Jaded No More

And this is equally a problem as you say. I love to read the counterarguments. I love the always positive vibes of some on here like yourself. I think it’s great that you’re trying to come up with rational reasons so to why we are losing, just as much as others (like me), are trying to pinpoint the reasons why we are losing. Neither of these outlooks should be dismissed, so long as they’re done respectfully. The entire point of Demonland is to discuss the game and the team. The differing opinions is what makes this place so engaging, and I think we can all learn from one another. If I wanted a boring one sided discussion I’ll head over to the North Korea supporter forum.

I watched GC last night get throughly destroyed by the umpires. They still won. Yes the umpires were putrid, absolutely terrible. Welcome to every game in 2023.

People can do whatever the hell they like. And other people can find it embarrassing. You really think clapping him was not ridiculous?

I never said we aren’t contenders. I said that in our current form we aren’t contenders and that things need to change if we are to win. In fact in the same post that you quoted I said that we deserve to be a successful club! Your history lesson is a good one. What it shows is that those teams improved dramatically in order to then go on to win the flag. They didn’t just repeat their mediocre form all season and then somehow had a flag fall in their lap. But apparently to suggest that we need to improve in key areas in order to win is being negative and hysterical, not pragmatic or realistic. I love this club, but I’m not blind to its faults. We are seeing our own history from last season repeat itself. We seem to have not improved in the areas that hurt us last season either. To bury your head in the sand and say oh we only lost our last two games by 11 points, is to paper over the cracks in a very convenient way to the narrative that we all so desperately want to believe, which is that things will get better and we will win the flag in 2023. I hope more than anything that you’re right, but without change I can’t see it happening.

We only play 2 current top 8 sides after the bye - Brisbane at the G and the Saints. Of course we also need to play Adelaide, GWS and Sydney and they are by no means given wins. But we also play North and Hawks again.

A forwardline of Ablett, Dunstall and Buddy wouldn’t kick a goal with the sort of forward delivery our talls deal with on most weeks. But also our tall forwards are either physically done or infants. We need to chase a developed tall forward with serious gusto in the off season.

There is also this weird notion here that because we aren’t the laughing stock we once were, we have no right to be annoyed about a loss. After all, we once would lose by 10 goals and finish bottom 4, so we should just be grateful every day that we are not that bad anymore. It’s such a loser mentality. We deserve to be a successful club and we deserve to be contenders. To be happy with anything less than that, is to be happy with mediocrity, which with our current list, is not where we should be.

Good take this. They didn’t win it as much as we lost it. Unlike Port last week who were actually significantly better than us all over the ground, Freo are a middle of the road side who played half a game without their #1 ruckman and without their #1 goal kicker and still somehow made us look bad.

When was the last time we made 4 changes to the team? Let alone 4 unforced changes. It simply won’t happen. I would drop Harmes and McVee and bring Hunter back from suspension and Tomlinson (very reluctantly) to play on McKay. There are about 7 players who you could drop after the last two weeks, but it’s unlikely to happen. Especially with Casey having a loss.

I sat next to a few Melbourne supporters who clapped him. It was cringe.

This is such a [censored] take. I’m sorry but nobody here wants to see us lose. You only needed to be here post flag to see how invested and happy everyone was. I hate this notion that you shouldn’t vent or be upset post loss. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems, but ffs if supporters want to be upset and have a crack, who cares? As long as nobody is being personal or nasty or rude, why can’t supporters be reactionary? Why can you make big calls post win but not post loss? And why are Melbourne supporters so scared to call out issues? It’s like you’re not a real fan if you aren’t happy with every single thing the club does. Anyone who pays their membership and has sat through two decades of rubbish served prior to 2021, has every right to be as upset as they want post game, so long as they continue to support the club in both good times and bad. And by the way, nobody at Demonland is forcing anyone to read anything. If people don’t like to read posts after a loss, why come online then? Venting about others venting is equally as ridiculous.

But at the expense of Geelong 🩷

And Norf …. I’ll see myself out

A real BOG performance by him

Kissed on the behind today with the other results. More luck than skills right now.

Come on Suns!

That flopper Weightman disgusts me.

20-10 free kick count. Laughable. AFL is becoming unwatchable.

Our senior players have been mostly very disappointing this season. Trac and Clarry aside, we’ve not had consistently good output from anyone else. I have no issues with McVee or JVR running out of puff. But players like Langdon, Lever, May, ANB, Gawn, Gus, Fritsch and Viney (not to mention the two talls in Tmac and BB) have all been wavering between good and horrible each week. When we are getting minimal output from these key players who made us a great team in 2021, it’s no wonder we are struggling. I don’t know if they are just lacking motivation/hunger, if they’re injured, or if they’re simply in decline, but it puts too much pressure on the lesser lights to perform. Unfortunately, like most sides, if your best players aren’t performing, your bottom 8 are unlikely to win you many games. Combine that with a game plan that is predicable, and we have simply become easier to play against.

We are running out of options. We don’t have anyone to play on McKay. May has to take Curnow as only he has the speed and height to go with him.

I said Chandler was better than Spargo. IMO Chandler should have stayed on and Spargo should have been subbed off. McVee was a different point. I don’t think McVee is setting the world on fire and he needs a rest, and I agree should be dropped, but he isn’t why we lost today. Lever dropping 9 chest marks was more costly than anything McVee didn’t do in the contest I reckon. It’s our senior players not standing up today, or for much of this season (Trac and Clarry aside), that is hurting us the most.

Because we lost Hunt to injury. This is an entirely different issue.

For those who want JVR dropped, please discuss how we get better at ground ball and forward half pressure if we replace him with BB? BB and Tmac together plus one of Gawn/Grundy is the stuff of literal nightmares. You think the ball is coming out fast now? Just wait until you have 3 players who can barely bend down playing there. JVR is very competitive at ground level for a player his size.

The one thing that concerns me at the moment from a coaching perspective is that, accordingly to Goodwin, we still don’t know what our best mix is. We don’t know what the forward line should look like, or how Gawn and Grundy are best used together, or what the midfield mix needs to be. Hell we haven’t even got a settled back 6. Now I understand that injuries have made that more difficult, but at nearly the halfway mark of the season, for the coaches not to know what they ultimately want the side to look like in September, is really really worrying. They’ve had a whole pre season to work it out and yet here we are still confused.

To be fair to Geelong, their list is 9000 years old and they’ve achieved a hell of lot more than we have in the last decade. They also have a bazillion more injuries than we do. The season is far from gone, but it is in the balance. Lose the next 3, which is a possibility, and it could be. We need to make some changes to turn this season around. Can we? Of course we can. Will we? Who knows.