Adam The God

You're kidding right? It won us a flag and had us 10 zip 3 weeks ago. Nothing wrong with the system. It's the ability to execute that has gone missing, clearly due to a heavy loading block since Round 8.

It's a bugger about Gawny, but it gives him a chance to get on top of all his other niggles. I'm excited by the opportunity it provides others to step up. It also gives our midfield mix a different look. A less predictable look. When Max went down in 2017, we became less predictable and were better for it. Where losing him will hurt is around the ground in the air. Can a Weideman step up?

If we had two KPFs who could hold down their position, it'd be a great luxury to be able to try Luke through the midfield. He's so good when the ball hits the ground. Fumbled a bit today, but practically everyone did.

43 disposals at 81%. Really? He was creative with hands and his feet today and hit the scoreboard. Incredible post...

That's an interesting breakdown So we're actually 8th for free kicks and have just given away less than many others. Eye-opening. We do well not to give away free kicks. I wonder if that's improved on last year...

So we've gone from being the fittest side in the competition to being overrun in second halves three weeks in a row, and people are trying to argue we're not loading? Come off it.

Best player in the competition. Superstar.

The guy who pantsed us again, who hasn't since May came to our club, did it again today, in the form of Cox. Turner going off at 3QT almost meant we'd struggle to stay with them unless we could take some contested marks and take the pressure off our defence. Again, a team got on top of us when Petty was off the ground for an extended period of time. Also, does Steven May stop our guys being caught on the wrong side of the contest and letting the ball get out back repeatedly? I dunno. Maybe. Be interesting to see how our defensive basics stand up when May is back in the team.

That's actually a very good idea. If we decide to go with a smaller forwardline in the coming weeks, this could be absolutely worth it. I have a recollection of JT mentioning this possibility when we first drafted him.

Oh well. Demonland wouldn't be Demonland without OD being overly negative. And what's that argument?

Yeah, you say a few of our guys have poor form and that may be true, but just remember we won 10 games straight and still sit on top of the ladder. None of them can be that ordinary. LJ included...

He'd walk into our forwardline this year...

Just that we play a territory game, based on trying to turn the ball over as close to goal as possible. If our team defence isn't there, we can't apply pressure to make the opposition turn it over. Up the other end of the ground, if we apply good post clearance pressure (defence) from stoppage, our defenders behind the ball can intercept and slingshot back the other way before the opposition mids have a chance to block up space on transition. If we have to play slow from the back half, we need pressure (defence) on the ground ball if our talls don't mark it but bring it to ground. We then either hope to lock it in for a stoppage reset and go again; or swarm and outnumber to get a clean look at 50, goal or a forward hit up; or simply surge the ball forward to gain extra territory and put the opposition defence under pressure in our attacking 50. The last two weeks we've been incredibly inconsistent when the ball hits the deck and been beaten by the opposition to important ground balls and that’s even if our talls have managed to bring it to ground at all. Our game starts from a position of contest or defence ("building from the contest out" was the mantra) and it's about getting the ball back as quickly as possible (think the Klopp Liverpool press, which is why we've so often compared 2021 MFC to Liverpool). But like Klopp's system, it requires amazing fitness and concentration. We first got this one wood clicking in the Collingwood game in 2020 and later in the St Kilda game that year, where we strangled them and didn't allow them to slingshot off half back (our half forwards and mids were on that day/night). It was a markedly different way of playing. It's now being aped by numerous opposition, with less talented personnel.

This is hands down the most ridiculous post I've ever read on Demonland. I've been here a long time. Congratulations.

They are an offensive team. That's their one wood. @binmanhas nailed this anyway. Our offence comes from our defence. If our defence is off, we struggle to score.

We're struggling for connection because our team defence isn't as strong. Since defence turns into attack for us, it means if we're not turning the ball over close enough to goal, we're having to move the ball too slowly and deliberately to packs in the high forward pocket. Then because our team defence isn't quite on, we're allowing it to come out too easily. By no means is anyone saying it's entirely down to loading (I think we certainly need to experiment with a different forward mix), but loading IMV is likely a significant factor.

You can see it in the way a lot of our players are playing over the last 2-3, even 4 weeks. Players like Petracca have lost power, players like Brown look knackered after 2 minutes on the ground. We're not even half way through the season- you don't have guys do a strong pre season that sees us cover the ground like we did in the earlier rounds, and then be knackered after 2 minute stints forward in rounds 11 and 12. If we remember back to the stretch of form between rounds 7-10 in 2021, leading up to the two weeks against the Bulldogs and then Brisbane (ala Freo and then Sydney this year): - we were sluggish against North (R7) - only just got over the top of Sydney (R8 & smashed in the stoppages). We lost centre clearances 17-4. - were ordinary against Carlton (R9). - and were patchy against Adelaide and had our first loss (R10 - that loss was most reminiscent of the Sydney loss last week). It's like in 2021, we set ourselves for those Bulldogs and Brisbane games and loaded heavily in the lead up, which impacted on performance prior. I think in 2022, we set ourselves for Freo and Sydney, but we had sickness go through the camp just prior to the Freo game, we lost May early and then Petty for that important third quarter. We've also had injury ruining continuity this season, right from the JLT series. I think we probably would have won the Sydney game last year, but I don't think we got the rub of the green with the umpires- the last two free kicks were the goals they won by. Numerous tiggy touchwood holding the balls paid Sydney's way, none our way. I think it's likely we'll struggle again this week and we'll see a different sort of energy from the team post bye, before another likely patchy period just prior to finals. But at the end of the day, it's all speculation.

I thought she'd changed her mind and was going to play on again?

The way Bedford faded and tends to fade in and out of games, I think playing him wing may have been dangerous. Does he have the tank? Or the concentration.

I haven't listened to the podcast this week, so will do. I wrote in the post game thread that I reckon we treated the entire second half as an exercise. A learning. To experiment. Build strength against adversity. Clearly didn't work. - Could we maintain a lead and cover May and Petty? - Could we win contest with -2 at stoppage? - Throw Weid behind the ball when the game is basically over to see if he can take some marks. - Try Spargo on the wing and give Melksham another week on the wing. I don't recall us trying ANB on a wing, which is odd given is aerobic capacity and the fact we couldn't lock the ball inside 50 anyway. If our boys had heavily loaded prior, perhaps we figured we may as well experiment in the second half as we were likely to drop away as the game wore on? Who knows if I'm giving too much credence to any of this, but a tag from Aish wouldn't normally stop Oliver. I think he faded. Viney started brilliantly in the first half and then faded. Through the third quarter, the young guys like Bowey, Sparrow and even LJ fumbled, failed to contest strongly enough and made uncharacteristic skill errors - almost like they were knackered. The response against Sydney will be instructive. Langdon back will be massive, as will Salem's poise, McDonald's competing in the air (hopefully) and Harmes' running. Fresh legs will be important, because if the loading theory is right, we'll surely be sluggish again until at least the bye.

I'm not convinced we really gave up much against Freo. In the second half we were playing -2 at stoppages, so we could get +2 behind the footy (to cover May and Petty), but then we were hopeless once the ball hit the ground. If you don't win contested footy, you don't really get a chance to expose any defence. I'm not saying Freo aren't extremely good, they are now, but I'm looking forward to the rematch at Optus, even with Fyfe. We're usually happy to give up -1 at stoppage as a rule, but rarely -2. We were completely disorganised around stoppage in the second half. It's a different game if our mids break even and Freo's set up behind the ball can be better tested.

I think the better comparison is Hawthorn. They had average ruckmen through their threepeat. I don't think the Nankervis comparison is a good one though as he is a dominant/strong ruck.

He didn't squib it. He chose the wrong option, trying to hit up Petracca or Brown when they were clearly manned up. He was only 35m out. Should have taken the shot on himself.

30k against Fremantle at an odd Saturday twilight fixture time when crowd numbers are down due to COVID is a great effort. In non COVID times we get 35-40k and a 1.45 or 7.30 slot. That's an excellent result.

I did wonder if we approached the game as an adversity test. Could we beat a top 4 opponent if things went badly? Obviously, having May go down couldn't be foreseen, but going on last year, I wouldn't surprised if we used yesterday as a bit of a testing ground. Tried various players in different positions, Spargo on the wing, JJ on the attacking wing, kept -2 at stoppage to generate more free players behind the ball. It did have that feeling about the game, but maybe I'm reaching too far here and we were missing too many key players, many are carrying niggles and we were outplayed by a more hungry Fremantle. Or maybe it's all of the above.