Demon Dynasty

Noughton's a hard worker and leads well but his accuracy is questionable the last few seasons.

I agree. If there was a genuinely dangerous KPF out of contract or FA with 3 to 4 solid years left then sure. I'd be all over him. However when looking at what is out there, you have to keep in mind that apart from the worst performing clubs, when you're salivating over potential gettable forwards...some of the other club's are delivering the ball to them in a decent or better fashion. Hitting up leading forwards quite a bit opens up the forward line for others to do damage out the back etc and also those leading forwards are often taking marks within range and converting. Put those same players in our mix and i'm not so sure they're as dangerous! Need class and speed coming out of the middle which gives the forwards better looks and also sees them shooting at goal from higher percentage areas of the forward 50. That class and speed will also hopefully result in one or two of those mids hitting the scoreboard on the run from a fair way out on occasions. Adding extra fire power. This is especially important for us as we presently don't have anyone coming off the square (mids, wingers or HBs) that do this from around the arc other than Tracc once in a while. People often ask on these forums "Why is it that the oppo always seem to have space for their forwards to work in and ours is always so crowded". Ok so the answer isn't simple and involves a number of things including speedy and more direct transition. Something we've lacked somewhat this season as we are more often heading down the line rather than corridor. Ok so that's one aspect. But i feel the other aspects that see us with a crowded 50 are... 👉🏼 Forwards (not all of them... Joel played his part in this series imv) not working their leading patterns hard enough and/or high enough to present. If we aren't doing this as much then of course that's an extra defender able to impact inside our 50. Leading more often sees their opponent following creating less congestion. 👉🏼 Mids/Wingers not taking the time to scan the 50 or lower their vision when coming towards the 50. Instead just blindly kicking/bombing the ball to a congested area or worse, to a 2 v 1 etc. Gives the impression of crowding when in reality we're just making it easy for the oppo to send the bulk of their players to the usual drop zones and defend with numbers. 👉🏼 As per the last point but after marking outside the 50, again just rolling onto their preferred and blindly bombing the ball down the line or into a pocket when players are sometimes free laterally that will open up the ground and / or sitting out the back free on the fat side We need quality mids / wingers who, when coming towards the 50, can scan/look and then deliver with some finesse to the favoured side or spaces that forwards can run in to and mark more often on the lead. As well as kicking some running goals from distance. Some will argu speed on the ball will achieve much of this. Yes to a degree. But i would argue you also need leg speed to provide time leading to extea time to pull up, steady and execute towards decent options more often and or shoot at goal a little more accurately. When we find those mids/wingers, and provided the forwards have some forward skills / nous, talent and work their arses off, everything will (should!!) start to click.

Ablett Jnr. as the new foward coach pls. Need the mids / forwards to come together as a team. Our method and delivery into 50 much of time must be a forward's worst nightmare. Some run & class coming out of the middle. It's non existent at present unless Kozzy gets on the end of a few and Goody rarely plays him here so new blood is needed. Spargo is about it as far as the delivery goes and he just doesn't get enough of it to make a big impact regardless. McAdam hopefully a big upgrade on Chandler.

Initially no. Eventually probably yes. Rookies always have ups and downs early. Another pre-season or two . Puts a bit of size on. With 50+ games under his belt and a bit of luck with injuries he'll be a ripper.

Was AA BDA Appears to have lost a fair bit of agility and leap he had prior to the injury. Suspect the Pies didn't just let him go for salary cap space.

In hindsight a completely wasted list space which no doubt hindered our chances, particularly in the back half and finals where he played mostly bruise free footy. Such a pitty we couldn't convince him to stay. Reckon we make at least one more prelim with him at his best the last two seasons and who knows from there. Silly decision on his part to go back so quickly when more silverware was on offer.

Three knee recos and other issues since. Risky

It wasn't to be unfortunately but hopefully you can rind your place and mojo at the next station. A very modest and humble fella. Quiet achiever who shined at VFL level and had some VG moments and games in the seniors on occasions. Stepping up to the AFL must very hard gig let alone staying there. Always a mighty Demon premiership immortal Good luck son

Very solid contributor at VFL level that helped Casey to the highest level in 2022. Deserved a few more windows of opportunity at the top end in 23 imho, even if they ended up fleating. Thanks for your amazing service Luke and so many fabulous memories watching Casey win a stack of games plus the biggest of all at Princes Park last year. All the best with the post game side of life.

Not only that. His match the week before was pretty massive even for Max. If i recall correctly he had a huge 22 contested possessions. Tracc & Clarry around the 15 mark. Another reason why we needed Schache to come on as a chop out in thd 2nd half. Where was the game day analyst advising on the numbers? Including the fact that T-Mac was not 'in the game' at all as per the previous week

Disco 'might' eventually fill the May role. Or Adams. They'll need to come on strongly in 24 though.

Absolutely. That could've been Dunstan for the Norf game.

He did stander but he also has days where he turns it over a fair bit. Not saying Smith didnt either but they do look similar at times.

Schache is the obvious option in the short term for that until Verral comes on (If he does). That's the reason i figured he was re-signed. Security in the short term for Max and occasional chop out late in a game if played as sub. At least that's what i thought until Friday night.

Or just design a ball that has the touch / snicko science built into it. Until then it's a goal unless proven inconclusively. Or if that technology isn't available, as George has highlghted, if it goes through the two sticks (provided the entire ball breaks the plane) then it's a goal, touched or not. Snicking of the ball by hand or finger tips really doesn't make alot of sense. The aim of the game is to kick the ball through the big sticks. If it goes through it goes through, provided the last action was a kick from team kicking for goal. So regardless, you would still need the snicko ball technology to ensure hands/knees/head/body hadn't come into play from a ricochet off a fellow player. It would seem it's snicko ball or bust then!

And what the AFL allows them to say In most cases a complete waste of time. I do enjoy listening to Ross the boss though. Amusing stuff and usually calls things as he sees it.

Any chance you can find out what happened to the 3 minute play book WC? Did we have one? If so why wasn't it implemented? If the media critics are correct, with under two minutes to go we only had one player deep inside 50. Astonishing if true. Also why we didn't use Schache in the 2nd half with T-Mac having an all time shocker (no doubt trying his best but his best meant we were effectively a player down unfortunately). Towards the end we had either no one rucking inside 50 or Tracc! Schache in the ruck (T-Mac subbed) with Max resting forward/ or bench (resting) after half time, then Max down back in the last 5 minutes, had to be seriously considered surely. The Schache for T-Mac option was also not an "in-game" conundrum on the day either. T-Mac had a pretty bad game the week before. Surely Goodwin & Co. had a plan B to sub him off early if that form continued into the Semi!?? Appatently not thougb as the sub not even used!

A bit of chicken and egg though Jnr. I've noticed some do try and switch in (not often enough though and many are often ignored as you point out) but when we do attempt to 45 we also often turn the ball over. Recruiting players with better passing foot skills might help resolve this as they'll more likely have the confidence to pull the trigger and look inside more often as their first option.

Well there goes that idea 😄

Sure you aren't comfusing him (turnover king aspect) with Roan Steele? Easy to confuse the two players at times as they look similar in the heat of battle. Roan is a pretty ordinary user of the ball imv. Smith probably not elite as such either but didn't think he was as bad as some are suggesting. Thought he had a big impact at Casey in a number of games. To say he didn't do much is pretty harsh. No doubt he suffered a little when matched up on bigger bodied players at times

Yes to moving on Stafford. No need for an assistant 58er. Just get some top quality new blood in there. Ablett Jnr should be on the radar

The Petracca highlighted issue is 100% spot on. It's been well documented that at the end of 2005/2006 Ablett Jnr had issues with aspects of his game and was asked to address them via their leadership group... The rest is history. I would argue we need this honesty and transparency to happen (inside the four walls) with all three of Tracc, Clarry and Viney. In that video i see a great bull player but one who too often panics, no composure and just wants to get boot to ball without assessing. And the ball drop....way too high. Burning so many players around him as well. The red mist that Garry so often speaks about. The window is still open. But all three need some tweaks to the way they finish with ball in hand if we're to make more of our chances, especially in big games & finals against the best clubs. Every club is improving each year and no doubt each player, even the already VG to great ones, are always looking at ways to imrprove theirs even late into their careers. No reason why these three in particular can't try and do the same.

I don't get this argument 58er. On one hand you're saying it's ok to be spudding up our forward work and expect it to continue ("we have to live with it"). Why do we have to live with it? Happy to see us squander this list and miss more opportunities at potentially winning a flag while the window is (was??) open. Yet you're then admitting that after two years we perhaps need an assistant to the forward coach as we've been spudding it up for 2 years. The responsibility for the mid to forward fiasco doesn't just lie with Stafford either. Yze is the mid coach. Not only are our mids mostly crud with delivery inside 50, we're getting smashed in long periods of games in the middle with one of the great AFL ruckmen of this time playing almost full time in the middle (2nd half of this season). How is that allowed to continue? Still astonishes me at how many Mlelb supporters are seemingly satisfied to continue on with consistent sub par performances in these two critical aspects of our game which ate ultimately killing off the chances of another premiership (during this era). Don't fix it now (ready for 2024) and we may not see another premiership tilt for a decade or more. Of all clubs we are one that should be acutely aware of the fall out here.

The same experts that have now lost four consecutive winnable finals and didn't park the bus when leading with 3 minutes to go. Unforgivable. We can't get over the Pies when they have a small lead from 5 to 10 minutes out at the end of our matches against them lately. They park the bus early and defend to the death.

Yes especially players with exemplary foot skills and leg speed DZ. We probably only have a two year window with the bulk of the present list so we'll need to nail this off-season draft / trade period. New perspective is right. More of the same will just see us doing more of the same. IF Goodwin comes out doubling down on this years mantra of "win the contests and defensive side and the rest will look after itself" and doesn't look to change up the FD and our methods in any significant way then i'll be expecting similar results in 2024, or worse!