3183 Dee

As a side note, has anyone else noticed that, in photos of Clarry during games, he mostly seems to be grinning?! Obviously loves his footy!

This is fascinating. I only came to the game about 15 years ago, when I came to Australia. In England, we used to see highlights in the early 80s but all I remember is feral crowds, mullets and biffo! I taught myself the game through going to matches and soaking up media commentary (good and bad), but I’ve longed to see it on a deeper level, especially tactically. I’m a ball watcher, so don’t often see how the ground is being set up or how tactics have changed during a game (what I see on TV, is what I see during a live game, more or less) - this is mostly due to growing up with soccer, where you can pretty much see the relevant area of the game in front of you. Maybe this is why I prefer to watch the game from the centre wing, front of top tier on the Olympic Stand. Long story short! I’m grateful for this tactical insight and look forward to delving a bit deeper into our great game.

Couldn’t have put it any better @dazzledavey36 - some great points there. We certainly play less of a rugby scrum when Viney is out, as much as I love Jack. What’s the best way to incorporate him now? Half forward maybe, with turns in the mid?

It’s starting to come together, but we should be 5 goals clear by now. Much better coming out of our D50. COME ON BOYS!!!!

Goody’s mate, I’m afraid. Obviously, I have no idea how he is perceived amongst the wider playing group, but seems a bit arrogant and selfish on the field. Would be delighted to be proved wrong.

Except that their incompetence, especially around Gawn, has been spoken about all over the footy internet. Hopefully they will atone for their sh1tful performance.

I think TMac has to play first ruck, with occasional spell up forward. The TMac/Weideman combination doesn’t work very well, and Jackson/Weid look more comfortable together. As for Spargo, well, you’d think he’s on borrowed time at the moment: a bit too FIGJAM for mine, but hopefully he proves me wrong!

I think they added Lever and Melksham to the leadership group a few weeks back, so assume it would be one of them. I’d prefer May, personally.

Very good from you ???

Agreed - May is a fantastic leader, especially getting around the young guys.

They might use Tomlinson and Jackson in the ruck?

He was in the rooms after the Adelaide game - unless he’s flown back.

It’s interesting looking at the photo gallery from the game on the OS: in all the photos of the centre bounces, you can see how not only Gawn, but Oliver and Petracca are also being held/tackled before they get possession. Goody has every right to make this public - just like Clarko, Chris Scott and David Teague have done. It’s not about getting an armchair ride, it’s about getting a level playing field. As soon as Max gets some parity at his contest, he will towel them up. Also, all sides are trying to get into him off the ball, problem is that it’s hard for him to complain, as captain. May or Viney should get i the umps ear about it.

The article just regurgitates what was said in Gawn’s post March interview and then suggests he’s in doubt for North. Doesn’t give any sort of hard fact or source for this speculation.

I agree with this. Brayshaw’s 3 and 4Q was much better and I couldn’t work out why. Then realised that Viney was off, which I thought must have been due to injury. Couple of minutes later, he pops up and kicks the goal. This would seem a logical place for Viney, to add intense pressure to the forward line, rotating through the midfield as needed. The first half (with Viney in mid) we just bullocked our way forward, like a rugby scrum. Second half, we started to spread out of the contest, which is surely what we are crying out for?

There’s a couple of highlights videos on the OS which show the intent and aggression of 2018 - I’d say that Hibbo has done okay so far this year, but let’s have the old Harmesy back from this evening onwards. Well done to both players, in any case.

or is it that the players have lost Goodwin? Let's hope that none of this eventuates and that SG and these players pull it around and march on to a successful finals campaign.

And on until the end of the season. The ramifications of the Port game are severe, not because of that one performance, but because those performances have now become endemic in our football club over the past years. The team gets a jolt up the [censored], usually plays better the next game, a little less the following game, until the cycle repeats itself. The only way we will see if things have turned, is if the effort and endeavour that we saw in the Hawks game (and mostly v Brisbane) is the minimum achieved for the remainder of the year.

That's a beautiful post. I'm a first generation Demon (since I got off the boat in 2006 - how [censored] is my timing?!) and my boy and youngest daughter are absolute one-eyed Demons, despite having mates who barrack for Tigers, Hawks etc. We can grumble all we like, but the kids don't see all the nonsense that we talk about - all they care about is big Max, Lockhart (my lad), Harmesy (my daughter) and Petracca smashing through to kick a couple of goals!

Hopefully it’s not used as another excuse, if we get rolled.

That’s right - unfortunately, nothing of this will be resolved until the game after N Melb. We will have needed to beat both comfortably, for the FD (and players) to be back on a level playing field. It will be how the form continues after that, which everyone will be looking at. On the flip side - lose one or both of those games and the writing will be on the wall.

I was thinking this last night. How is it that our greatest asset is becoming our greatest liability? Most teams don’t have a ruck that can compete with Max, so they just effectively use him as their ruckman. This works for the good teams (Port, Lions) but not so much for the weaker teams. My question would be two-fold: - How do we get around this? Play Max in a varied role? - Do other teams with superior rucks (Collingwood, West Coast) experience the same issues? I can’t remember seeing this? So, what do they do, that is so different? I don’t actually have any solutions, but, knowing that there are some tactically astute Demonlanders, would be interested to hear what others think.

I was so looking forward to this game - as you say, you’d think that the Brisbane game was going to be the launch pad for great things. Instead, we got that. Almost the exact opposite of what I thought would happen.

Yes - Burgo really oozes a quiet confidence. Although it’s been a weird season, it’s notable that we’ve had no soft tissue injuries yet (touch wood). Also agree with your comment about Ben Gibson - he’s doing a great job of the interviews, not just PR fluff pieces and not afraid to go in-depth with some of the questions.

Great post @DeeSpencer - I hadn’t picked up on that. I’d noticed that, once again, Gawn is constantly hung onto by his direct opponent at a ball-up. Might be interesting to send this into the club?