Little Goffy

Ahh, David King. His main comment on the 2019 draft was to question Melbourne's selection of each of Jackson and Pickett as being 'not what the club really needs' and overpaying for both. I don't like it when people are paid well to do things which I (and many others) could do better with little effort.

Coaches pet. Goodwin has never coached a Demon game without including Oliver. Maybe never will.

https://afltables.com/afl/stats/alltime/misc_players.html A win this weekend would mean Pickett goes ahead of Selwood as the 'most winningest' player in the AFL (with more than 50 games as the cut-off).

Has literally signed on to be our games record holder. Realistic career targets to chase; First player to crack 10,000 career possessions. All time records for contested possessions, clearances and Brownlow votes. Get after it, Clarrie!

Oh Dear. Well, I'm not the first and won't be the last! I wonder if there might even be a repeat of the 'D Cordner' (Denis & Don, of course) situation with the Brownlow votes one day.

Well, we just had a ten goal win over the ladder leaders and there were really only a couple of players who exceeded what we might reasonably expect of them on a weekly basis. Sorry Gawny. I think Freo are looking for a new ruck if you'd consider moving west.

He's a valuable player, particularly in setting the pressure tone as a tall forward, and in giving options as a leading forward up the ground. There's a noticable lift in output from all our forwards when he is in form. I struggle to see how it all comes together given the seriousness of the injury and the timing of the return, but who knows. In the meantime, well, at least we find out for sure about Serious Sam. You know, he's never been held goalless in a final?

It is just plain fun to think that we have the best 'true' medium forward in the game. Only Heeney would be a direct competitor but that thought just makes me dream of what Fritsch would be like in a fully functional forward line... oh... wait... that wasn't a dream... that was 12 goals in 3 finals! Anyway, just for gloating's sake; top selections from the 2017 draft, reordered roughly as I might pick em, but very casually. Angus Brayshaw Aaron Naughton Bailey Fritsch Zac Bailey, Cameron Rayner, Adem Cerra Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan, James Worpel, Charlie Ballard Spargo and Petty also respectable mentions. Demonland needs a Jason Taylor emoji.

Ben Brown?

Search process.; Step 1. Select 'Player rankings; contested marks per game'. Step 2. Limit selection to 'tall forwards'. Step 3. Check availability, repeat. Repeat. Results after a lot of cleaning of too expensive, too old, too rucky, or just d-heads. Ben McKay, North Melbourne. Is a defender only, and not yet really proven. But should we ask the 'switch' question? Fun fact: this season Ben McKay has more contested marks per game than his brother. J Hogan. That'd just be too awkward. Peter Wright. Oh, that's odd. Didn't he used to be a bit of a lanky potato? Would seem to fit our needs. Bonus points, losing him would basically end Essendon structurally. Jake Riccardi. 14 goals three behinds in last 6 games, and hasn't been goalless in that time. Good signs but hard to know real value. Hayden McLean. Is he basically what you would get if you put Weideman in a team with a more powerful forward line than ours but which also needs more ruck support? Darcy Fogarty. Is either in form or very much not in form. 9 games this season. In the most recent 4 he has kicked 12.2 and gave 4 goal assists, but in the first five he kicked 2.3 and one goal assist. Plus, you'd expect the Crows have plans for him for when boofhead retires.

It is interesting to note that despite unfortunately never playing a game for us, nobody has ever called Majak Daw a 'list clogger.' I think that reflects well on him.

Kysaiah Pickett could show no further improvement for his entire career and still never be out of the best 22 of a premiership-contending side. Also, he's still just 21, and definitely showing signs of continuous improvement.

Oh, well, if it is Tom Browne reporting it, then that settles the matter. 🤣

Career best form since the Eagles game. By the numbers he has been a top 5 midfielder since then, but there has also been a quality to those numbers. Getting a few quick evasive steps in, keeping his feet in tackles that take the opponent off their feet, and a mental state of continuous hunting. Looks like poor Clayton has yet another team mate who will be 'stealing' Brownlow votes off him.

I do like this thing that happens whenever Bailey Fritsch kicks a goal midway through the third quarter. Note of credit to Sam Weideman; he actually took a lot of ruck contests tonight and made a pretty good fist of it, as well as competing pretty well in general. He basically provided the extra option for Jackson in the way that Jackson provides it for Gawn. It got the most out of Jackson and seemed to also get a good level of engagement from Weideman as well. It may even be a consideration for when Gawn is available again; the seeming madness of having two rucks and a ruck-forward, made possible by the fact that both rucks have clearly completely forgotten they are rucks and just run around doing all kinds of non-ruck things all day!

Don't want to freak anyone out, but McStay has about the same numbers as Sam Weideman except with a couple of extra link kicks up the ground. He'd be an improvement, for sure, but only an incremental one and I don't think recruiting him would make a major difference for us. That said, if Weideman decides to move on for a fresh start in a trade, and we then get McStay as a free agent, we would effectively be getting a little upgrade while also picking up Weideman's trade value. Ha! Use that to push ourselves up the draft order and we can pick up one of the very promising key forwards in the draft, and wha-bam we've got ourselves a short-term role filled and a long-term prospect in one go.

Reassuring that I'm not the only one a bit concerned about the mix of Harmes, Sparrow, Nibbler, and (Dunstan), in our midfield mix. Not enough impact from them. They have all had some good games but none have given the consistency that is required. Pack that together with Petracca's drop-off ever since the game he was sick for, and our overall midfield mix is a long way behind where it was for finals 2021. I'm slowly firming in the 'Brayshaw to the middle' fan club. I think we have some pretty smart players who can do as well or almost as well as him across half-back, but he can add something extra in a midfield that lacks situational awareness. Meanwhile, Weideman clearly just has to be made to play until he either gets it together or moves on for a fresh start. It is a testament to just how little we all 'trust' him that there is even hesitation about bringing him in when we are down our main ruck, backup ruck and our CHF, and our other tall forwards are in poor form as well. Actual changes I'd do? Ummm.... OUT: Gawn (inj), Turner (Inj), M Brown, Harmes IN: Weideman, Van Rooyen(!), May, Rivers

Strong possibility of an epic game.

Reading the initial responses in this thread I just got the most uneasy sensation that we've all been replaced by simulations.

Seems a bit harsh on Petracca for just three weeks a bit off the boil, but it probably works out statistically if you're into that. I think Brayshaw missed out by a statistical fingernail, and probably suffered a bit because he has not quite fit the usual roles of either dedicated rebounder or dedicated interceptor/supporter. But he really has only just missed on either format, which to me just underlines his importance. Gawn is statistically pipped by, again, the barest of margins by Tim English. Remembering Gawn had a couple of quiet ones (just 'excellent' games) earlier in the season and his injured second half against Collingwood. As for Jarrod Witts - clearly that is a matter of how Champion Data prioritise according to position, with Witts' sheer volume of hitouts and hitouts-to-advantage being all the difference there. On a positive note, seeing a couple of the midfield elite names there got me thinking, and sure enough, since he found his current vein of form Jack Viney has been right in that group. Still flying under the radar a bit, but at present is an absolute A-grader. It is a nice touch that the only player they made an exception for in their categories of statistical eliteness was Bontempelli. And, you know, fair enough, that's fine, but also, kind of points up how silly their use of field categories is.

I nominate Christine Holgate.

My 'dizzy' post kind of covers my thoughts here as well. It's a much tougher prospect as a tall defender in a team which relies on up-field pressure to force rushed and predictable kicks. Lever was recruited to gobble those up and shoot the ball back out again after taking intercept marks. How much of his drop in form is attributable to the team process going a bit soft and how much is his personal form is hard to judge. But there's definitely been a serious drop. Even the state bear it out; STATISTIC 2021 2022 Intercepts 10.3 6.2 Cont marks 1.8 0.6 Marks 5.4 4.2 Rebound50s 4.1 2.2 Metres gained 277 193 One percenters 6.7 5.0 Overall he' dropped off by about a third across the publicly available stats which are most relevant to his game. Definitely one of the players we want to see returning to their best form if we are going to be climbing back up again from our equal-top-of-ladder slump.

Oh dear god no... I just realised there is a scenario here where we end up taking Tom Scully.

The Sumich rumour of >$10m over 7 years is obviously outside good reason. Gawn wouldn't even be close to that amount of coin. Jackson is an excellent footballer with serious energy and he's fun to watch as well, but he's not team-defining. Oddly, right now the club which probably gets the most value from Jackson would be the Demons. Obviously we need him while Gawn recovers and we also get great value out of him as a contrasting style with Gawn. That lasts for as many years as it does and then Jackson will be a bit more developed and a bit more experienced in ruck, and take over the No1 role. It looks like the perfect career path for a young ruckman, really. Meanwhile we would clearly be looking to find some big-bodied beast to play forward-ruck in future (or right now if it were possible) and provide another contrasting type of tall.

The ball is coming in badly to the forwards, who aren't doing very well at forcing the ball to a scrap, and then we aren't doing so well at making it a scrap in our forward area in general, so the rebounds for our opponents come out faster and cleaner, so our zoning players don't have as much time to close down options, which means opposition entries into their forward 50 are less predictable, which means our defenders can't reliably get into the best positions to intercept or contest, which means when we do rebound it isn't as clean and fast, so then our movement forward isn't as decisive, so the ball is coming in badly to the forwards, who aren't doing very well at forcing the ball to a scrap, and then we aren't doing so well at making it a scrap in our forward area in general, so the rebounds for our opponents come out faster and cleaner, so our zoning players don't have as much time to close down options, which means opposition entries into their forward 50 are less predictable, which means our defenders can't reliably get into the best positions to intercept or contest, which means when we do rebound it isn't as clean and fast, so then our movement forward isn't as decisive, so the ball is coming in badly to the forwards, who aren't doing very well at forcing the ball to a scrap, and then we aren't doing so well at making it a scrap in our forward area in general, so the rebounds for our opponents come out faster and cleaner, so our zoning players don't have as much time to close down options, which means opposition entries into their forward 50 are less predictable, which means our defenders can't reliably get into the best positions to intercept or contest, which means when we do rebound it isn't as clean and fast, so then our movement forward isn't as decisive, so the ball is coming in badly to the forwards, who aren't doing very well at forcing the ball to a scrap, and then we aren't doing so well at making it a scrap in our forward area in general, so the rebounds for our opponents come out faster and cleaner, so our zoning players don't have as much time to close down options, which means opposition entries into their forward 50 are less predictable, which means our defenders can't reliably get into the best positions to intercept or contest, which means when we do rebound it isn't as clean and fast, so then our movement forward isn't as decisive, so the ball is coming in badly to the forwards, who aren't doing very well at forcing the ball to a scrap, and then we aren't doing so well at making it a scrap in our forward area in general, so the rebounds for our opponents come out faster and cleaner, so our zoning players don't have as much time to close down options, which means opposition entries into their forward 50 are less predictable, which means our defenders can't reliably get into the best positions to intercept or contest, which means when we do rebound it isn't as clean and fast, so then our movement forward isn't as decisive, so the ball is coming in badly to the... Stooping there, I'm dizzy.