Demon Dynasty

100% correct Why would anyone in their right mind use your best clearance player to try and shut down another team's clearance player when you have another option who does not get anywhere near as many clearances to do the job a la Viney or in this week's case, Spazz. So we don't get data on first use but i'm betting Clazz would be right up there in this area alongside Vines and Max. So you lose one of your go to extractors in Vines. Fine, if you play him as a tagger then you will lose a fair chunk of this side of his game anyway. But why on hell's earth would you then go and allocate 1 of your remaining 2 'go to' extractors and the equal best clearance player (alongside Max) in the team to play in a shut down role when you have another option in Spazz? The brains trust at the MFC is far from a brains trust at this point i'm afraid. So we fail to bring in an obvious backman (Adams) to cover Petty off and allow Turner to remain forward. Presently our highest rated tall forward. Instead you send your best rated forward (this season) down back and have two massively out-of-form players and an un proven one as your three talls (one medium - tall) who between all three could not produce one bloody goal! Turner could have also played a solid defensive role on both Weddle & Sicily. But no....lets go with a un-proven Jeffo AND a horribly out-of-form Fritta instead. Weddle had a field day while he was on Fritta and Sicily one of his best in weeks. Massive win to the Hawks. Then you pull the above with Clazz, killing off one of your best clearance players and reducing our spread / effective ball use capacity, while Sparrow runs around doing not much! Another massive win for the Hawks. What a mega fail all round. Imagine the Bombres, the Filth, The Cats etc using their main clearance mid (eg Merrett, Nick or Danger) in a run with shut down role! You can't because they aren't that stupid!

A week too late

Yes he burst on the scene like a steam train in his second go after his initial flop against the Eagles in Rnd 1, 1991. The fastest player to reach the 50 goal mark (in just 9 matches) Clarry's intro was also right up there as one of the best imv.

Wrecker...from behind the goals, Weddle played on him (back shoulder) for a good chunk of the first half. He pretty much blanketed him during that time and whenever the ball hit the deck and / or they got it back, he just ran off Fritta and ran amok down the field a la Nick Daicos's work at times coming out of the defensive goal square before teams caught on. Under little to no pressure most of the time! He wandered up the field with care free abandon providing an extra around the ball and, in a number of their link up chains, assisting with their quick ball movement into the 50. I suspect the post match down-the-ground footage would be damning on Fritsch in this match. At least while Weddle was on him anyway. I had Weddle as the 3rd highest rated player on the day from both teams, behind Jiath and Sicily (who also played on Fritta for a time) and just ahead of big Max. Some of Weddle's highlights included.... 21 Effective disposals @ 95.5% efficiency (unheard of for a defensive player pushing through the middle and running amok elsewhere), 1 contested mark, 3 one percenters, 3 Rebounds, 1 inside 50, 5 score involvements, 6 intercepts, 246 meters gained, Zero turnovers and a goal. Unless Fritta was under instructions to not chase or pressure him out of our forward line and others were assigned to do so as part of a team handover, then Fritta has actually had one of the worst performances you could ever witness from a forward putting on the red & blue* Fritta's Player Rating also supports that view, finishing 21st just ahead of Jefferson & Kolt and Rating in 43rd place overall (out of the 46 that took the field today including the two subs). *In modern times when so much emphasis is placed on defence & pressure, particularly inside 50 and something the Coach and FD have been harping about needing to work on and up our ante since we got to Rnd 4 - 5 without a win. I'm sure many others have put in worse performances or as bad in this era and prior years plenty more no doubt. But this one would be right up there.

Gawn Langford Tracc Pickett Windsor May

Round 9, 2025 Optus Stadium - Eagles vs Demons The Captain does it again. Without him, Langford and the continual holding up of our backline i reckon we would have been smashed by 80+ points today. Looking at it from a glass half full, are we on the cusp and about to turn things around? Unless we have almost all of our best 22 players on the park most weeks... highly unlikely. The same could be said of most teams but we are just too far off our best once we drop a few key players. The depth just isn't there. And the forward line plus methods going in. Enough has been said about those woes to write a Demonic version of Tolstoy's War & Peace. Our Team Rating over 6% off that of our average 2024 Team Rating against a pretty middle of the rung to above average side (imo) is a pretty horrid outcome. Their top 6 well ahead of ours and their bottom 6 trumping ours as well. We will need all of Vines, Melk & Petty back in to have any chance of avoiding a massacre against the Lions next week and posting a respectable score. Player & Team Ratings - Demons < Subbed out TOG % > Subbed in TOG % Player & Team Ratings - Hawks Combined Player Ratings Stats courtesy of footywire.com and wheeloratings.com

Our forward line and they way we deliver it in (including lack of finesse, poise, decent decision making, forward craft and finish in front of goals) has now been farcical for at least 2.5 seasons now Pates. That is fully on the coach who has had this group under his wing for an eternity now and who must have had a significant say in the retention of Stafford and the then appointment of Chaplin who is also in charge of team offence. The time for excuses is up. Our method of play and effectiveness forward of center is a complete and utter failure at all levels against pretty much anyone other than the worst rated teams where we sometimes look fair to ok.

% of inside 50s that resulted in a goal AFL Average Approx 23% - 24% Hawks 28.6% Demons 14.6%

Not expecting much but barely competed in the air and was pantsed at ground level. He has no motor and mostly caught flat footed when the ball hits the deck. Also loses his feet far too often in the contest. He has regressed badly this season in almost all aspects unfortunately bar the odd decent tackle.

Turner is a mile ahead of JVR in terms of forward craft (mobility) comtested marking and pressure (closing speed etc) inside 50 when the oppo gets it. I'd be making the above move (and should've happened today from half time) until Petty and/or Lever return. Simon has to be one of the worst H&A match day coaches in terms of seeing and swinging in the changes that might help towards winning games when the writing is on the wall early on that you simply won't win playing the present configuration. It was so obvious how today was going to pan out it became laughably predicable. Many around me were also seeing it the same way and making similar assessments at half time.

That was a 100 point thrashing of a very poor Tiger team. He was given the ball on a platter a few times and kicked some lovely goals from various angles and a couple were from distance with the breeze. However, for all matches prior till then, he was horribly out of form and looked lost in his first Casey game against a much more competitive and serious VFL team in the Giants. We needed to see how he went over a decent body of work against a few other reasonable or better VFL teams before deciding to bring him back. Even some ppl close to him admitted that he was a mile off it and in bad form. But the fact that the Coach & FD couldn't see that and pulled the trigger too soon is on them. I hope he turns it around but the chopping and changing of out-of-form players that don't really find true form at Casey and then are brought straight back in, only to be clobbered again at AFL level, is again, all on the coaches and the SC. SHIITEHOUSE player management imv.

Yes to Laurie but only as a short term sub for Kolt and only if he performs on match day. Otherwise back he goes. There is no one on the present list that stands out as a 'knocking on the door' option for that 23rd spot. Was hoping it might be Brown dog but he doesn't appear to be coming on either (to date anyway....shows glimpses). Didn't see any of the Casey game today though but sounds like most were pretty average.

We also need a quality mid who can use the ball better coming inside and occasionally drift forward for the odd goal. Which we might have found in Langers although most likely will need a few more pre-seasons to be a consistent impact player here. Great start though. But we'll also then need to replace Vines & Sparrow. Sparrow is too slow and has no other weapons except defensive effort. And no, Rivers aint gonna make it as a mid i'm afraid. He needs to see the ball in front of him and plays so much better as a HBer. Then there's the Maximus factor OD. He just isn't replaceable so we'll just have to aim for someone reasonable. And that aint coming from Casey either with Verral another bust alongside Jeffo. We are at least a mini rebuild of significant proportions away from fixing the forward woes and the above. I'm thinking around 3 to 5 seasons plus a new forward line coach. And who knows who else will still be there from the present FD by then.

Simon is not smart enough at selection. JVR, Jeffo and Fritta all horribly out of form yet plays all three. The one dangerous tall that performed last week he moves down back for Petty. Another zero goal game from Spargo and pretty sure same for Chandler. When the heat comes on and we're struggling the only small forward that stands up (when he's playing as a small forward) is Koz and he's probably gone at years end. Kolt & Jeffo aren't ready for AFL and Jeffo is barely VFL level at this point.

Dogs plus umpire blitz by the sounds of it

✅️ Kolt on for Jeffo ✅️ Swap Turner & JVR

Adams for Jeffo = Turner forward Massive SC blunder

First half....The Hawks were ordinary but we were worse forward of centre. Bar Langers & Koz our kicking at goal would have to go down as some of the worst you could ever wish to see from any team to have ever played the game.

Warple constantly running off Fritta as soon as the turnover comes. Fritta nowhere in sight. Giving them an extra number / outlet on occasions Not sure if that's the team defence instruction or not

Spargs can't kick over a jam jar

Same old forward woes Robbing Peter to pay Paul with Turner down back and Scicily on Spargo. That we have players actually looking for Spargo coming inside is laughable. Adams for Petty was a massive blunder. And now no Turner forward

Melksham is a huge out. He's our best ball user bringing the ball into 50. And by a long way. Adams should have been brought in to cover Petty to keep Turner forward. With Jeffo in i'm assuming we lose Turner who'll be covering for Petty down back? While Turner will be fine in that position, not having him play mostly forward is a big win for the Hawks.

The Petty one is strange. I would have thought Adams in (not Jeffo) and do everything in your power to keep Turner forward playing as second string alongside JVR. Jeffo did absolute didly squat in Casey's last massacre and we need to find a solid structure up forward & convert to post a potential winning score.

It does seem like a weird call but i would guess if he was right to go he'd be playing Poita. Could be the knee gash has arced up or maybe a hammy / other soft tissue niggle that they don't wanna risk this week. Playing the long game?

The pile on is (was?) quite incredible from so many journos 58. Although surprisingly Morris did back it off a little last week. That's a first. However, most still manage to bring it up somewhere in their general narrative. Even if it's an update to say "nothing to see here". If the filth were doing this 'managed' scenario with DeGoey the media would be falling over themselves to applaud fly and the club and what a great job they're doing managing their playing group. Cutting edge etc!