DeeSpencer

Can you remember how the Weagles covered for Hunter down back? Some combination of Brett Jones, Waters or Chick slotting in at CHB? Or Hansen going back? The issues with Petty as a swing man are our flankers are undersized and/or not very strong defenders. Without Rivers and Hibbo in the team we can’t use flankers as de facto CHB. We don’t have a CHF who can go back, unless Tomlinson takes the forward role. And we don’t have midfielders or forward flankers who slot in nicely down back either. If we had last years team with Gus on a wing and Tommy at CHF then there’s 2 ways to engineer a Petty swing forward and give some cover. With the current set up I think Petty has to start forward with Tomlinson at CHB and swap if it’s not working.

It seems Mrs Brown’s boys just can’t compete, neither can the Weid. Weid never has. Mitch Brown should’ve retired years ago. And Ben can’t get out of a jog. Maybe Benny can come good with some longer breaks and the bye - he did last year, but there might be a time coming when his decline seems inevitable.

The banner squad and crowd in general seemed far more pumped on Saturday than the Freo game. My question is why is/was the old Redlegs section in the Olympic stand no longer packed full of demons. Was disgusting seeing Errol point to swans fans and celebrate. Even with 30k attendance their should be a continuous stretch of red and blue from behind the goals, through the club members and in to the MCC. Should the banner squad relocate to the Olympic stand to beef up their surroundings with fellow demons? I don’t particularly understand why the most passionate fans would be forced in to ordinary seats behind the goals? Sit them on the wing, the club and league can afford it!

There’s 3 things to blame for our scoring woes. 1. Key forwards that can’t clunk ‘em. 2. Midfield that can’t hit up short kicks 3. inability to pressure and create turnovers in dangerous spots, leading to turnover scores. Not much can be done about number 1 for now. Number 2 requires individual improvement but it also needs more corridor and quick ball movement. Hitting up short kicks with 30 players inside D50 is near impossible. Number 3 requires a rethink of our defensive plan IMO. Our drop off defensively zone is excellent once we hold a team up. But when we are attacking quickly we have to make sure we’ve got numbers to the drop of the ball inside 50 and the mids and half backs have covered exits. At the moment we seem scare of getting burnt on transition and so are folding back way too quickly. Thus forfeiting prime scoring chances that come from forward half turnovers. We’ll see how the 8 day break and bye help us but the glaring absence from our game right now looks like a lack of run.

Some of the defensive mistakes last night were baffling. 3rd quarter, Petty comes up to spoil Heeney on the wing. Aggressive move and the right call. Heeney takes a strong mark, good for him. Swans then chip it around, and Tomlinson's guarding the next kick 15m away from Petty! Swans bomb it deep and suddenly Bowey's playing full back defending one on one! Last quarter, game still in the balance, a goal the difference I think, Swans going slow play on the members wing. JJ gets caught forward too much (a common occurence). Gus rushes up from the backline. Salem follows his man up. Swans bomb long to CHF and we're short a defender. May will certainly help a lot of that, but really we had enough experience last night to be more organised and it looked like players were unsure whether to be up or dropping back. And I think a lot of it stems from a lack of confidence in the midfield covering off their opponents. For which the main culprits were definitely Oliver and Petracca. If those guys aren't running and doing the defensive work then we need to roll more numbers through the midfield and find guys who will. Focus on quality rather than quantity of minutes for the 2 big guns.

in: Rivers, May out: Brown, Brown FB: Hunt May Tugboat HB: Salem Lever Rivers C; Brayshaw Petracca Langdon HF: ANB Harmes Spargo FF: Pickett Petty Fritsch Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Jackson, Bowey, Jordon, Sparrow Gus and Lever are both too intercept happy, can’t have both in the same backline. JJ is playing well but he’s so slow to kick and at times looks for the structure too much rather than handing over an opponent or folding back. Use him as 3rd winger and on ball to give more run Time for a complete reset with the key forwards. Harmes can provide run at CHF, rotating with Petracca, Sparrow etc as a smaller line up. Petty forward as the main marking target. Leaves us vulnerable with the tugboat down back but he can’t be much worse than tonight and May should help him.

Which is a step up from Petracca who keeps robbing Brighton houses and selling items to Cash Converters

May and Petty are on their men and Lever reads it perfectly to come across and intercept. The issue is May doesn’t see Lever and stay back with his opponent. If he had his time again May would retreat at the last second or two. No issue with Lever doing his job

Hey, when I go I make plenty of noise. For years the ‘Melbourne clap clap clap’ chant would echo out after goals. I haven’t heard it once this year. I’ll now refer to the group of supporters behind the goals as the ‘banner squad’ because evidently cheering isn’t part of their make up anymore. It’s clear we’ve been spoilt by winning and we’ve become accustomed to it. A passive fan base unwilling to lift to support the team to further heights. That’s all supporters, not just the banner squad.

The finals in 2018 were super loud and it was us clearly being fired up. And I can even remember games like the big Freo comeback when we weren’t a good side that had small but super vocal crowds.

The Freo crowd was a really good number. But it was a really poor quality of crowd. Cheersquad and members need to lift. The second quarter was excellent footy and with a bit more push from the crowd we could’ve nearly finished Freo off. The small Freo crowd were delirious when they made their comeback. You’re official on notice Demon Army. Lift.

He’s a nice natural footballer but I think he’ll need more than 1 interrupted preseason to build strength and fitness to cover for a lack of speed and height at AFL level. As a former midfielder with a neat kick he should develop his attacking game too. If Petty isn’t right and Sydney play 3 talls we might have to pick him, but especially without May for guidance and support it’s best to keep expectations low.

Salem literally said 2 weeks to a reporter last week and was doing basic rehab drills - agility style running drills. I’m not convinced he needs a VFL game but he needs to complete a block of full training sessions and he hasn’t yet. Hopefully we get Langdon and Tom back, but after that it’s Gawn, Petracca, Oliver and Viney playing 4 quarters that will be the biggest ‘in’s’.

Fitness and experience I reckon was the main factor. Casey pretty much used the same 4 on ballers, including White and Grey (who should be half forwards) and Baldi who’s depth down back usually. Big Smith did well in the ruck but tired and started badly mistiming his jumps and Milford wasn’t much of a back up. Buntine went down back once Hibbo was done for the day which took away the 3rd wing. And then the small forwards (both afl and VFL listed) all haven’t played much. Long bomb kick outs rely on the mids and half forwards winning the contests once it hits the ground and our guys seemed pretty spent. Possibly some of the AFL listed guys weren’t 100% as well. Frankston look light on for depth but their midfield has some afl experience and maturity. They got well on top in that area. Was actually nice to see the crowd get fired up

Tomlinson very good but still has moments where he seems tentative on his legs. Turner had some excellent moments, he reads it well and bodies up nicely. Doesn’t really get high in the air to pluck marks or spoil over the top which is something he might have to add to excel at afl level. Deakin Smith continues to do some great things but undo them with poor use at times. Love his aggression and movement. Laurie has the biggest backside a Dees player has had since Trengove. Unlike Trengove he doesn’t use it to win the pill in tight. He’s a long way off Taj is a solid performer at this level who would be loved by his team mates. George Grey continues to do more as a midfielder, one to watch

The second quarter was excellent, but I thought we stopped playing attacking footy in the 3rd, not just the stoppage stuff. We’ve struggled to score consistently against bad sides and relied on the defensive game and grinding out a goal. I don’t want to start consistently leaking big runs of goals but I think we can take more chances against Sydney and get some flow in the game.

I really think we should see this as an opportunity to stop being so reliant on plan A: defence, long down the line, whack it forward. And instead make sure we work on plan B which is actually playing some proper attacking football. Get some bounce off half back, switch to the fat side, use the corridor, kick to some leading forwards in space. We are so risk adverse with our kicking at the moment and we’ve lost run from the backline. We’ll struggle to beat Sydney without May and some other crucial players if we keep the game dour.

I assume Harmes or possibly Langdon won’t be right so it won’t matter next week. But can we play the 4 small forwards after that? Spargo seems only a break in case of emergency winger. Not sold on ANB getting too much midfield time, he’s lost his rhythm a little. Should we be drastic and give Pickett a game at half back to really open up our game style just for a week or two?

29. Solid

I singled out Bedford as the only one I considered to have the chance to be useful. I’m not convinced he’s there yet but he’s a chance. The goals were very good. I didn’t mention the others by name as we know who they are. They don’t give us skill nor do they play the system well.

Yep 1 year would’ve been plenty, but we seem very keen to keep the same battlers on the list year after year rather than take chances with delisted or mature age guys. And when we do pick up delisted guys it’s the most one dimensional options available with absolutely no scope for improvement to become regulars. Great.

JVR has played one great game against the North witches hats and otherwise been a steady role player at Casey finding his feet. He needs to put a month of solid form together before even being considered. Mitch Brown, a smaller forward line and some left field options are better than Weid. But they’re all better options than going with a kid at this crucial stage of finding his confidence in the VFL.

Our defence is system and our attack needs a lot of talent, especially right now. A big issue is our depth players have very little talent nor can they play the system. Bedford flashes some ability to do both but he’s really only useful covering the small forwards.

One was a very good mark too. But when you constantly drop 30m behind your opponent you’re going to get intercepts. Freo’s half forwards had a field day and when the mids didn’t cover off it killed us. Good defending starts with stopping your opponent when required before looking for the easy kicks.

Surprised (but not really) that Hunt and Rivers are copping the criticism when they’re the ones so often chasing 2 opponents because Gus Brayshaw is playing Russian roulette all game. He looked a million bucks in the 2nd quarter when we were well on top, as soon as Freo got any ascendancy he was caught out time and time again miles from his opponent