Demon Dynasty

Not a bad article but it's not a draw it's a fixture. It's constructed / designed by the AFL to try and foster / induce their preferred teams and outcomes to max revenues.

MVP 2022 Finals Thanks DZ. We weren't that far off as you say. However, these stats suggest we played a couple of our worst games for the season unfortunately. Almost feels like another Prelim 2018 for mine given we came into the finals with the second chance and a top two finish. Anyway on to DD's MVP of the finals award! And no surprises as to who got the chocolates! Imagine if he didn't go into the Semi banged up and coming off the broken thumb issue. May & Harmes deserve some kudos as well. Petty not far behind in 4th. Pretty much daylight the rest really... Player Rating Rank C Oliver 5.775 1 S May 4.813 2 J Harmes 4.038 3 H Petty 4.013 4 Ed Langdon 2.700 5 A N-Bullen 2.688 6 C Petracca 2.650 7 Jack Viney 2.575 8 T Sparrow 2.575 9 Max Gawn # 2.463 10 M Hibberd 2.463 10 Jake Lever 2.138 12 B Fritsch 2.125 13 L Jackson # 2.050 14 C Spargo 1.913 15 J Hunt 1.713 16 A Brayshaw 1.675 17 Ben Brown # 1.538 18 Trent Rivers 1.525 19 C Salem 1.413 20 K Pickett 1.188 21 J Melksham 1.038 22 Team Rating 55.06 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats Courtesy of footywire.com

Semi Final, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Lions Match Day Rating vs H&A 2022 Season Ratings Player Semi Final Rating Semi Final Rank 2022 H&A Rating 2022 H&A Rank % Change vs H&A H Petty 4.450 1 2.392 19 46.25 Steven May 4.325 2 3.971 3 8.18 J Harmes 4.275 3 3.082 12 27.91 C Oliver 4.250 4 5.320 1 -25.18 Ed Langdon 3.325 5 3.109 11 6.50 M Hibberd 3.050 6 2.613 17 14.33 Jack Viney 3.000 7 3.971 3 -32.37 A Brayshaw 3.000 7 3.839 5 -27.97 L Jackson # 9 2.800 9 3.128 10 -11.71 A N-Bullen 2.750 10 2.688 15 2.25 C Petracca 2.625 11 4.456 2 -69.75 Jake Lever 2.575 12 2.703 14 -4.97 M Gawn # 36 2.550 13 3.215 8 -26.08 T Sparrow 2.025 14 2.665 16 -31.60 B Brown # 3 1.975 15 1.759 29 10.94 K Pickett 1.500 16 2.118 21 -41.20 B Fritsch 1.475 17 1.936 27 -31.25 J Melksham 1.425 18 1.947 25 -36.63 J Hunt 1.250 19 1.889 28 -51.12 C Spargo 1.225 20 1.981 24 -61.71 T Rivers 1.150 21 2.423 18 -110.70 C Salem 1.000 22 3.363 7 -236.30 Team Rating 56.00 64.57 -15.30 # Hit outs to advantage not captured (number indicates number of hit outs) Stats Courtesy of footywire.com

Semi Final, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Lions Player Rating Rank Harrison Petty 4.450 1 Steven May 4.325 2 James Harmes 4.275 3 Clayton Oliver 4.250 4 Ed Langdon 3.325 5 Michael Hibberd 3.050 6 Angus Brayshaw 3.000 7 Jack Viney 3.000 7 Luke Jackson # 9 2.800 9 Alex N-Bullen 2.750 10 Christian Petracca 2.625 11 Jake Lever 2.575 12 Max Gawn # 36 2.550 13 Tom Sparrow 2.025 14 Ben Brown # 3 1.975 15 Kysaiah Pickett 1.500 16 Bayley Fritsch 1.475 17 Jake Melksham 1.425 18 Jayden Hunt 1.250 19 Charlie Spargo 1.225 20 Trent Rivers 1.150 21 Christian Salem 1.000 22 Team Score 56.00 Top 6 23.68 Bottom 6 7.53 # Hit outs to advantage not captured (number indicates number of hit outs) Stats Courtesy of footywire.com

Another short discussion on some of our issues here. From approx 9:45 minutes to go

Our tall forward problems have been well documented. Hopefully JVR with Macca & Petty can provide some solutions here in 2023. Problem is will Goodwin get a little imaginative and play Petty forward? Aside from that, we need to get some serious run/finishing skills off HB & through the middle into this club. Yes we have Lingers on one wing but his finish coming inside is questionable. Hunt off HB if he is still with us but the run we sometimes used to gain here appears to have vanished somewhat to accomodate required roles where im not sure he has that freedom under Goodwin. There's no run from anyone else really. Used to be a tad from Rivers in 2021 but he's regressed in general. We rely on kick / marking our way up the field and / or if those outlets are blocked, long down the line. And down the line only works if you are taking a few contested marks and/or winning the ground ball or stoppages more often than not. It's a gruelling way to play the game the more often you default to it, especially for the Mids. Alot of the time oppos are also playing a plus one in defence so when our mids do win it & look towards or inside 50 they often only see the extra numbers for the oppo. Thats where they need to switch or short pass it, but we arent great with passing so what happens? Often what happens is we turn it back over to the oppo and the ball comes straight back, catching our defenders out. The better teams exploit this more often. Knowing the above, our lessor light kicks (like Maxy)"then go into their shell and start kicking to the flanks/pockets! The switch play or 45s off HB are also restricted as we really only have three players that are capable right now. That's May, Bowey & Salem. Unfortunately Bowey didn't play at the back end of the season. Salem had no run and no dare this season with most of his kicks just dump kicks to players lateral or within about 20 - 25 meters ie; no penetration. And May probably tried too hard to switch/kick inside at times to make up for the lack of it going beyond his limitations and missing targets / hitting the oppo too often. Even if those three do happen to hit up a target we're still pretty much stiffled and stuck in the back half for too long as there's not alot of speed / trust in this list. Very few players roll out and play on taking their opponent and the game on. Most just get behind the mark and take their kick and/or pass laterally or down the line. The Pies are a great exponent of run off HB / through the middle and taking the game on. As much as i can't stand them they're probably the best at this aspect of the game in the AFL right now and extremely hard to counter. They trust, so they often roll and take the game on creating ovelap. Many others around them running in support as they move the ball quickly up the field. I think we also did a fair bit of this to great effect in 2021. Unfortunately not so well this season. Speed of transition along with clean clever ball use & execution (under various levels of pressure) is critical in maxing out forward opportunities in the AFL. Hopefully we can find that speed and cleaness once again in 2023. Need to fix the lack of pressure inside our 50 as well. Severe drop off from 2021 this season.

Qualifying Final, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Swans Match Day Rating vs H&A 2022 Season Ratings Suspected something was seriously up after looking at the base data straight after this final a few weeks back. But never suspected things were this bad vs season averages, with a few exceptions in the first 10 players or so. Tracc's drop off explanatory but it's a massive drop. If you're a numbers/analyst looking at that you would be putting the info to the coach's/FD and highlighting surely for the next match against the Lions and asking some massive questions of physios/docs/player. As to what went wrong, who knows. Only those inside the inner sanctum or very close to someone with inside intel might have some idea. Whatever the main reason/s, things sure went belly up once we hit finals. I understand the second week a little more in the sense more players would've been banged up eg; Tracc playing injured, Clarry's head knock. But we had the bye like everyone else leading into this one. Gastro / illness issue? That might account for Hibberd's drop off but didn't hear of others catching it? Many players spent well before finals and too much spent too early in the first 10 rounds, nothing left in the tank in the 2nd half (might explain our last quarter fade outs somewhat)? Pressure from the Swans off the charts, a number of players couldn't handle it? Who knows. Have highlighted Clarry in blue as that is one hell of a performance in a final. Others that did very well statistically vs their season averages included May (superb result given his opponent), Harmes, Petty (outstanding), Sparrow, Fritta (29% above his 2021 season average and 7.5% above last year's final's average!), Spargo & Hunt. With ANB thereabouts. As mentioned previously above, the Team Rating was a massive 19% off the season's average Team Rating. Have to say i'm astounded that this appeared not to set any alarm bells off inside the FD and/or with SG! In the sense that we stuck with exactly the same line up, and much of that line up (statistically) was obviously (if you had the time to dissect) in a world of trouble. There's absolutely no way you are coming back from being off your season averages by around 30% - 40% (or greater) the following week. Certainly not within a week anyway and not enough to probably bring a level of effectiveness in the role you're expected to play, especially in the pressure cooker of a final. Had we made the Prelim...might have been a different matter. Note: A red 2022 H&A Ranking indicates that player did not hit his seasonal ranking in this Final. Some players might be higher than their seasonal ranking just by being picked. That is a player ranked 28th for example might end up being ranked 22 in this game by the mere fact that he was picked in the team. In other words the rankings need to be considered in context. Hope that makes sense. Player Qual Final Rating Qual Final Rank 2022 H&A Rating 2022 H&A Rank % Change vs H&A C Oliver 7.300 1 5.320 1 27.12 Steven May 5.300 2 3.971 3 25.08 J Harmes 3.800 3 3.082 12 18.89 H Petty 3.575 4 2.392 19 33.09 T Sparrow 3.125 5 2.665 16 14.72 Bayley Fritsch 2.775 6 1.936 27 30.23 C Petracca 2.675 7 4.456 2 -66.58 Alex N-Bullen 2.625 8 2.688 15 -2.40 C Spargo 2.600 9 1.981 24 23.81 Max Gawn #30 2.375 10 3.215 8 -35.37 J Hunt 2.175 11 1.889 28 13.15 Jack Viney 2.150 12 3.971 3 -84.70 Ed Langdon 2.075 13 3.109 11 -49.83 T Rivers 1.900 14 2.423 18 -27.53 M Hibberd 1.875 15 2.613 17 -39.36 C Salem 1.825 16 3.363 7 -84.27 Jake Lever 1.700 17 2.703 14 -59.00 L Jackson #13 1.300 18 3.128 10 -140.62 Ben Brown #1 1.100 19 1.759 29 -59.91 K Pickett 0.875 20 2.118 21 -142.06 J Melksham 0.650 21 1.947 25 -199.54 A Brayshaw 0.350 22 3.839 5 -996.86 Team Rating 54.13 64.57 -19.29 # Hit outs to advantage not captured (number indicates number of hit outs) Stats Courtesy of footywire.com

I mentioned the hate for the Demons on here a few years back and mostly got howled down as it being nonsense. Hope everyone here has felt that this year as it's not just the odd media journo. If you attended a few games at the G you would have felt/heard it there as well. 2023 has to be a big year for this club. Need to come out and wack all these farkers big time. 2023 ....THE YEAR OF NO MERCY!!

Nah that's too sensible for Krusty Kane...

Wacked by Jack?

No Grundy FCS. Have to assume he's damaged goods and can't play forward anyway. Need a Tall KF play maker / contested mark inside 50 to replace BB whenever that's needed and support Macca/JVR foing forward

I agree with that. No matter what happens dont cave MFC. Need to get serious comp here or let him take his chances. We have plenty of $$ in the kitty. If Freo don't come to play show em the door!

Will always be an immortal Demon in my eyes. However VERY dissapointed he & manager strung this out. As an act of decency to the club he should've at least made this known 6 to 8 weeks out from finals so we had a choice as to whether we would try blooding someone else or shifting the team around to prep for finals and to trial options in readiness for his abscence in 2023. The obvious one to me would have / should have been Weid in for LJ. Weid takes Petty's place. Plays about 80%/20% Petty's role / Relief ruck role swapping with Max for the 20%. Weid also could have handled ruck duties in defensive 50. Petty goes forward permanently in the later half of the year and finals. Alternatively bring JVR or M Brown in for LJ. BB & M Brown share a very small 10% - 15% ruck relief role. JVR was probably a bridge too far in 2022 and no way,he could relief ruck. Even M Brown was unlikely here but we sure needed another tall forward. I reckon this would have hit Maxy and a few of the boys pretty hard. They would've had wind of this or have been 90% sure he was going by finals time (or most likely earlier) surely. The body language in game for most of the latter part of the season & finals was enough to tell, even if nothing was officially confirmed. All too late to change anything up in a meaningful way. Forever grateful for his role and efforts in 2021 and our first premiership in 57 years. Had a huge soft spot for dogga, will always be appreciated and loved for being part of this lengendary line up. No booing from me. Genuinly a really sad day from my perspective even though i knew it was 95% coming. Good luck Luke. Just hope you made the right call at such a young age.

Thanks Buck ...and for your work also. It's been an interesting season of ups and downs that's for sure.

Yes i'll get there at some point DZ. Very depressing going out like that. I'll post this match's results vs H&A. Then the combined finals averages vs season averages. Plus combined finals averages vs 2021's finals averages.

The balance of youth v experience was a little skewed to the latter IMV. Need to get the balance a bit better in 2023. Not alot of speed in this team due to the above and just in general. Even the mid field hasn't got alot of break away speed happening. Kozzy about the only one with serious jets. You could counter that if you had one or more of Clarry, Tracc and Viney bursting away and out from congestion more often like we saw in 2021. Not as much of this in 2022. Or alternatively a mid with crazy evasive skills / ball use like Pendles but of course how often do you find that sort of talent? We would go to another level as a team/club if we had that sort of ball user in the middle and finish coming inside 50. Too many plodders on the outside as well. ANB, Gus, JJ & Lingers for loose ball contest / link chain play. None of them are quick across the ground either and ANB rarely finishes inside 50. Great endurance / work rate from all four. Ability to get from contest to contest is first rate, but not that speedy once they've got the pill. ANB in particular. Got caught far too often this season. Spargo is a lovely user of the ball but just doesn't get on the end of it often enough. Some games yes eg; the GF but goes MIA in others. Brings it in patches during a match but then will go missing for long periods at other times.

Mach the FD should post that at the training facilities above every entrance for the next pre-season...just with the year in front of it. A little reminder of what could have been this season. Yes the stopping and propping crept in very early in the season CBF and slowly got worse. If you watched the Pies against Freo there is very little of that. They just roll onto their preferred and instinctively seek out the next target without even looking/blinking. They just trust. I guess the trust issue plays a big part as their targets are presenting so well and so often. When they get the ball they're also very confident that they'll maintain the chains and even if they don't the defenders will have their backs. So they run in support from HB all the way into 50. And wow do they run...for the whole fricken match. Incredible running. Something we didn't see enough of from our blokes this season aside from the likes of ANB and Lingers and reasonable running in first halfs that unfortunately dropped away in second halfs. They also do the little one percenters so well. Shepards etc to assist the ball carrier. And pressure is generally off the charts. Again we lacked that side, particularly inside 50. (SELFLESS ACTS!) They have some insane runners as well that give second/third effort to support and get on the end of the chain. I reckon they'll make the GF and play off against the Cats. They're marginally ahead of the Swans. We did the above very well in 2021 but dropped off in many of these aspects this season unfortunately. We were still very good in defence and at the contest. Not so good at what we did after that with ball in hand though and the delivery into F50, nor the craft / finish inside once it got there. We also over used handball at times, inviting more pressure instead of taking the direct option, particularly at center and stoppage bounces. In addition the explosive drive out of and away from stoppage from the likes of Clarry, Tracc & LJ weren't near the level/numbers i believe we saw in 2021 for whatever reason? This playes a huge role in our ability to transition and score in my view and was sadly not as evident or if it was, just not as explosive this season. Need to address some of the above prior to 2023 or we'll all be sitting here again at the end of 2023 asking similar questions.

I think the team may have slipped on one or two as they ran out on Friday night DF

Dunstan (for Sparrow), Bowey (for Salem) and one of Chandler/Bedford (for Spargo) & Macca/JVR (for Melk). While Melk would feel unlucky given his form just prior to the finals, his first finals performance was that bad* it was not a risk worth taking hoping he would bounce back in a follow up do or die final. Besides it was clear that we needed a second tall KF to help BB out... yet we went with the same line up making it easier for Brisbane to defend in the air. *Same with Salem Spargo & Kozzy didnt fire a shot in the first final and also didnt bring enough pressure inside 50. But again...no change. Too easy for Brisbane to defend at ground level. They had us covered in the air and on the ground in defence. The first final was 'the tell' we were in trouble and that some players were a mile off AFL level let alone finals level, yet SG stuck with the same team & format.

Turner isn't far away if he stays fit. He can easily come in for Petty pretty early on next season and send Petty forward. Goodwin would be crazy not to trial Petty as a potential permanent forward in 2023, starting with intra clubs.

Howes is a fair way off impacting at AFL level. Looks very promising but might take a bit longer to force his way in than JVR imv

Rivers has been too easily lost in the heat of the contest in 2022 DS. Too often loses contact with his opponent. Unsure whether to peel off / hang back or close check back shoulder. Caught in no mans land far too often for my liking this season. He should come good again, possibly just a fitness/form issue but alot of work needed in the off season IMV. P.S. Turner looks the goods for mine. Barring injury he'll be hard to dislodge once he finds his feet and should provide us with better rebounding potential & slicker transition off HB than we've seen of late.

Yes as mentioned, still work ahead. Reckon he presently has the edge over D Smith. McVee & Rosman have shown glimpses that they aren't far away. Form is still too hit & miss though for AFL level. Maybe another pre-season will help them here.

He improved from early season sub-par form but never got back to his best 2021 form in any match in my view other than small patches. Has alot of work ahead of him if he's going to hold his place in this team in the medium term. Turner looms large and then there's also Bowey. Rosman not that far off either but still work to do. Looked much better after returning from injury at Casey. Unfortunately got concussed yesterday and will miss the GF.

Great post JG What an abomination our kicking was (not always but far too often and especially in both finals) this season. I'd be going after Gary Ablett Snr as forward line / mid connection coach big time. We suck here and it's going to cost this club fonals appearances/ wins and potentially any further GF appearances if we don't address it and just try to soldier on. If you've already suffered enough after Friday night's pi$$ poor result i would not recommend watching the AFL clip below.... https://fb.watch/fsT3QvMjSz/