Adam The God

I agree, although I think if we win the next two weeks, given the draws of the sides placed 5th-9th, we will sow up the top 4 spot with wins against Brisbane and Adelaide, and it will take off some pressure at the back end of the season.

No doubt, he needs to get more involved offensively, not just defensively.

I wonder if they'll go JVR instead of Melksham or whether we try to manufacture a strange defensive match up like Melksham on Andrews.

Sometimes. He's a bit bull at a gate with disposal on slingshot.

Our two weakest ball users in the back half IMO both offer the best versatility. That's why it's likely neither will be dropped (Rivers and Gus). To be honest, I think Rivers is better as an intercepting and 1v1 half back, with a bit of licence to get high offensively, but with that licence he tends to get involved with chains and often turnovers them over. Maybe these errors will lessen in time, as our backs gel with playing this more offensive chaining?

I don't feel he gets found out 1v1 any more than any other defender. Sure, his height goes against him at times, but he usually makes a good fist out of it, even when he's at a height disadvantage.

Everything McVee does is so good. He so very rarely turns it over and he doesn't just win 1v1s or intercept well, or show extreme composure under pressure, but he also does those clever little tap ons to team mates and away from opponents. He's having the sort of impact that Bowser had at the back end of 2021, but apart from a lull in form for 3 or 4 games from approximately R8-11, he's been great all year. I thought McVee's game was near flawless last night. The one turnover he had, I'm pretty sure he cleaned up straight away by winning it back. He's a ripper.

Yeah, good call, he wasn't dropped, he had concussion. But he didn't come back for the Geelong game, which was well outside the concussion protocol period, so essentially had to bide his time. In retrospect, that was a mistake not to play him down there.

Well, he's already been dropped this season and he got his place back presumably due to Hibbo's injury. I love Bowser and he'd be in my team every week, but I have a feeling there's gonna be an unlucky defender in there somewhere at the back end of this year. And I hope it's not him.

I'd be giving certain players licence to use angles and take on kicks. Those players in the back half would be McVee, Salem and Bowey. (That's why it'd be nice to eventually get Howes in there too) Other than that, I'd be saying to the rest of the team, win your contest, or do your intercepting, or provide a handball receive outlet, or take short hittable kicks, nothing else. Gus and Rivers shouldn't be taking those kicks on and neither really should May and Lever. Petty is one defender who actually plays within his wheelhouse and understands his limitations by foot and keeps it simple. Now that we've got more kickers in the back seven, I'd hope we start to set these rules for certain players, because if I were the opposition, I'd be very happy with Gus or Rivers having the ball and trying to be creative.

So who comes out when Hibbo returns? There's May, Lever, Petty, McVee, Salem, Bowey, Hibberd, Rivers and Brayshaw.

The GWS loss was way worse. But yes, winning both games would have allowed us to rest a few in the lead up to the finals, now we're clinging onto a top 4 spot.

There's a lot of negativity here, but if you think Demonland is negative, the Facebook pages would make your brain melt. The lack of intelligence and general footy IQ on those pages is laughable.

This is the problem with the DE stat. I could go at 100% DE, but every handball I do could put a player under pressure.

I really hope they don't drop Bowser from that back 7 to fit in Hibbo. Bowser is solid 1v1, a beautiful kick and a great decision maker. Hibbo is our best lockdown player and McVee should be playing every week (kid is a star), so with our three talls, there's no room left. The two guys that turn it over most in our defensive set up are usually Rivers and Gus. Both are good interceptors and understand good positioning though. Smith does not. If it's not forward for Smith, it's not in the team otherwise we're in trouble. That said, I wonder if they're thinking Smith on old mate Cameron next week...? As for the rest of our back 7, we need to ensure Petty has continuity back there, because at times this year he's been all at sea. But Petty is still a young player in KPP terms and the move and forward and back has likely played with his continuity. We need him going for intercept marks like 2021 and 2022. That's him at his best. He did get a few last night, but in 1v1 situations he's struggled this year IMV. If we could bring in Howes though, maybe that releases Salem into the midfield mix?

The big question for me going into the Brisbane game is will our midfield hold up without Trac to allow him to play forward? JJ had the most CBAs last night and we ended up losing centre clearance by -2. It's not all down to JJ, but he's not Clarry or Trac. St Kilda's midfield is nowhere near the level of Brisbane. The thing about the Lions midfield is that it can go missing and be exposed on the outside for pace. Trac has kicked goals against Brisbane in the past from the midfield, so I wonder if it's a 50-50 split for him? I think the other factor that often sees our midfield overawe Brisbane's in the size of our mids and the hardness. Without Clarry, we need Trac's size to exploit this. Be fascinating to see how we balance up our midfield against them. We have to win territory and therefore, likely have to win clearance well to win. The positive sign last night is we started to chain and transition the ball better than we have for quite a few weeks.

Wow, this is telling. Collingwood's accuracy from general play is deadly. Very interesting.

Sure, that's fine. I'm more concerned with the combined output of the two, because they're both having to sacrifice their game's for the other.

May didn't have an opponent. Yeah, it's all mindset when your dangerous opponent goes down in the first minute of the game. FMD. I'd like more offence out of Kozzy, no doubt, but his defensive game is strong. And I didn't pot Abysmal. He asked me why an earlier post from someone was terrible. I told him. As for Gawn and Grundy, where did I say they need to equal the output of another ruckman? The claim I was disputing was Marshall dominated Gawn and Grundy. Factually incorrect..

Grundy was not poor. 7 clearances and his follow up work at ground level for a ruckman is elite. But I'll leave it there. Your mind is made up.

There we go. The eye test is not great. We had a screen right in front of us at the game and at one stage late in the first half, the top 6 ground ball get players were St Kilda players, so maybe we levelled that up or we weren't as bad in that area as I felt. Anyway, thanks Wheelo.

Because it laid blame at the feet of Grundy and Gawn. I've already talked about Grundy's game, our leading clearance winner, with strong score involvements. Grundy had 1 less clearance than Marshall who was arguably St Kilda's best, and Grundy played 67% TOG versus Marshall's 95%. Our rucks at the very least drew even with Marshall... Marshall's stats were 8 clearances, 7 inside 50s, 3 contested marks, 299 metres gained, 30 disposals, 7 tackles, 15 hit outs. Grundy and Gawn had 11 clearances, 6 inside 50s, 3 contested marks, 364m gained, 29 disposals, 6 tackles, 38 hit outs. Hard to mount an argument that Marshall 'dominated' them, but that's what you get when your 'analysis' is based on blind emotion. Then the post claimed our second best pressure player playing close to 90% TOG should go to Casey. That's not a good post, but I'm sure you'll disagree with absolutely nothing to back it up with except you're a bit annoyed and neggy.

St Kilda did what most teams try against us, which is the chip game from half back. It got them to the wing, and then they had to go to the contest. So we've made adjustments there since last year. We played quite a high line (to use a soccer analogy), often we were able to intercept or create a contest at their half forward to prevent an entry from there. What I found interesting is that despite the luck of King going down early, which freed up May, we never played a goalkeeper in defensive 50 stoppages. We played one, usually Lever, at the back of those stoppages, but part of the contest, not a spare. This is definitely a tweak from earlier in the season, and I wonder if this is part of tightening up our goals conceded from defensive stoppage. And further, I wonder if this set up will change with the inclusion of Clarry.

Kozzy is playing higher TOG than most because presumably we have a plan for him. When you're playing really high TOG, you're going to lose your explosiveness, particularly as a 4th year pressure forward. It's logical. The point I make about Kozzy is that this is clearly his program and we're asking him to do a power of work now that is blunting his offence, but he is bringing great defence. Third most pressure acts on the ground. As for your post, @Garbo, it isn't the finals, it's July and Kozzy's pressure absolutely created scores, turnovers and gave us possession. St Kilda dump kicked it to our +1 behind the ball multiple times due to Kozzy's physical and inferred pressure.

I think the bookies don't read Demonland and get caught up in the hyper critical groupthink that has started to go on here. Kick straight the last 5 weeks leading into tonight and we'd be top of the table. And Brisbane lost to Hawthorn on the G a month ago. They get exposed on the bigger ground. No Oliver for that game is huge, but if we can match them for contest, we very likely beat them.