Demon Dynasty

Melksham is a huge out. He's our best ball user bringing the ball into 50. And by a long way. Adams should have been brought in to cover Petty to keep Turner forward. With Jeffo in i'm assuming we lose Turner who'll be covering for Petty down back? While Turner will be fine in that position, not having him play mostly forward is a big win for the Hawks.

The Petty one is strange. I would have thought Adams in (not Jeffo) and do everything in your power to keep Turner forward playing as second string alongside JVR. Jeffo did absolute didly squat in Casey's last massacre and we need to find a solid structure up forward & convert to post a potential winning score.

It does seem like a weird call but i would guess if he was right to go he'd be playing Poita. Could be the knee gash has arced up or maybe a hammy / other soft tissue niggle that they don't wanna risk this week. Playing the long game?

The pile on is (was?) quite incredible from so many journos 58. Although surprisingly Morris did back it off a little last week. That's a first. However, most still manage to bring it up somewhere in their general narrative. Even if it's an update to say "nothing to see here". If the filth were doing this 'managed' scenario with DeGoey the media would be falling over themselves to applaud fly and the club and what a great job they're doing managing their playing group. Cutting edge etc!

I'm not saying take him out of the mid entirely. Just shift his split between mid / forward a little more to the forward side to compensate. He seems to play his best footy and impacts the most when not playing super heavy mid minutes anyway a la his stellar BOG against Flagmantle.

Which allows Koz to play more time forward. In the past (when playing significantly more minutes forward) he has been our best F50 pressure player.

Spazz?

Well with those two out our chances of winning just dropped substantially imv

Hey Uncle B. Long time no see (in other threads). Was wondering how you were fairing. What a small world. I hope you told his granny that she just met one of the most legendary characters on DL! P.S. where the hec is Lancefield?

As an aside... where is Steve?

According to Hoyne of C.D. they are rated the worst post clearance contested possession team in the comp. Let's hope they don't change their style. Working a treat.

And then can't handle the blow back when Greeny gives em' a serve. Poor things

Team & Player Ratings to Rnd 8, 2025 vs H&A Season 2024 Big Max takes over the No.1 spot from an absent Clazz. Tracc breaks into the top 5 for the first time in 2025 but still a bit of work ahead if he wants to catch Bowey. Maysie dropping away in his last few matches. Zero contested stats vs the Eagles! An indication that he's struggling with the foot and/or other problems? Sparrow & Koz dropping away somewhat from their early form in the last few matches. Turner steps up and is now ranked as our highest rated tall forward in 2025 and by a fair margin. Vines, Spargo and Windsor climbing back towards their 2023 / 24 form. Need to get Maysie and Koz up and about again. Hopefully Clazz back in this week and Lever not too far away either... * Played less than two full matches < Subbed out at least once or more > Subbed in at least once or more Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

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To a point yes GS but to have that many entries in the first half and fall badly short on the scoring front. Pretty sure it was something like 29 inside 50s for a miserly three goals. That's a shizenhouse 10% return and VFL type standards. The AFL average is 23% (ish). That equates to approx 6.5 goals. We left the door open, again, which gave them a huge incentive to up that effort as the 2nd quarter wore on. With the amount of effort required to win the ball at stoppage, force turnovers when you lose it, then transition from HB into 50 (from turnovers in that area), efficiency of scoring is key must have in the game now and truth be told, probably always has been. This is a significant aspect of the game that helps make the Cats and the Pies so formidable. You know they're both going to convert at or higher than AFL average in MOST games they play and it's what keeps them in the big games as well as seeing them bury lessor opponents. And often quite early in a match. They don't give the lessor lights a sniff so often, killing off their hope / belief early on by converting more of their inside 50 entries. Conversely it also gives players in such teams a pretty big incentive to lift their output and get it into the 50 when they see the returns from their efforts paying off more often. Thank Lucifer Melksham lead the way and turned the efficiency from entries & connection around for us in the 2nd half. Absolute priceless five star performance from the veteran.

100% AJ's finishing skills may not be AFL level but his intensity, second efforts and attack on ball / ball carrier plus pressure, in the air and at ground level, is a fair way ahead of JVR and a mile ahead of Jeffo at this point.

AJ for Fritsch if you want the two way and 2nd efforts etc JVR is ok but can't be trusted to make enough contests and impact often enough at ground level. AJ can also give Max a chop out whereas Fritsch can't. I'd leave Sharp as sub. Not great but not bad either. He at least gives you pace on the ball late in the game and the chance of the odd goal. I'm not convimced Kolt is ready just yet but not many alternatives. Clarry for Kolt is the obvious one here IF right to go.

Max Tracc Melksham Chandler Viney Turner

Round 8, 2025 Optus Stadium - Eagles vs Demons What might have been! A win's a win but given the domination in the first half at stoppage, clearance and inside 50s this should have been a spiflication and a decent boost to percentage. Thank goodness for Big M, Chandler and in the second half, Melk. Who, playing a higher half forward role around the arc, showed every other team member how to assess and enter the 50 with some sort of connection and AFL level efficiency. No need to panic! And some of the others finally followed, lowering their vision and hitting up a few free targets instead of the ugly festival of shizen forward craft we witnessed in the first half. And on so many other occasions as we all know too well. And the scoring followed in the third and we were on our way. Our Team Rating nearly 4% off that of 2024 which is not the greatest against one of the worst rated teams in the comp. Plenty of upside ahead. The bottom 6 in particular needs improving!! Without a doubt Maxy was obviously BOG. For mine Melky our MVP. Chandler just on his heals. It would appear Tracc is now finding his 2024 form. Can we get Clarry back in and somewhere near his best once again for the icing? We're going to need every little bit of that against the Hawks this week. The last time Max posted a Player Rating this magnificent was Rnd 11, 2024 vs the Saints with a massive 7.20 Just pipping this one. A fabulous game from Chandler. Vines starting to find some form. And Langford in the top 5! The kid's looking promising. Spargo's best game for the year by a country mile. An event or has he turned the corner. And how about Disco!! Can we PLEASE leave him in the team and let him settle as a 2nd string forward from here! His highest rated game in the red & blue. Eclipsing his 3.02 vs the Tigers in Rnd 7, 2024 and his 2024 average rating by 160%. Let's take a look at how he went about it yesterday... 16 Effectives @ 84.2% (AFL ave approx 74%), 1 contested mark, 3 marks inside 50, 6 inside 50s, 1 clearance, 3 rebounds, 1 inside 50, 5 score involvements, 6 intercepts, 359 meters gaines, a few turnovers with 6 (would have pushed his rating down a bit) and three goals. The top 6 Meters gained... Duggan 577, Chandler 567, Windsor 499, Maric 474, Baker 459 and Langford with 433. Player & Team Ratings - Demons < Subbed out TOG % > Subbed in TOG % Player & Team Ratings - Eagles Combined Player Ratings

Melk is better when playing as a higher HF around the arc. Him and Fritta should rarely play alongside each other deep. Just get in each other's way. It's no coincidence that our forward craft and connection looked 30% better once Melk was asked to play as a HHF in the second half

There's no reason why he can't eventually be a decent medium forward like a Waterman or Georgiados. Just needs to be played consistently up forward. Petty back to defence till Rick is ready

Great pressure inside 50.... Kozzy not so much when he's been down there. Needs to find his pressure moj0 inside 50 without the ball

Rivers bah! Lazy lazy football Also loses his feet far too often when contesting ground ball