Demon Dynasty

Agree with the backline part Macca but i have faith in it once the key players are back, fit and firing such as May, Hibb & Salem. Also believe we need Rivers back (if in form) to provide quicker ball movement and run/gun off HB. To me, aside from Lever's form which is a real worry since returning, these are small gettable adjustments for our usually super solid D. The three major issues for me are... > Our slow transition off HB of late. That's a gettable adjustment via method through triaining though IMV > The oppo getting on top of us for long periods in the middle. Im not sure what to put this down to. Out of form players though such as Tracc, Harmes & Sparrow aren't helping. Maybe teams are really doing a number on us as well and getting to our drop/tap zones more often to pressure for the turnover and/or worse....pick us off. > Forward line's form (especially a lack of marking/leading prescence, contested pack marking and accuracy), craft, methods and pressure. Pretty much as you have outlined very succinctly. I know our delivery coming inside needs cleaning up for sure. But the fact is we are ranked No.3 in the comp for getting the ball inside 50 and bottom line is....we just aren't converting enough of those opportunities. That might be partially related to what's happening in defence, more so of late with May out. But aside from that it's what happens off the back of the square > forward....that's killing our ability to post a winning/defendable score.

Yep...we've seen... The two bookends out up the Spine (Macca & May) since the Freo match. Lever not being able to get near his 2021 form after returning and in some quarters costing us goals on the turnover. Harmes also having a post return downer in form the past two weeks. Dogga being off ever since his return from Covid. Sparrow the same. Kozzie only hitting the scoreboard every other week or so. BBB having little to no impact. ANB missing gettable goals he was kicking in 2021. Spargo rarely hitting the scoreboard. Tracca in ordinary form after his illness. Bowser coming off the boil in the last 5 to 6 games. No Salem till two weeks ago. No Hibb till last week. That's 14 premiership players either not in the team, on a big downer, in a form slump, just back from long a long break....or having an inconsistent season so far. In the end it's the sum of all parts...but....those parts are starting to fall back into place slowly bar Macca. Time will tell if some players will get back to their best or near their best form from here. Starting tonight!

Might be worth playing Dogga at CHF for most of the match. Weid mostly in the ruck. Let them share the two roles. Roughly Weid 60% Ruck/ Dogga 60% CHF and reverse for the other 40% excluding time on the bench of course. I reckon Weid is ok at holding his own and neutralising many of the ruck contests. I recall him playing nearly a whole quarter there in one match earlier in the season and we did alright out of the middle. The oppo also wont have much intel on Weid rucking & in theory they wont be able to read/steal his taps as often. Something we've seen the oppo mids do quite a bit against Maxy & Dogga this season. Doubt the above will happen but wouldn't mind seeing Weid play a fair % (at least 50% or so) in the ruck tomorrow night.

Yes get back to being the hunters and damaging the opp on the turnover from dangerous parts of the ground. Very little of this so far this season compared to 2021. Part of that is also being able too lock the ball in our 50 for decent periods during a game. Thought we did that against the Pies for a good 10 minutes or.so in the 2nd quarter. However, apart from maybe one goal to Dogga we failed to capitalise/convert on the scoreboard. That 10 minutes or so with little to show for it seemed to take alot out of the crew in general then the Pies began to take over, gradually finding more holes in our high D and sling shottting it down forward pinging the ball around nicely and then finishing off inside 50 with some very nice kicks to players in space or out the back (some lovely precision kicking inside 50 vs our constant bombs away... coach killer/team deflating method!)

Yep .... might need two if BB doesn't start producing. One of them a tallish bullocking pack marking/busting option that can kick goals from 45-50 out with relative ease. Aside from Macca and few cameos from Fritta & Kozzie this forward line up has been a massive fail (so far). Will need to turn it around in a big way in this second half if we're to have any chance of making a Prelim.

100%. Should have been in. Sparrow is a long way off the level at the moment and Dunstan bludgeoned the door down last week. Not saying he'd be massive improvement but at this level you need to take every advantage you can get. With Salem & Hibb back and Bowey still in this frees up Gus to go back to a wing/HF. Would love to see him get a bit of time in the middle with Harmes covering for short stints on the wing to see what, if anything, that change up might bring. Also think we need to see a Bedford/Kozzy change up at some stage through the middle if Kozzie doesn't fire up forward in the first quarter and a bit and if our mid field set up is having another ordinary night. However, with Bowey, Salem & Jordan we also now have an excess of dour types across HB. That is unless Salem can get back on his bike to some run & carry form we saw in 2021. Might've been worth bringing Rivers in for Bowey who's lost a bit of form of late. Rivers could potentially offer a bit more spark/quicker ball movement/transistion off HB, giving the forwards a few more looks vs the pedestrian up the line transitioning we've seen far too much of this season IMHO. Our super slooow predicable transition off HB is a massive momentum killer and i would hate to have been a forward watching the likes of Salem, Jordy & Bowey with ball in hand the last two to three weeks. If we play this way for much of the game tomorrow night and refuse to switch, handball accurately forward to player/s on the move and/or pull the 45 trigger when it presents, this will play right into the Lion's 'you beauty' play book and we'll be in for our fourth dissapointing result.

Recently Sydee? Aside from Max, Macca and May i'd say we really don't have any other talls who can take contested marks consistently and haven't all year. Not sure one outta three is enough against Brissy. Would need all three in and at their best IMV.

You have my vote Layzie. The excitement should be mostly left to the game. Music / shazaam stuff after every goal along with disco lights... ughh. Ok a sprint or kicking comp at half time maybe but FCS turn their mics down. Especially that woman at the G. Voice sounds like two cats caterwauling in the early hours of a freezing winter morning.

I suspect you will be deflecting with the same reasons to keep them going in 2032 RP. By then then the Greatest Waste of Space would've cost the AFL another $250 - $500 million and still underperforming on and off the field and media still questioning the record low crowds/memberships etc That's if i'm alive to see it!

Greatest Waste of Space And Riewoldt's answer is.... “Investment in the game. They’ve got no alternative,” Riewoldt replied. “Just keep the throttle down and keep trying to drive the game up. So after 11 years (?) and probably somewhere around $150 - $200 million, plus 15 or more 1st round draft picks and two coaches, we arrive at... a complete failed basket case of a club that no one wants to go and watch. This Fox chat doesn't cover the TV ratings which i would assume would be off the scale also and not in a good way. Send the team to Tassie from 2025/2026 as the Tassie Giants. No need to fret over a 19th team and the AFL's talent pool isn't further stretched beyond its already weakened state. Winner winner winner chicken dinner

While most likely a marginal issue...i would add... Cashless transactions at most (all?) grounds post Covid (season 2021 onwards?) Many tradies and sole traders do a fair % of cash sales and i would guess a decent number might prefer to use that cash for day to day spending such as game day vendor purchases of food & bev. Keeping banked trade sales/earning $$ in their accounts for mortgage/bill payment, online transactions, SUV/Ute upgrades/superchargers/blow offs etc! Plenty of tradies are avid footy followers. Join the dots...

Apologies to Werridee in advance!... Hibberd May Petty Salem Lever Rivers Langdon Oliver Brayshaw Bedford Jackson Petracca Fritsch B Brown Pickett Foll: Weideman Viney Harmes Dunstan Spargo Bowey ANB Sub: Jordan/Tomlinson

That's how i'm seeing things as well. Add to that... Too many other issues to list #tryingtostaypositivelikelingers

Pure footballler but also has the leap to make him play a little taller. Strength of an ox. Hard to push off the ball and often works his opp off the ball himself. Love watching this bloke, apart from when he starts his sniping off the ball. Talk about footy smarts and clever forward craft. Has more talent on one toe than most forwards and more dangerous than most of them as well. Doesn't miss very often either. What a pitty he signed up again (for life!?) with the Greatest Waste of Space.

He's been in & out of the McGoos over the last three to four weeks or so. I figured it might have been the flu/covid. So, after playing pretty much every match bar the last few weeks and being a chance of getting a call up at a time of need, he's now possibly out for the next four weeks or so!?? Couldn't make this stuff up 🥴

Yeh im also a big fan here. Nice one Syd

I dunno Uncle... he looked pretty lit to me

There's a footy team in Bali willing to pay him $4 mil??

Excellent point. Isn't Bowey another? Also, aside from Salem/Bowey on some occasions (but usually only short kicks... nothing adventurous all that often), we don't have anyone who pulls the trigger and kicks inside (and by pulling the trigger i mean a kick of about 20 meters or further to hit a relatively open receiver) too often? May is about the only player i can recall who is confident at the medium to long 45s and/or switch kicks and he's been missing during all three losses. Our unwillingness and/or inability to pull the trigger (medium or longer switches/45s inside) is telling this season IMV and is backed up by recent stats from the HUN.... ..."Melbourne is ranked No. 1 for kicking down the line and ranked No. 18 for switching the ball across the ground."...

Just head to the nearest pub straight after the game then walk (stagger?) to work from there D4. Problem solved.

So no brown eyes as the oppo is lining up in front of goal then?

Because our forward cohesion/connection is a complete and utter failure and has been most of the season bar Macca dazzle. And he's out for some time. Maybe the rest of the season. We either get the ball inside 50 alot quicker more often or .... we can defend defend defend 8 to 9 goal average scores beautifully, maybe even better than we have all season ....and continue losing. Harmes has come back from a hammy and played two matches against top 8 red hot opponents. He'll be fine. Have faith... bloke's never let this club down yet.

Negative Adonski. After watching him carefully on Monday i saw him glance inside on a few occasions to open receivers but turned back towards the line and instead bombed it long to a massive contest. I agree our movement etc up the field and sometimes inside has been woeful much of the time. So yes the bulk of the time most wingers would do likewise (up the line). He has choices on slim occasions and after watching him on Monday he refuses to take the chance/risk and pull the trigger. Not sure if it's a lack of confidence in hitting a loose receiver over medium distance. I guess he could be under instruction but sometimes it's on the player to pull the right trigger. Outside of that one flaw he's playing the defensive role very very nicely the bulk of the time. It's a tweak that this club needs in my view if our forwards (and mids pushing forward) are to have any chance of converting more often. And not just hitting 45s. He needs to roll and move quickly more often and back in that a forward will be there on a lead or maybe even a few that he can hit up. Kicking up the line most of the time is killing us right now as most oppos are crapping on us in contested marks. Probably at a greater disadvantage in this area now with Maxy out!

Yep..this is what i was hoping we'd be seeing a modicum of from Benny this year 🤷‍♂️

That kick to Curnow just now, and the Pies also executed one or two of those against us on Monday. Perfectly weighted to the fat side lead. Is there any chance we could bring some of that including leading into space on the fat side or pretty much directly in front as we witnessed just now?