Demon Dynasty

He was not a ruckman at the Lions when recruited. He was a forward who was occasionaly asked to pinch hit in the ruck.

Around ground marking is important but that wasn't Petty's main role on the day. He started off as the 1st ruck and failed miserably. We then had to throw JVR in in the hope he might offer more resistance. That didn't work either. Same happened the week before with JVR coming in to replace Petty early after Petty got wacked in the first Q but luckily the whole day become a contested shiite fest where we were able to wrestle the game back on our terms at ground level with the rain largely making much of any attempted ruck work / craft by Draper ineffectual.

Not sure how much more Simon can get out of the regular group he sticks with anymore DZ. I reckon alot are pretty much done mentally and physically. Our engine room's done and dusted for 2024. My take is, we aren't going to worry anyone even if we made finals. So it's best to take anyone who needs some end of season surgery or fix ups out and do it now. Put em under the knife if needed eg; potentially Vines. Replace with anyone from Casey be it Laurie, Sesto or brown Dog or just alternate over the weeks and may the best man win. Not that i'm placing much faith in any of those bar Brown. Manage the older fellas like May and T-Mac (IF he's continuing on into 25) by utilising the likes of Tommo and Marty as replacements. Roll any other youngsters through that you want to trial further like Jeffo for Turner to see where he's at. It's time to manage those we need to look after to prep them into next season, trial the youngsters and review all the off season crew including everyone in the FD. A few changes might be needed there also. We look as stale as a year old croissant and highly unskilled with our ball use in general against the better rated sides. It's pretty obvious the present list is not going to take us to the promised land again so we may as well reset and prep for 2025 and beyond now. Our recruiting needs to raise the bar on who we go after in terms of skill set as we have way too many hackers by hand & foot. And / or it might also have something to do with training methods? The gulf between us and the Dockers, especially by hand and their spread was immense yesterday and if anything it's gotten worse each time we play them. Imagine getting into the top four and meeting a team like this, or even GWS on a good day in finals. We are a long way off highly skilled teams with leg speed when they're putting up something near their best 22 atm.

Round 19, 2024 Optus Stadium - Dockers vs Demons Not much to get excited about in this one. May and McVee held up well in defence under the most extreme pressure, probably not seen since the last time we played this lot. Following on from last week's uptick, Petty posted his best rating for the season coming in in 2nd place behind May. His prior best against the Lions in Rnd 16 with a 3.12 Our team rating was a long way off the 2023 team rating, with Freo posting a team rating that matched our average last season. Effectively a 21% gap between the two team's ratings. Player Rating Rank 2023 Season Rating % Change vs 2023 S May 4.525 1 3.213 40.8 H Petty 4.050 2 2.718 49.0 J McVee 3.675 3 2.320 58.4 T McDonald 3.375 4 2.054 64.3 T Rivers 3.225 5 3.696 -12.7 J Bowey 3.000 6 2.820 6.4 C Oliver 2.950 7 5.002 -41.0 Ed Langdon 2.925 8 3.057 -4.3 Jack Viney 2.900 9 3.707 -21.8 J Billings > 41% 2.775 10 2.993 -7.3 J V Rooyen 2.375 11 2.170 9.4 C Windsor 2.275 12 - - K Chandler 2.275 13 2.265 0.4 J Lever 2.250 14 3.131 -28.1 A N-Bullen 2.100 15 2.532 -17.1 T Sparrow 1.950 16 2.811 -30.6 J Melksham 1.875 17 1.599 17.3 A M-Wakefield 1.850 18 - - C Salem 1.700 19 2.993 -43.2 B Fritsch 1.675 20 2.324 -27.9 K Pickett 1.125 21 2.101 -46.5 D Turner 0.475 22 1.825 -74.0 K Tholstrup < 43% 0.350 23 - - Team Score 55.33 69.86 -20.8 Top 6 21.85 24.43 -10.6 Bottom 6 8.70 15.17 -42.6 < Subbed out TOG % > Subbed in TOG % Dockers Player Rating Rank A Brayshaw 6.400 1 C Serong 5.925 2 J Clark 4.975 3 Luke Ryan 4.750 4 H Young 4.325 5 J O'Meara 4.125 6 N Fyfe 3.450 7 S Darcy 3.125 8 C Wagner 3.050 9 M Walters 3.050 9 S Switkowski 3.000 11 J Treacy 2.950 12 Sam Sturt 2.425 13 Jye Amiss 2.350 14 B Walker 2.325 15 H Chapman 2.300 16 B Cox 2.050 17 B Banfield 2.025 18 A Pearce < 61% 1.925 19 J Sharp 1.725 20 M Frederick 1.600 21 L Jackson 1.575 22 J Aish > 32% 1.225 23 Team Rating 69.43 Top 6 30.50 Bottom 6 10.90 Combined Ratings Player Rating Rank A Brayshaw 6.400 1 C Serong 5.925 2 J Clark 4.975 3 Luke Ryan 4.750 4 S May 4.525 5 H Young 4.325 6 J O'Meara 4.125 7 H Petty 4.050 8 J McVee 3.675 9 N Fyfe 3.450 10 T McDonald 3.375 11 T Rivers 3.225 12 S Darcy 3.125 13 C Wagner 3.050 14 M Walters 3.050 14 J Bowey 3.000 16 S Switkowski 3.000 16 C Oliver 2.950 18 J Treacy 2.950 18 Ed Langdon 2.925 20 Jack Viney 2.900 21 J Billings > 41% 2.775 22 Sam Sturt 2.425 23 J V Rooyen 2.375 24 Jye Amiss 2.350 25 B Walker 2.325 26 H Chapman 2.300 27 C Windsor 2.275 28 K Chandler 2.275 28 J Lever 2.250 30 A N-Bullen 2.100 31 B Cox 2.050 32 B Banfield 2.025 33 T Sparrow 1.950 34 A Pearce < 61% 1.925 35 J Melksham 1.875 36 A M-Wakefield 1.850 37 J Sharp 1.725 38 C Salem 1.700 39 B Fritsch 1.675 40 M Frederick 1.600 41 L Jackson 1.575 42 J Aish > 32% 1.225 43 K Pickett 1.125 44 D Turner 0.475 45 K Tholstrup < 43% 0.350 46 Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

Regardless of set ups you need to neutralise a few and win a few hit outs to advantage Watson. You could orchestrate a plus 2 all day at stoppages and still get pantsed giving them that much of an advantage. We got absolutely trounced at the source due to having no one in the ruck that could compete a little. It also doesn't help that players like Kozzy and Salem are seemingly giving up the outside and leaving their opponents to burst away too easily with the service they were being given. Double wammy. We play like an amature team every other match it seems. There's a discipline / coaching / tactical issue in our side at the moment that's hanging around like a very bad fart that lingers and the windows still haven't been opened. Pretty much ever since Freo stopped our 10 game winning streak in 2022. Other sides are working us over tactically and in many other aspects far too easily. On top of that we failed to ensure we maintained our structure up forward yesterday purely via selection which is a cardinal sin and also allowed the boys to be sucked up the field too high for pretty much the entire match. If you can't win the ball at the source and getting pantsed, at least get big numbers behind the footy. Defend there, seek the turnover and look to run it out by hand and foot. Oh wait, we are one of the worst HB teams in the AFL and don't have many line breaking runners bar Windsor and occasionally Moniz (still building AFL tank) ... forget that idea! I seriously fail to see where we are improving as a team this season and what assets / weapons we are a bringing to the table. We play up one week then a hot mess the next. Yes there are many youngens and they'll have off days but yesterday wasn't a result of just that.

They've had our measure since Rnd 11, 2022 and nothing's changed TU. We still can't work them out and if anything they've gone streets ahead this season. We'll agree to disagree. We are generally a poorly coached side in a tactical sense. Going in to a game against a team with two of the best rated rucks in the league with no ruck is suicide. At least give the boys a slim chance and play one of Verrall or Fullo. Don't go into a match like that with your pants already down and then bend the boys over a barrel. Terrible coaching.

17 - 0 hit outs to advantage. Good luck trying to defend and win a match with that.

Only when we play them Dr. Other middle rung teams are capable including the Hawks last week and the Doggies by 10 goals five weeks ago.

Big lump of a lad eh

Correct. And bring Jeffo in for at least three games (or more if he holds his own). Brown dog for Sparrow also. Need to see where both of their games are at and give them a good look at the next level up and what's required to stay there. Work on things over the off and give them hope & incentive to push harder. Get a quality mid or two and a back up ruck for Big M

He has but coming off a low base. He's a receive and go mid imv. His mindset and positioning for defending isn't the greatest as far as quality mids go and by a fair way. Very good at the former though so you would back him in here vs most opponents. Our issue at the moment is that our go to extractor in JV is no longer extracting much of late (shoulder issue or just badly out of form?) and the other usual part timer here in Clarry is a mile off his former (pre 2024) best and barely getting any effective extractions either. Then there's the back ups that might get the odd extraction. Max yes but didn't play today. Gus a tad. He's gone. And on the odd occasions JJ. He's gone. Sparrow nowhere near anything atm and should be replaced in the side by brown Dog for the speed and spread factor for the remainder of the season. When you have zero decent rucks in the CBs plus the above extraction problem and you play an oppo that has strengths in both of those areas = recipe for disaster.

That's not what i said. Taking it the wrong way. I said you 'might want to give DL a miss' if you think you are going to not see a myriad of positive and negative posts. It's part of the way a forum is. Whether you continue to read / contribute or not is up to you. The point i was making is it aint going to change just because whatever is said fits in or doesn't wIth your own POV. Same applies to all on here.

Might wanna give DL a miss then Kev It's a forum where you're gonna see praise and criticism as a constant so no one is gonna ease up either way just because it's upsetting you or you don't get the reasoning.

Top eight at stake and we produce that rubbish! Goodwin's obsession with Petty has absolutely cost us this season. You can't play a man down in the bulk of matches (bar about two 'ok' games in total) since Rnd 5 and expect to win against the better clubs. And then attempt to play him in the ruck against two monsters (twice in the same season... ah hello!) and have a positive outcome. He just isn't a ruck and he has no form or ability at ground level rucking either. Then when he fails you send your best KF to then go into the ruck to try to turn things around. Robbing us of any structure or contested marking ability inside 50 or even just getting the ball to ground for the smalls. You can't make this stuff up. 2024 has become a complete joke of a season and seen us regress about 5 years watching so many ordinary to good teams now over take us.

And too slow off the mark. Too often second to the ball. He is simply NOT a mid fielder in any sense of the role and brings nothing to the table other than handing the oppo another opportunity at first use. Another terrible coaching decision from Simon today.

Possibly the worst game ive ever seen Kozzy play

Lol just going for the ball Bowey and gets penalised. FO Clarry's been ok in patches around the ground and away from CB

JVR has tried his guts out today

Im not sure what Goodwin or the recruiting team were thinking when they chose Billings. Nor why they selected him ahead of Fullo for today's game. The insanity inside the FD continues.

Same reason

You cant just throw a rookie on the ball. He needs to train for it and learn a little about how to play the role first

Everyone was failing in the middle in the first half. Clearances 21 - 2 The no ruck decision is hardly on Rivers.

Also allowed too many easy around ground relief marks from Darcy. A two meter tall competitor just might get a few more of those to ground and give you a 50/50 chance. Especially up around the wing where a ground ball win can often result in a shot on goal.

You can't defend so many horrid turnovers in bad spots. Sparrow needs to be dropped for Laurie. Too slow and badly out of form for months now.

Embarrassing performance all round from the Coach down.