Demon Dynasty

Reckon the Saints might win this

Is it worth altering training this week to about 1/3rd of the usual time spent on weekly training drills. The other two thirds.... plus an extra separate shorter session purely on mid / forward transistion, forward craft in general and pressure elements inside 50 without the ball?? The rest we surely have a good handle on and just needs a brief 1/3rd freshen up. Small / Medium forwards who don't cut the mustard in these sessions without the ball (bringing forward 50 pressure) may need to be culled in favour of in form Casey alternatives who are bringing it (where available and their form at Casey warrants the call up). We need to sharpen the hell up here or we can kiss the 2022 cup goodbye. This will also put everyone on notice that our game is very solid elsewhere with not much tweaking needed so that hopes are kept high in general however... reality is also put on the table. If everyone works hard enough to improve this aspect of our methods/skills etc then we are still in the hunt.

Chandler is also ahead a little as a HF IMHO. Laurie is a good to VG player at VFL level but he isn't what we need right at this moment. Lacking in pretty much any big game for us is a Key Tall Forward who can split packs and take some contesteds. And finish from anywhere within 45 ish more often than not. We would have dropped only half the games we've dropped this season if we had one up and running and well entrenched in the top 4 by now.

I agree with this up until last week. Think we are lasting longer into matches since Freo. Maybe just a smidgen left to go to make it to the final siren against the top 4 to 6. Not sure if we can make that up before finals though. It's also about our failure to maximise the efforts in the first half IMV. 41 inside 50s to just 18 for the Pies at half time last night but we were less than three goals up. Then for about 6 mins early in the third we did a great job at locking the ball in our forward 50 at the City Rd end. Failed to capatilise. Didn't kick one goal. They took it down their end for the first time after that dominance.... and scored....easily! Huge team deflator right there.

Our Coach/s still asleep at the wheel sadly. Might have made a difference last night. Not ruthless enough MFC

Petty wasn't exactly scintillating down back last night & we had our best defensive set up for the season in place from last week. Time for a stint forward?

That's correct. We tend to always look for the same olds and if they're not there we go to the pocket. The alternatives are there if we go quickly. Sometimes directly in front or on the fat side but they're usually ignored early and by the time the kicker has taken so long to decide, the oppo is set and we again kick to the pocket. Kozzie at one point down the Punt Road end was sitting in space 10 meters clear. I'm not sure he lead but didn't have to. Yes it was a risky kick but worth trying. Instead we waited waited, the holes filled up as they do, and guess where we kicked to. The most frustrating team to watch coming inside 50. Much of this is on the players but some responsibility has to be accepted by the coaching staff for the lack of cohesion and low percentage (conversion possibility) & predictable nature of shanking ball into the pocket so often. I would argue we may well be the worst team in the league, bar maybe North, with our work forward of center. Including our woeful pressure rating.

The numbers suggest very similar inside 50 conversion result from us as last week against Freo. The Pies just turned it on forward of center and their transition out of the goal square and off HB is very quick & slick. They sometimes also switch just back of the wing which you don't see many teams do very often. Gives them diff angles of attack and time for the ball carrier to find a leading target. They have two of the most accurate set shots for goal who work hard to get their marks on the lead in Elliot & Mihocek. We also can't make the goals or kick one from downtown (around the paint) which allows oppo backman to set up slightly deeper and crowd our forward line as they don't see us as much of a threat higher up. Rivers (not that he's a forward so not expecting him to), Fritsch, Melk, Maxy, Tracc & BB all had shots from around 50 last night and none were succeasful!

Bedford took a few of his opps when given the chance. Some of his pick ups of loose ground balls then finish for goal were stunning with limited TOG.

He got kicked (i believe it was in danger but of course, not paid) on the hand when going for a ball down the Punt Rd end again. He looked to be in a bit of bother for a minute or so but appeared to shake it off and seemed to continue as normal afterwards

Round 21, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Magpies Our team rating of 66.90 was only 0.5% off our 2021 season average and about 6.5% up on last week's rating vs Freo. So tonight was very close to our average form from last season (statistically) but unfortunately it wasn't enough to beat the Magpies who, as i suspected last week, were/are playing at another level to most teams right at this moment. Can they keep it up? I'm not so sure as they are playing a very risky form of game, relying very much on their rebound and ability to convert accurately to win most games. If that accuracy drops off even a small percentage they might not be winning so many of these close matches from here. However they are certainly in some ripping form across the board with most of their big guns up and running at full tilt so they could also be hard to stop if this situation continues. Player Rating Rank C Oliver 5.900 1 C Petracca 5.175 2 C Salem 5.175 2 Jack Viney 4.450 4 Max Gawn # 4.125 5 A Brayshaw 4.025 6 Steven May 3.775 7 J Jordon 3.475 8 L Jackson # 3.050 9 A N-Bullen 2.700 10 Jake Lever 2.650 11 M Hibberd 2.600 12 Ben Brown # 2.575 13 J Hunt 2.350 14 B Fritsch 2.175 15 C Spargo 2.175 15 K Pickett 2.150 17 H Petty 1.850 18 Ed Langdon 1.850 19 Trent Rivers 1.675 20 T Sparrow 1.550 21 J Melksham 1.450 22 Team Score 66.90 Top 6 28.85 Bottom 6 10.53 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire.com

I would agree re scoring but i'm surprised on the others as the stats i keep each year (weighted averages) have him up 10% on last season (up to last week)?

Kozzy had a mare tonight unfortunately. There's usually one or two moments (at least) in a game where you think at the time... "was that the turning point?". There was probably about eight or more this evening lol. Kozzie was directly involved in at least four of them from what i witnessed. He also did not lay one tackle, had only one 1 percenter, only 3 score involvements and kicked only the one joe-the-goose goal. On a positive note his pick up / play through the middle / wing at one stage and lovely short pass over the top to tracc was one of the few highlights.

The Pies had a huge win down back tonight with 49 rebounds vs our 25. Our lack of forward 50 pressure? Zone breaking down? Pies just too good? Other?

The elephant in the room for me tonight.... Clarry's lack of leg drive out of stoppage! What's happened to this aspect of his game? He's a completely different proposition to the opp and so much more damaging for us when he brings this aspect of his game. Looks like he's running up & down on the spot at times since his return.

Yes that was a handball every day of the week. Tried to play the hero in no space. Perplexing bit of play from the Captain who is trying his guts out but who is unfortunately (for us) not quite at his best so far this season

I feel Chandler is more than capable and ready. He's also very dangerous around goals and is now bringing a high degree of pressure at ground level.

Meh he is too much 'slow play' for mine. Rarely rolls out to get the ball moving and his decision making/execution around the arc and inside 50 left alot to be desired. Got caught in two minds a fair bit which threw others out around him. I would much prefer Harmes in for JJ and Chandler and Bedford in for ANB & Sparrow. We need some run through the middle and away from stoppages. Was noticeably lacking after half time tonight. Also we saw our opponent miraculously manage to swing a pair of fresh legs on to the ground through the use of their sub. Yet we refused to pull the trigger and instead played the nice guys again...and lost in the last quarter with the oppo over running us....again. I called for this in the match day thread at 3/4 time so this isn't hindsight. Poor stratagem from Goody & the FD IMV and not for the first time have we been outsmarted here. Pretty poor stuff from those in charge.

100% this. Max proved tonight he is only a part timer (temp/resting forward) at best and can't be relied on to kick goals. BBB was a positive and admirable all day but had no support / decoys. Also why were so many players hell bent on taking on the tacklers tonight instead of kicking the ball to the hot spot/zone about 15/20 out from goal? Also so many intential shanked kicks to the pocket. Maxy/JJ some of the worst offenders here. This 'playing safe' lock the ball in our 50, in preference to kicking to the hot zone or fat side is killing this team's chances. The one play where we did this via Clarry kicking from deep right flank to the hot zone worked, with Lingers marking and splitting the middle directly in front. Kicking to the pocket so often is a massive win to the oppo's defenders and all it does is lift their belief & confidence as we just don't ask the question and put them under pressure often enough. Also many of our long kicks are kicked too close to goals in an attempt to kick a 45/50 meter goal but all we do is again play into the defender's hands allowing them to thump it threw quite often.

Absolutely..... play the form players. The opportunity was the Port game. Missed our chance to give JVR & Chandler a deserved chance. Particularly Chandler who was hitting the scoreboard and bringing all the pressure / off the ball stuff that was lacking inisde 50 even back then. The game we failed to lay any tackles inside 50 should have sent alarm bells ringing. It must have to some degree if the Pow Wow truly did go down.

Kozzie's man Quaynore leaves him behind and attacks ...gets the spillage with Kozzie trailing 10 meters behind ball watching

Kozzie again .... just rubbish inside work there

Oh dear Kozzie

DeGoey's killed us this quarter and very good in the third as well

Has Quanore been on Kozzie most of the night? If so he's probably had the better of him so far