Demon17

David King on SEN yesterday made exactly this point. Fix it and wer'e in with a chance but he believed the team strategy is designed to allow the losses in clearances in the hope that the excellent defence will clean up and maintain possession to attack. He thinks its flawed but fixable.

No, we only lost him for final Round 22, and the First Final. In rounds 19, 20, 21 he had less than 10 disposals each game and best scoree was 2gls 4 points in Round 19. Round 21 he had 8 disposals for 4 behinds. His last game for the season was our last win in Round 18, against the hawks. Neitz had 11 disposlas for 5 gls 3 behinds. last Home and away game in Round 22, after 1/2 time the eagles had 18 scoring shots to our 6. Wheels had really fallen off by then I reckon. I trust current leadership on the ground way more than I would trust the 2004 version. So they may have a story to tell - don't be like us!

Not so fast Super. You may be right but... I reckon the worst thing was losing to 3 bottom sides in the last 4 weeks of the season and costing us a double chance. Not to mention the disaster that was the start of the first final when the game was lost in 20 minutes , despite the heroic comeback. Talk about flaky.

Thanks for this analysis . Always helpful to have the facts rather than necessarily mfcss. Goodwin unlocked the dogs last time which has since been emulated by othet coaches. Ignore media. They only have attention spans of last 48 hours.

I nominate this as the most depressing post of the year/month/week. Take your pick. For professional footballers and 'stars' of the game kicking at between 15% to 38.8% (Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Gawn) the team's engine room should be ashamed. Costing us Top 4 this year. And May/Lever keeping us in the Eight luckily. I forgive Spargo because he has a football IQ and is responsible for setting up numerous gettable chances.

Iv'e now changed my mind to your post. I think worthy top 4 on form are Dogs, cats, swans. Second tier for the 4th spot are Port, Lions(probable top 4 now.) and Dees. With the run home and losses to lowly sides , I think 5th is about right for the season perfomance.

Insighful post Fork. At the time the only intensity I saw was from Mark Williams putting his one or two players through their warm up skills paces in the middle. Others seemed to be participating in something akin to schoolyard kick to kick.

Before the GWS game I sat near the fence watching the team do their usual pre-match warm up and goal kicking on the ground. Interestingly from the boundary 50m out, Gus Brayshaw was intent in kicking torps for goal from that posiiton for amusement. He wasn't the only one. Over in the middle Choco was taking real-life drills with some players, gathering ground balls, kicking etc. Very few practised kicking from 35-40 in front, assuming I guess that they can all do this and don't need to practice. Right? Gus's display was unprofessional at least and laughable at worst given the situation he was practising would never arise in a game. Maybe its just to relive the pre-match nerves to have a laugh. So maybe I take this pre-match stuff too seriously - some players sure don't.

as is his decision-making in traffic.

And another thing: Browns career accuracy is 2.0 (goals to behinds ) twice as likely to goal as kick a point Others Fritsch : 1.3 Brayshaw: 1.3 (1goal 4 behinds this year) Oliver: 1.0 ( i.e. 50/50 whether he kicks a goal or not) Tmac: 2.0 sam Weide.: 1.7 Trac: 1.4 For Interest the former champs stats are: Lockett - 2.30, Dunstall - 2.0, Hudson 2.20. BT - 1.82 How far off the mark are we without Tmac and (hopefully) Brown? Our key oppo forwards stats are: Hawkins and Cameron (at the Cats) 1.77 each

Hawks 9 goals 1 behind in middle half of game Dees: 5 goals 5 behinds in same period. Game over (or may as well be) Sadly we have a premiership defence and midfield as good as any, but this skill continuously lets us down and will cost us in the finals. Certainly will be the biggest block to winning the flag. Its too late to fix this year, and the reason Ben Brown MUST play. At least he can kick straight, and usaulally reliable (unlike, Fritsch, Brayshaw, Neal Bullen, Oliver. If the balls not in Spargos, TMAcs or Tracs 9and include Salem in this - for gawds sake he's a defender who kicks better than many of our forwards) hands, then just mark down a point before the kick is taken .

And realisitically thats about the right spot for our season given the flakiness against lower teams. Certainly worthy of top 4 but not top 2.

Sad but true Luther. He worries me. Plenty of the ball but a less damaging accumulator you couldn't find at the moment. Only rarely does he hurt the opposition when kicking. The sad part is he can do if he has the opportunities but jst usually a big long kick to a general area. Too easy to defend often. Trac is the opposite and why he's surpassed Clayton.

Brayshaw was never a chance to kick that goal. Fritsch would have missed also. Between the ears is spot on DrDrake

And we star in an empty stadium. (In 2021 that is) Percentage builder coming up?

This isn't the worst idea Iv'e heard. Good thinking M 9

Simple - back at the G. With suns coming down to isolate in a bubble

And based on the bulldogs game at an empty marvel stadium, we can get the tag as an empty -stadium specialist. Just like the Kangas used to be the Friday night specialists. I seriously think the Dogs game experience will stand us in good stead, understanding how to generate excitement within the team. hawks may struggle in this department.

Good and timely post Pollyanna. This morning on SEN Malcolm Blight's view was that now we have completed 18 matches, its a real season, and if a worse case delay happens, and no more home and away games can be played, an acceptable finals series could be conducted with those times in the 8 right now, probably slightly later. He said whoever then wins will be a Premiership for the ages. Whately agreed. Go dees.

Hunt should stay back. Its where he can use his speed, he links with Langdon, but has no tricks as a forward (see GWS errrors). As Jack Dyer used to say "...ratbags to the backline.." Not that Hunts a ratbag - just not a success as a forward.

They sent an email around (or to me anyway). 9.00am today An was on the match day page on the MCC website

Good point. The Dogs game could/might be a real indicator for finals performance.

Current ladder has spots 4 to 8 ( 5 teams) all interstate , with Vic teams 1 to 3. What a great outcome so far. No interstate Prelims in all probability if this keeps up.

A dogs firend of mine says easton wood should have been de-listed in 2018

Barry Vagg in 1966. Gary Hardeman in 1975. And got a selfie with Robbo in the outer at Adelaide Oval while he was standing with the Dees faithful in 2017