if we counted up the amount that claim he'll never be good enough (as opposed to saying he'll take time), we might be surprised. But then, this isn't a post defending him, TBH. Just interested in some views.

3 weeks ago I was still thinking he'll be a T-Hizzle clone, since he's related to him. I think he's a better kick though... Isn't as big and not as quick. He was so good last year 1 on 1 for his level of experience, so I was excited to see him improve, but he's certainly not done that yet. These first few games have shown me to look for him to become a different type of player to his brother. Which could be a good thing, perhaps. Good to see others aren't quite as down on him though.

Well [censored]. Now that's all I'm going to be able to see when I look at him. That and the porpoise.

I think they got off OZZIE pretty quick just because Oz does enough lamenting and congratulating of the demons mid week. Pretty much as soon as they explained he'd only had 3 turnovers, they went onto the more statistically valid examples. Yeah fair enough on the stat. What are your feelings on him in general then? Not using that stat...

Jeez people are precious about terms like giveaways and nicknames of players on Demonland these days? What happened? I should clear that up though. They introduced the segment as an examination of turnover stats. Ox then put it to the punters to say who at their club is their biggest turnover player, and immediately nominated Ozzie (I will call him that. Literally dozens of people I know do). THEN Kingy corrected him and showed he's only had the three turnovers. That came as a surprise to Ox. And me, frankly. Common view on here is that he's a woeful kick. This stat suggests that's worth examining. Having said that, turnovers don't include the times when a ball hits the deck and Ozzie fails to beat his opponent to clear it. I think a lot of people, myself included, see half a dozen mistakes that don't technically count as turnovers from the kid.

I think he's gonna be ok in the long run. Moreso I find the topic interesting. Interesting in the sense that list-wise, he's important and a divisive player on these boards. At least this year. There's players we all love more, like Tracca, Oliver, Hogan... but they're not contentious. They're made men. Ozzie, I reckon, will be really interesting... and as he improves, we'll improve. I'm fascinated by the worst 6 guys who play fro us every week. Likewise, the worst 10 or so guys on the list every year. Some of the players included in that group in recent years, Wagner, Hunt, Stretch, Kent, Pedo, AVB, JKH, ANB, Jetta, Harmes.... Some of those names have me genuinely excited. I can't say I've ever felt the need to keep an eye on these no-names like I do now, as a consequence of Todd's work. I know he's high on Ozzie, so I'm really looking forward to how he'll turn out.

Fair enough. I love NFL. And am not precious about terminology. Each to their own. In other news, Ozzie out. Wowee.

Yeah he's a lot like his bro. Can get on the end of it a lot, especially when switching... Just had a look. he's had 4 games over 20 possessions (23, 23, 22 and 20) in his home and away career. Not sure about pre season. Has only played 18 games though.

Good point. I think the giveaway can potentially be worse in modern footy... because, let's say a player is pressing up and drills a ball to half forward and it's a horrible turnover that is an easy rebound and goal for the opposition. That's effectively more like a 12 point turnaround. Whereas... A missed shot on goal... that's a point to the positive on the scoreboard, and the opposition are then at least 3 50 metre kicks from scoring again? Also... I don't have the numbers, but I'd love to see the goals from turnovers stat for certain teams. Us, Us against.... compared to, say, the Saints and Bombers who rebound well.

Really? I need to explain it's about an MFC player.... on demonland...? Actually the segment just completed. I really like some of Kingy's stats. They're a bit out there, and often require some explanation. But they're good entertainment. They did lead with a bit of a caveat. Some of the leading turnover kings are guys like Dangerfield. When you get that much of the ball in the clinches and have to dump it, of course you're gonna be high on turnovers. So the inverse of that is that Ozzie doesn't get 25-30 touches too often, so of course he's not going to have too many turnovers. They had some interesting details as well. Some of the huge names in footy that rate highly for turnovers. Laird was one that surprised me. Priddis was also claimed to have a turnover only once every 7 touches, which I found interesting given he's known to be an average kick (but good handball). I was expecting more demonlanders to have listened in and want to chime in at the singling out of Omac by Ox.

Yeah my last probably came off harsh. I just thought it was funny that Ozzie could be confused for anyone else concerned with MFC. Had I opened with "Jack" I'd understand. For what it's worth, I'm an Ozzie fan. He cops a massive beating, and that's ok. People have their views. But given he's played only a handful of games I think he's awesome and will end up being massive for us in 4 years. So I do have a subtle leaning towards defending him.