Demon Dynasty

A soft free to us inside 50.... well well

Dont think Sparrows too happy with that steel

Breathe easy minions and fill your fat furry ears with the sounds of Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath.... WE GOT ROBBO ON THE BLOWER TONIGHT!!!

My Disney wish list tonight ... > White line fever from all > Going quick is great if oppo offers that but nothing wrong with momentum either. Look for 45s & switches if on. Down the line is last resort but fine if outnumber / misatch spotted. > Forwards...bring the heat for 3 plus quarters i50 > Key / Medium Forwards separate and lead up at the carrier a little earlier & higher. Fritsch out the back and to either flank. > Mids to lower vision & honour up the guts / fat side leads where possible. To the front of goal square or fat side of goal square if 1 v 1 or better > Small forwards max pressure and get busier. Get to dangerous spots more often front & square. > Up in their face from the get go > Max mostly in the middle. Grundy mostly around ground and forward Big games from the big four... Max, Tracc, Viney & May plus Reg! WIN AT ALL COSTS! Carn' the Mighty Demons!

Just the tonic me thinks. Crank things up and get back to somehwere near our best in time for Clarry's return & finish strongly coming into the bye

Agree with that. Our most in-form medium/tall forward at Casey, strong at the contest & timing leads nicely. Goes missing for fair chunks of game time though but it won't matter so much if he hits the scoreboard with 2 or 3 and brings some decent pressure. Will need better service up the field than we've been bringing of late though. Same for our other forwards along with them bringing some system / method in terms of separation and timing of leads / presenting. Dog's breakfast last week. Still think we need a big Key Tall to take their biggest / best defender and free up JVR / Smith / Fritsch a little more and be the big target go to on a lead for those under pressure breaking from stoppage. At least one too many small / medium forwards. BB in for ANB is the obvious one for mine

Sure fire winner with the ladies there FTB. Tempted to where this in toga if i ever make it on another cruise!

Excellent work Dub. Without a care & living the dream 👏🏼👍🏻

Goody's finally recognised that not playing a third tall (ie; usually Petty but also Tomo or Disco) is to the detriment of our team defence & defence in general by having Lever play on the oppo's 2nd best tall. So a big tick on this front to Goody & Co 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 But will def need Petty to go back once fit imv unless a medium tall (like Disco instead of Tomo) is able to cover some oppo smaller forward lines. Then maybe the odd foray forward for Petty but even then only IF needed. Don't know which plays what part of the ground more as a forward but whoever plays higher up more of the time out of Curnow & McKay, that's who we need Tomo to go to imv. Away from goals Tomo's a much better proposition than playing deep where he often ends up in the road of other defenders or a bit of panic sets in resulting in the odd clanger goal. The 3 small forwards and one small/medium in ANB. I'm not sure why we are persisting either. We would be much better served with BBB as the big leading tall and Smith as the 3rd medium tall starting closer to goal but leading to diff areas in cohesion with JVR. That means one of ANB or Chandler out to fit BB. ANB was an important cog here in 2021 being our No.1 rated tackler averaging 1.9 tackles a game. Dropped away since to be ranked 7th with 0.7 tackles a game. Chandler presently ranked 3rd behind Kozzy (2.1) & JVR (1.3) averaging 1.2 While no doubt a long way off his early form Chandler also has the higher goal average at 1.4 vs ANB 0.6 (pretty much his usual ave here). Chandler also has a few more score involvements averaging 4.9 vs 4.1 Less turnovers 2.2 vs 3.1 More marks i50 1 vs 0.3 Seemingly cleaner with the ball running @ 79% vs 74% but a tad less involved averaging 9.7 effective disposals vs 11.6 ANB having a slight edge in One Percenters 1.4 vs 1 And meters gained 282 vs 176 (although im guessing Chandler plays a bit deeper more of the time). Buttom line i like the idea of Smith in for a trial run but shouldve been for one of Chandler or ANB for BB as well. Probably the latter. Smith will hopefully hit the scoreboard and provide some solid leads to more dangerous places and separate from the likes of Fritsch when he does. His two big question marks for mine.... playing out a full 4 quarters and pressure inside 50 having laid zero tackles here in his minimal forays over recent times. Maybe this was what the FD were looking for at Casey as much as his ability to score and he started clicking lately hence the call up. Hope so as we can ill afford to be bringing less pressure inside 50. Of note is that in season 2021 Viney was our third highest rated tackler inside 50 averaging 1.58 behind ANB 1.91 & Kozzy 1.65 Dropped right away to 15th now with only 0.5 a match. Probably indicating he's playing a lot less time forward? Although hitting the scoreboard a little more often this season averaging 0.5 vs 2021 0.3 Hard to know without looking at a heat map etc. What i would like to see here though is bring Dunstan in as the 2nd specialist extractor to assist Viney. Would allow Viney to rest forward more often, hopefully alowing him to help up the pressure for us inside 50 a little closer to 2021 levels.

If i can add to these and discuss a little..... they don’t dump kick out of clearances and are using the extra numbers to get spread, space and kicking to advantage rendering the +1 behind the ball redundant Could be wrong but i'd be surprised if they never dump kick. No doubt probably a last resort though and very good at spreading & chaining as you have mentioned. The extra number is quite often Nick Daicos (not as a defender but coming out of the middle or HF) who kicks in a fair chunk of the time (around 40% ish) after a behind and then runs full tilt to get to the contests / stoppages as the extra. Kicking to advantage rendering the +1 behind the ball redundant Hard to execute but much room for improvement required. Certainly a Bob the Builder opportunity here but who/how? If we want to win post clearance possessions then we should back Tracc, Clarry etc to win good clearance quality and kick to advantage Clarry an extractor and also a clearance specialist when he drives out of stoppage. He tends to offer both aspects during a match. Sometimes his clearance work drops off when he loses the drive out of stoppage at times. Other times it's working just fine and he goes a little off with the short dinky gives bringing more heat and turnovers. When he's in ripping form he does both very well. Tracc bringing clearance the bulk of time and relies on others to get on the end of things. But yes he's also a top liner in this regard of course. However, the kick to advantage? Unfortunately that's a bit of a rarity for our two champs. Tracc doesn't lower his vision often enough and tends to just run full tilt towards 50 and blaze away. Much of the time to no one in particular and sometimes burning potential forwards / rucks on the odd occasions they present. Clarry is not dissimilar imv but probably doesn't get as many opportunities on the burst a la Tracc as he's often doing the extracting in the clinches. All good. Add to this a very incohesive forward line at the moment imv. Most just tend to run away from the incoming ball carrier. Or alternatively we might have Fritsch, often being joined by another TF for some reason, leading to the pocket. The other common entry is a player looking to kick inside 50 from a mark or free / OOTF. In this instance we usually just kick it straight ahead in to a pack of 2 or 3 talls (for example... Macca, Max & Grundy, Grundy & Roohey or other combo) who often run to the same spot and all go up for the mark together. Sometimes it works but most of the time it spills for a stoppage or turnover. Occasionally mopped up for a rushed shot at goal. The point you make is a good one re Tracc & Clarry from a clearance POV. The problem lies with their ability to kick to advantage of a forward and the inability of the forward set up (as it presently stands till now) to get its act together and also have a number of options leading to dangerous parts of the ground vs the usual (of late) leading close to the boundary. We also lack TFs who have the ability to time their leads in order to present up the guts or out to the fat side. At this stage i would argue Fritsch is probably the only regular but he mostly leads to the boundary. All well & good but the chance of converting from there obviously isn't that great. Our defenders have the best 1 on 1 percentage in the league so we really don’t need a spare. Better to keep the pressure upfield as high as possible Feel you have nailed this in terms of matching the oppo's extra at stoppages or even going one up ourselves vs having a spare. Freo winning a few extra stoppage clearances as a direct result of their extra on Sat and getting it quickly forward. Our defence is also not helped by some slack team defence at times. A classic examples of this with 11.30 to go in the first quarter on Sat. Check out where Banfield starts and ends up after his 50 meter penalty. He just waltzed around. No one took the 50 meter mark and no one bothered to pick him up as he drifted forward. Taking an easy chest mark from a kick tight on the boundary and going back to slot their first. No way you're making a PF bringing these habits. our f50 pressure needs to go back to 2021 levels. Remember when we would make sure there were no easy kicks in our f50 and Kossie was a menace. It certainly needs to but i would argue, most likely it's as a collective. Some are bringing the heat (mostly Kozzy & JVR) and others are probably trying but not necessarily capable (till now...not saying players can't improve...of course they can). Macca & BB so far are both on 0.67 inside 50 tackles per match vs 2021 flag year 1.20 and 1.25 respectively. That's a drop off of 50%. BB i can forgive a tad given he's the leading goal scorer on averages (3 per game) vs Macca averaging only about 1/3rd of that so far. Talls are of course not expected to bring as much heat on the opps inside 50 vs medium / smalls but it's the drop away that's the concern here. I would argue Kozzy is the least of our worries here as his tackle average inside 50 so far (2.1) is higher than 2022 (1.48) and 2021 flag year (1.64) Our top 5 tacklers inside 50 in the order of highest down (averages) for players having played more than one match were/are... 2021 > ANB, Kozzy, Viney, McDonald & Ben Brown for a combined average of 1.52 per player 2022 > Kozzy, Harmes, Bedford, Spargo & Clarry ...combined average 1.14 2023 > Kozzy, JVR, Chandler, Spargo & Clarry ...combined average 1.13 In summary we are a fair way off in a few aspects of our game style and method / execution of late. No doubt there's a few matches left to improve here but time is quickly running out both in a 'training / drill' aspect/opportunity and also in terms of achieving better form / cohesion in a player/ overall team aspect. It's also about method, style, effort and buy-in from the entire group from here. At this stage there's a bit too much floundering and hit & miss going on. Speaking of Method ....what method/system are we attempting? I seriously can't tell and i don't thing many of the players are confident here either. Achieving results via talent & occasional stepping on the gas in many cases vs nailing things down into a well oiled / well executed ruthless machine that gives 100% G&T over four quarters might give you a chance at the ultimate prize. I also get the impression from some that a little effort now and then should be enough and that eventually everyone will just flick a switch and it will all come together just like it did in 2021 (not big time but it just flickers into view on occasions!). Unfortunately at this level, toying with form and how often or long you bring max effort / desperation can occasionally produce some unexpected outcomes where even ordinary opposition can upset the apple cart against a superior team (on paper) that's too far from its best.

Sweet as! I have a few questions for Goody & the FD. If you don't mind i'll PM them shortly! 😁

Anything's possible WCW. I'm simply referring to the Coach/FD & Players though. Not saying some mood aspects don't incidently filter back if there's the odd connection on a forum with a player/club official. Some do love a bit of gossip at the end of the day. Feels plausible, along with monitoring of some other online forums to some degree.

Mid Season Review - Goal Averages Player Games Goal Ave SAG GA % Rank B Brown 3.0 3 4.3 69.2 1 B Fritsch 10.0 2.2 4.1 53.7 2 K Pickett 9.0 2 3.8 52.9 3 C Petracca 11.0 1.7 2.7 33.3 4 J V Rooyan 9.0 1.6 2.1 73.7 5 K Chandler 10.7 1.4 1.9 71.4 6 T McDonald 6.0 1.3 1.8 72.7 7 C Spargo 7.4 1.1 1.5 75.0 8 J Schache 1.0 1 2 50.0 9 J Melksham 2.2 1 1.8 57.1 9 M Gawn 7.0 0.8 1.6 46.2 11 A Neil-Bullen 11.0 0.7 1.4 53.3 12 B Grundy 11.0 0.7 1.1 66.7 12 T Sparrow 10.0 0.6 0.8 75.0 14 H Petty 7.3 0.5 1.0 50.0 15 J Viney 10.0 0.5 0.8 62.5 15 C Oliver 10.0 0.5 0.7 71.4 15 J Jordon 5.4 0.4 0.8 57.1 18 L Hunter 10.0 0.4 0.5 80.0 18 E Langdon 11.0 0.2 0.9 20.0 20 J Harmes 3.3 0.2 0.8 25.0 20 T Rivers 10.7 0.2 0.6 28.6 20 J Bowey 10.5 0.2 0.3 66.7 20 A Brayshaw 11.0 0 0.2 0.0 24 S May 9.0 0 0.1 0.0 24 SAG = Shots at Goal GA % = Goal Accuracy (Percentage) Mid Season Review - Goal Accuracy Player Games Goal Ave SAG GA % Rank L Hunter 10.0 0.4 0.5 80.0 1 C Spargo 7.4 1.1 1.5 75.0 2 T Sparrow 10.0 0.6 0.8 75.0 2 J V Rooyan 9.0 1.6 2.1 73.7 4 T McDonald 6.0 1.3 1.8 72.7 5 K Chandler 10.7 1.4 1.9 71.4 6 C Oliver 10.0 0.5 0.7 71.4 6 B Brown 3.0 3 4.3 69.2 8 B Grundy 11.0 0.7 1.1 66.7 9 J Bowey 10.5 0.2 0.3 66.7 9 J Viney 10.0 0.5 0.8 62.5 11 J Melksham 2.2 1 1.8 57.1 12 J Jordon 5.4 0.4 0.8 57.1 12 B Fritsch 10.0 2.2 4.1 53.7 14 A Neil-Bullen 11.0 0.7 1.4 53.3 15 K Pickett 9.0 2 3.8 52.9 16 J Schache 1.0 1 2 50.0 17 H Petty 7.3 0.5 1.0 50.0 17 M Gawn 7.0 0.8 1.6 46.2 19 C Petracca 11.0 1.7 2.7 33.3 20 T Rivers 10.7 0.2 0.6 28.6 21 J Harmes 3.3 0.2 0.8 25.0 22 E Langdon 11.0 0.2 0.9 20.0 23 A Brayshaw 11.0 0 0.2 0.0 24 S May 9.0 0 0.1 0.0 24

Looking at 2022 Gus vs 2023 (putting Rivers in to grab the stats but also an interesting look). Kicking Efficiency is as good as we can get publicly. For anyone interested this is defined by Champion Data as.... "The sum of effective short kicks, effective long kicks and effective ground kicks divided by total kicks" An effective kick is defined as.... "A kick that results in the intended target retaining possession. Does not include kicks that are spoiled by the opposition." Gone from 67.6% last season to 75% so far this season. The Choco effect? Can't be sure but reckon he's had a bit more accuracy with longer kicks this season off HB vs prior seasons? The possible downside.... averaging 5 less kicks a game and approx 2.5 effective kicks. Played at HB also (mostly) last season or no?? Rivers has improved his kicking accuracy also it seems. Season 2022 (averages) Season 2023

Both were up there for sure. Steely still in very high demand. Recently listed their Ozzy 1977 'AJA' Vinyl LP on eBay which had 5 different bidders. Condition was ok but not all that great either (clearly described as such) but it still went off!

Would much prefer this method over a very loose + high folding zone. While i'm sure it's probably alot more taxing in the short-term with more effort required in bursts, the rewards are most likely greater if you achieve turnover nearer or inside our 50 yes? No proof of this of course. Just speculating on diff methods. Potentially a few more shots at goal from more dangerous places vs the alternative? A few more set shots using the full clock also allows the mids/defenders to recover and reset the zone / press. No doubt the difficulty here though is with the players 'want and buy in'. Along with the physical capability to keep this up for lengthy periods and apply high levels of pressure inside 50 and a tad higher. Need the personnel also. Talls can't be expected to bring as much as you would expect from mediums / smalls but to be successful everyone still has to bring max effort when we lose possession, including mids drifting forward. Patient tempo footy L. An important point that should not be dismissed lightly. I felt we had a better balance here in 21 vs 22 and the season so far. Making the oppo chase / move their X/O positioning & rolling zones. Testing for weaknesses / holes and testing their endurance & fitness while also pushing 45s / run & gun overlap through corridor or alternatively switch where poss. We also have two of the best users of the ball accross HB to execute shorter 45s in Bowey & Salem. May also pretty decent with medium switch kicks. Get the intercepts up by freeing up Lever with the extra tall in this week. You then have May, Lever, Rivers and Gus as the intercept defenders. They feed off to Bowey or Salem who then go for shorter 45s if it's on & look to slingshot through corridor. Or look to switch as the second option. Coaches no doubt adjust via game analyses and player feedback in review. Will be very dissapointing if we continue on in the remaining games from here without any fairly signifcant adjustments to personel & style/method. Would hate to see another season go to waste. The ground hog way we lost to Freo in successive seasons should be the canary in the coalmine for Goody, the FD and all leaders / senior players this week. The next three to four matches will certainly indicate whether they did or didn't notice that Tweety Bird stopped tweeting against Freo.

The Blues must have an influencer or two of note who have the ears of some of the top brass. Too many 'cute' outcomes in their favour to be coincidental

INCREDIBLE THAT THIS STILL HASN'T BEEN ADDRESSED OR AT LEAST TRIALLED! GOODY & THE FD ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL! Might be able to solve this by bringing in the 2nd tall defender option .... this week Tomlinson against the Blues? Tomo takes whoever tends to take his marks/leads up around the arc more often out of Curnow & McKay. Tomo's in his best form all year at Casey last few matches but still wouldn't want him anywhere near the goal square. Imho he's a tad more solid playing a more traditional CHB posi away from goals as much as possible where he gets the yips (resulting in clanger goals) and often in the road of the likes of May & Lever. May takes whoever plays closer to goals more of the time. Other weeks it might be Disco against slightly smaller 2nd tall set ups. The above are fill ins only until Petty comes back. Bottom line, we need to free up Lever as first priority. Petty forward should not be our priority and only used if it is possible to bring in Disco to take a medium 2nd tall.

FCS Goody / FD & Leaders....Kill the super loose fold back zone inside 50 & higher!! Gives the oppo too much room. Allows constant switching, control & possession in their back half. Keepings off if you like. This gives the oppo some massive advantages... 1. More time with the ball in hand while we run our butts off and expend energy. 2. Relatively easy exit to the half way mark most of the time under little pressure unless there's an unforced error. 3. Easy yardage 4. Teams who have very good or better defenders by foot are going to take advantage. It brings VG users of the ball into play eg; Hayden Young on Sat who on a good day can run the ball out 25 meters then hit a target 40 meters away with pinpoint passing. The next kick is heading into our 50 or close to it! That's two kicks! No time to get effective numbers back. 5. Allows too many launch kicks deep into our 50 or to leading forwards. The latter achieved by constant switching under lowish pressure across the middle of the ground until a forward presents or a hole opens up deep for someone to lead into. 6. If the opp is disciplined, patient and skilled, with a few hard leads they won't turn the pill over as often and shouldn't given they are not having to expend much energy to that point as they're under minor pressure. This limits our turnover capability and takes away a major strength. 7. Multiple medium kick switches. Less running for them.... more for our Mids & Forwards. Over short periods fine. Do it over a few quarters a la Freo and it will eventually wear the mids and some forwards down until they are spent. 8. As a result of No.7 ... even when there is a turnover....most players are so exhausted getting back towards goals and presenting etc that their kick at goals is even more compromised than usual resulting in ordinary accuracy or bad misses in front of the sticks. This is not hindsight either. Mentioned this prior to the Freo game and have done so a number of times over the last few seasons. When we tighten up here from the get go you can usually see we're more switched on. Causing turnovers in more dangerous parts of the ground etc. Playing loose as we did on Sat you can almost G'tee a loss unless the oppo are bottom 4 or thereabouts and/or having a bad day in front of the goals.

Don't see him as a line breaker if that's what you are looking for Roy. Not slow either though. Sort of a slightly shorter sleeker version of Disco? Quite agile on the move.

NS i'm pretty sure nothing we say on here will ever effect the Coach & FDs management of the list in any way whatsoever. No harm in some expressing their views as to where it's presently at and wish lists surely? Just DL banter & a bit of fun at the end of the day

Yes that's a point i made in the Casey thread y'day. Jefferson is getting crowded out by the likes of BBB & Joel up front at the mo. Might be a bit premature to judge him harshly as he's probably being played out of position at times.

You may be proven right Roost. We just differ in terms of the time required i reckon and while not setting the world on fire yet, he has shown the odd bit of promise in some games. I'm prepared to give the young fellla more time. Too early to rule him out imv and at 195cm they tend to take a bit longer to find their feet.

Tracking ok for now but not a plausible short term option to come in either given how young / green he is plus his height. Possibly another season and a half at Casey needed (or thereabouts)... if he makes it. Fair bit of strength / gym work ahead to stay strong and keep his feet in the contest. Patience needed.

Yes partly this ...we did have two in Hunt & Baker but alas. This list does look pretty ploddy by foot now. Yes i know....the ball moves quicker in the air. But it ain't going anywhere unless you can break away from your opponent first, which then allows you to finish off the work in the chain and / or take a decent crack at the goals.