binman

On 14/04/2026 at 20:46, Dee*ceiving said:

We couldn't and / or wouldn't run far enough, fast enough for long enough.

It was clear to see our tanks were empty not long into the third qtr. In fact we were probably consuming reserve fuel in red time of the second.

It's gonna happen to a young team, playing a taxing game plan. Melk being on one leg 5 minutes in didn't help.

And we lost Salem early too. Two down can't help with the total number of clicks the team has to run.

51 minutes ago, Petal said:

I assume (hope) he's been working on these things too and deserves the call up but I cant help but feel he's come in out of necessity.

No Salem, Bowey, Rivers, CJ and possibly XL now too. We're looking a bit bare for medium backs who can use the ball.

Would love to see XT go out and really play to his strengths. Take the game on, generate that speed off the backline. I'm sure Kingy will be backing him in.

Good call.

You're spot on, we could use the burst of energy XT will bring - straight swap for Salo you'd think; high half back kicking inside 50.

I fear we'll struggle big time defensively against the Lions - hardly a big call their talent and skill level.

Much will depend on our intensity and capacity to press up on their kickers and receivers and pur them under pressur. Any hint of last weeks 'fatigue' and they'll cut us up.

5 minutes ago, Demonland said:

That's awesome- on two levels.

One, who doesn't love it when a new draftee debuts?

Two, it's clear from comments made by King that XT had some things to work on, and I suspect attitude was one such thing.

If King is picking him I assume XT has worked on those things to King's satisfaction.

XT's leg speed won't hurt either.

4 hours ago, Demongirl35 said:

Max Gawn did say yesterday that Max Heath could definitely play this weekend because of the 5 day break between this game and the Tigers so the club are thinking about it

Thanks, that's an interesting consideration - I hadn't clicked we only had a five day break into the Tiger's game.

I think playing both Heath and Max against tge lions would decrease our chances of beating them.

I'd suggest if they pick Heath to maximise how fresh Maxy is for the Tiger's game they are prioritising the Tiger's game. Which wouldn't surprise me as it is our biggest game of the home and away season and Guerra has already shown he wants to maximise such opportunities from a promotional perspective.

If they are thinking that I'd rather they rest Maxy and play Heath as the number one ruck - but can't really see them doing so.

2 hours ago, Demons11 said:

💯 he will also cover the ruck for 20-25% of the game. He has been best on ground, 3 weeks straight. The others haven’t.

The issue is not his form, the issue is that he cannot cover the ground at speed or do the end to end running for the whole match that Kings' game plan demands.

You might argue that nor did Melksham and he was still selected. Which would be a good point - i was amazed he was selected against the Suns, and proven wrong. But the chickens came home to roost against the Bombers when he might as well not have played.

Every player has to run north of 10kms a game, and mostly at a good clip too, to do the sort of offensive and defensive running the game plan demands. With Salem out early in the game, and Melk slow to begin, and then injured we basically played two down for the match.

Add Tmac's lack of leg speed. and we were behind the 8 ball all match in terms of being able to defend (hence our struggles in stopping them chip the ball around - a strategy obviously designed to exploit our lack of run) or create overlap on offence (hence our woeful score from the back half).

Heath might play with Max at some stage this season, but i would suggest probably not until the back third of the season.

My guess is as soon as Luker is 100% good to go he comes in and plays as a key forward and chop out ruck.

3 minutes ago, Dee Boys said:

To learn his trade under Max and hopefully eventually take over from him.

Snap

7 hours ago, picket fence said:

Why did we recruit him to play magoos??

Yes, at least for the short term.

You do know Max is likely to retire at some point don't you?

And that our succession planning involves Heath becoming the number one ruck?

On 12/04/2026 at 13:05, Cranky Franky said:

Think you are being excessively generous to include Sparrow and Lever in the best players.

I'll give you lever, but Sparrow was our 5th highest rated player

Player Ratings

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Jeffo best forward in scratch match, still not enough for you Werridee?? Melksham looked very proppy on Weekend as well!

The first line here picket rather undercuts your call to bring Jeffo in.

I mean a scratch match, a shorttned one at that, between two VFL teams sits somewhere between preseason match play drills and intrac club sim for relevance to senior selection.

That said, I think you'll be proved right.

5 hours ago, MrFreeze said:

Rivers featured in the Casey Demons Instagram, running laps with the boys after a scratch match vs Essendon reserves

Must come back in for Salem IMO

If fit, and assuming there's not other isssues, surely he will. We need some of his physical grunt.

To be honest, when thinking about who would come in I forgot about Riv, in large part because I assumed he was injured.

But he played the Casey scratch match, so hopefully he's OK play on Sunday.

Id go with

Out: Melksham, Salem (assuming he is inured), and Tmac

In: Kentfield (plays forward and second ruck, Petts goes back), Jeffo, Rivers (if fit- AMW if not)

Equity Post Clearance - the only quarter where our pressure was at an acceptable level was the second.

Not surprisingly that was the only quarter we had a positive Post Clearance differential (+12). And the only quarter we outscored them.

Interestingly, we actually stil lost cp that quarter (and were down ball winning equity too) - shows that in that quarter with AFL level intensity we got great scoreboard impact from our possession won Post Clearance.

The second quarter was also by far our best quarter for ball use equity points (+9.7 - next best +3.6).

Our pressure fell away in the second half, there's went way up in the ladt (+22) and our points from ball use collapesed (-13.4 and -13.9).

There's obviously a risk of confusing correlation and causation but I think its reasonable to argue that our ball use is largely dependant on our pressure, contest and intensity - with ball winning equity points being a good measure of these aspects of our game.

1 hour ago, WheeloRatings said:

Melbourne v Essendon (Round 5, 2026)

https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_match_stats.html?ID=20260504

Quarter by Quarter Differential

	1	2	3	4
Disposals	-18	+3	-33	-61
Contested Possessions	-6	-1	-13	-7
Uncontested Possessions	-18	-2	-21	-58
Marks	-16	+2	-16	-31
Total Clearances	+5	-	-8	-5
Inside 50s	-	-4	+5	-3
Marks Inside 50	-1	+3	-	-4
Shots At Goal	-3	+3	-4	-4
Tackles	-3	+4	+5	+3
xScore	-6.3	+5.6	-15.9	-16.3
xChainScore	-2.3	-0.9	-0.9	-7.4
Equity Pre Clearance	+7.6	-5.6	-11.6	-8.9
Equity Post Clearance	-11.4	+12.7	-16.7	-15.6
Equity Possession	-11.5	-2.4	-11.0	-8.0
Equity Ball Use	+3.6	+9.7	-13.4	-13.9

Pressure

Team pressure

Quarter	For	Agn	Diff
1	159	161	-2
2	189	168	+21
3	168	163	+5
4	171	199	-28
Match	171	171	0

Source: Herald Sun

Most Pressure Points

Note: pressure points are the weighed sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points, closing acts are worth 2.25 points, chasing acts are 1.5 points and corralling are 1.2. ( https://www.championdata.com/glossary/afl/ )

Player	Pressure Acts	Pressure Points	Season Average
Tom Sparrow	24	62	52.8
Kysaiah Pickett	21	54	46.6
Jack Steele	21	50	55.8
Caleb Windsor	20	45	46.0
Xavier Lindsay	17	35	25.0
Jai Culley	17	34	30.0
Blake Howes	10	32	24.0
Harry Sharp	16	31	34.4
Bayley Fritsch	13	31	16.2
Harvey Langford	11	28	22.6
Kade Chandler	13	27	44.2
Harrison Petty	12	26	23.0
Tom McDonald	13	24	14.0
Daniel Turner	9	23	19.2
Ed Langdon	9	21	22.8
Christian Salem	9	21	22.6
Jake Lever	7	18	15.8
Koltyn Tholstrup	8	16	22.8
Jacob van Rooyen	9	16	16.6
Max Gawn	7	16	16.4
Latrelle Pickett	6	13	14.6
Jake Melksham	5	10	9.5
Brody Mihocek	4	8	15.2

Source: Herald Sun

Thanks @WheeloRatings

The quarter by quarter stats are fascinating.

Rather than just looking at contested possessions and Clearancs as the measure I'm increasingly looking at a combo of cp and ball winning equity points to get a sense of how good our contest work was.

And I don't even bother looking at disposal or kicking efficiency as a measure of our skill level. I just look at ball use Equity points.

Both tell a tale in this match, particularly when you look at the quarter by quarter trends - particularly ball use, which collapsed relative to them from half time.

That said I was wondering if it's possible to include clangers in your weekly data - our clangers were off the charts yesterday and I reckon clangers are a good measure of where our kicking, intensity and even fatigue us at.

46 minutes ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

If you're still married she's a keeper Bin....

And clever - she's leveraged her position of strength very cannily.

My day looks very different tommorow, and will involve full clean of her car, gardening and my most dreaded of chores - cleaning the #$%$#$% windows inside and out (for weeks afterwards sunlight mocks me highlighted all the smudges I've somehow missed).

By the by, in the as live Masters Jason Day made birdie at 9 to go 5 under and equal second.

45 minutes ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

If you're still married she's a keeper Bin....

32 minutes ago, rpfc said:

‘Goodwin advocated for the same player moves a year earlier’

That’s quite a counter factual parallel universe where Goodwin’s attempts at a new game plan are far more successful in 2025…

I'm not suggesting Goody behind the Swans change to their game plan to but it's interesting their hyper attacking style and long forward handball (#1 for metres gained by hand) coincides with goody joining them as director of coaching and performance.

5 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

4. The board.

   That's who I'd put my money on.

That's where the buck stops. Always

39 minutes ago, Winter Dan said:

Nice to have a Saturday game!

Great day of sports watching

Masters as live now thru to 1pm game time.

Get my bets on the ponies.

Races kick off 11:45 am

Game 1:10pm

Races replays during the breaks, more after the game finished

Post game, 3 group ones in Sydney, includng the excitement machine Pride of Jenni enjoying the trailing wind - can they catch her (I hope not).

And Australia's best horse, the u defeated Autumn Glow gunning for her 12th straight win in the Queen Elizabeth, which this year is stronger than last year's Cox Plate.

Then watch the replay of our victory over the bombers.

Gold.

23 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Hopefully tomorrow evening

....with four of our recent first round draft picks - Langford, XL, Kolt and Latrelle - going bananas.

Just now, Into The Mystic said:

Hey guys who performs the alternative version of Grand Old Flag at the end or last week's pod?

It's awesome isn't it - it's by one of Australia's great musicians, ans hige dees fan, David Bridie (Not Drowning Waving, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, terrific solo stuff).

It's a recording of a live performance from many years ago on, I think ABC's spicks and specks

Note: well answer that question again on the show, just coz

1 minute ago, layzie said:

If you need any help or general advice with the recording, mixing, exporting and general putting togethering don't hesitate to reach out.

I'm very used to the old school method of podcast producing, not up with Andy's whiz bang Zencaster stuff 😜

Thanks Layzie, much appreciated.

I rhink we'll be right - we're actually going to use Andy's zencaster account, and then he can access directly overseas - an elegant solution.

And he's taken some equipment with him to record the intros and edit properly, which is amazing. I can only assume he has a very understanding family!

By the by, that track is is from one of my top 5 Australian albums The Lost Dub Tapes, released in 2004 by the mysterious Secret Masters.

Brilliant album. Brilliantly produced. And sounds absolutely brilliant.

11 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

just remember to hit the 'record' button!

1 hour ago, Grapeviney said:

I'm torn about tonight's match.

Sure, it would be nice to see the Blues blow a big lead again.

But I'm also keen to see them get thumped from the first bounce, and suffer a humiliating 30-goal loss that sees Voss sacked and many on their list give the game away for good, prompting the club to go into receivership and be banished from the league.

What scenario would you prefer?

10 goals up at half time

Lose by 17 goals.

G'day loyal Demonland Podcast listeners. As you know Andy is away and will miss three games in total - last week and the bombers and lions games.

The process for recording the show, which normally goes out live, is a bit complex and above George and my pay grade - Andy records and mixes the show with a combo of recording software and analog mixing desk, with George and i joining via video link.

The plan was for me to do the Suns (tick), Bombers and Lions games solo whilst Andy is away, with me recording a basic sound file, which i send to Andy who adds the intro and outro and then uploads to the various platforms (which by the by @Demonland is above and beyond given you are on holidays - much respect).

However @george_on_the_outer and have decided to harden up and find a way to record the next two Demonland pods together. I mean how hard can it be?

Why am i telling you this?

Because George and i are going to record the show Sunday morning, which means there'll be bugger all time post game to put questions in this thread, so we thought we'd open it up now for anyone who wants to ask a question for the dees v bombers pod ahead of the game (about the game or more general).

We have some questions already that were posted after i recorded last weeks show, which are relevant for this game too, so i'll kick off this thread with those questions:

@GS_1905 asks:

Haven't jumped into the podcast thread for a while so apologies if this has been asked already but im just a little worried about the development of our young brigade: Windsor, XL, Langford and Tholstrup in particular. Now i know these kids are 2/3 year players and we must temper expectations. But aside from becoming (obviously) solid footballers, are any of these kids likely to be future stars of the comp? If so, who is most likely to break into the top 20 afl players in the future?

@buck_nekkid asks:

What does our best forward line look like? Based on facts? Based on best guess? By the end of the year?

Smaller group used in the centre bounce setup - are we getting to our ‘pure mids’, and the choice who went through was specific (tactical?) to GCS. For example Kolt had zero attendances - so no tags this week.

@Bowserpower asks:

What are the main differences with our forward line this year?

@binman asks:

George have you adjusted your thinking/expectations post our magnificent wins against a benchmark team in the Suns, and starting the season 3-1?

George, speaking of our magnificent wins against the Suns, how pumped were you? Highlights from that game ?

43 minutes ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

Are we having loading issues... ?? 🤣🤣🤣

(I'll show myself out)

Too early in the season. Wont be able to open Demonland come our bye - which by the by is bizarrely not till round 16!

26 minutes ago, Colm said:

I’m a big Langford fan and have been since from early in his draft year.

I had a punt on him for goals and disposals in the last game as I thought he was coming into good form.

I was a little disappointed with his running back in the last quarter and was surprised to hear @binman say he was in our top 3 defensive runners. I know the knocks on him have been pace but he had a good 2km time trail in his draft year and I thought 2 way running would have been better.

So I watched the second half again and just focused on him. I was clearly a bit biased by my punt but I do think he’s got a bit of work to do in his tank.He went at 67% game time and dovetails very well with Culley. He seems to be able to find an extra bit running forward.

I’d love to see some of his other GPS number to see if I’m wrong. It looked like he was under done or had a niggle in first couple of rounds so perhaps he’s still getting to full fitness.

I actually thought of the Oilly Dempsey comparison when I was watching the second half replay. Worst case he stays in the position he’s in and is a weapon at wing/forward.

Someone told me, and i'm not sure if it's true (though it would make sense given King was the Cats midfield coach - or at least i think he was), that King was behind how the Cats use Dempsey - ie as a tall winger that aims to stretch opposition defences and be a legitimate forward marking option, often pushing all the way to the goal square (a crazy % of his goals have been from the goal square).

Tracks with how King is using Langford and Culley.

1 hour ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Bombers fans up and about on SEN. they believe they’ll win sunday

Who are they playing on Sunday?