Demon Dynasty

The defence means we can have a very ordinary game forward of center and still stay in touch or lead at half time. Now we need to settle that forward line (fingers crosed BB & weid stay fit) and work much harder on connecting coming inside as well as connecting from the boundary inside 50 more often! Need to work on hitting up leads and/or open targets that have a decent chance of scoring on lessor angles (a little more often) instead of blazing away so often from 50ish and the boundary in hope. Do the above and we'll be almost unstoppable.

ANB having a pretty ordinary night unfortunately

Should be 80 points up or so

We've allowed them a sniff and the umps have also put the whistle away other than deep in our defence.... trouble brewing??

Abysmal in the first half. I'm sure there's others but i"ve only seen Lingers & Kozzie hit a leading target tonight. Reckon the two talls have done ok given the delivery....Weeeed as i type!

Should have been done and dusted at half time. Our second quarters continue to be NQR so far but i blame most of that on our play forward of center and lack of poise / forward craft coming inside 50 and inside 50 itself.

Hunt really dumb coming inside there. Had plenty of time to stop prop and try & hit a target. Instead the red veil continues. Tracc pretty much the same from 50 in the clear earlier

Fritta & Lingers have really stepped up. Bowey i just can't fault this kid. Finally some finish coming inside from Lingers and Kozzie hitting up targets

Should be 10.12 ish (minimum) and over five goals up already

The main leaders need to step up tonight and arrest the BS forward of center.....like Lingers right there

Playing some really dumb / panic & at times very "unawares" non thinking footy tonight. I understand a quarter or so of this but if they don't arrest it soon we may well play ourselves out of form and find ourselves quickly back in the top 8 pack

SPARROW>>>>>TAKE THE [censored] FREE KICK SON!!!!

Harmes is having a mare with ball in hand so far tonight. Effort is there but boy...

Too many boys are well off their best form tonight.... Down back Rivers looks unfit and off the pace. Was he brought back a little too early? Shown patches but just too NQR for mine at the moment. Not sure when Hibb is back but if Rivers continues this sort of level and Hibb can get super fit and looks the goods at VFL level after a few games i'd be bringing him in. Petty is doing pretty well in the air and the contest but with ball in hand his assessment / reaction time is reminding me of Oscar tonight. He's projecting too much and taking forever to execute. Smith ...again as per Petty not bad in the air but once the ball hits the deck or defending an opponent he looks a little lost for mine and too easily shaken off. Dunstan's had a few ok involvements and disposals but his intensity and level around the contest is a fair way off the usual level. I'm not expecting him to be Viney level and would need a 3 to 4 weeks in the middle to get up to tempo and used to the mid field play book but for mine he just looks too far off it to justify a place at the moment. Hopefully he proves me wrong in the second half. Our play forward of center coming inside 50 has been, in the main, a complete dog's breakfast. There's just no system and virtually no one capable (till now) of hitting up a leading target. Now this wouldn't be so bad if we manned up their spare but unfortunately we've allowed their spare to just roam at will and pick our bail out / panic balls off over and over. Then there's the amount of shots at goal that could have / should have or where we probably would have been better kicking to someone in a better position. One thing i would like to see occasionally (when not under severe pressure) is Lingers looking to hit up a target on his right from the boundary instead of the high looping 40 meter kick inside which is very predictable now. Even the odd fake to kick then baulk to the inside looking for that leading target like Fritta. Lots of mids running into each other tonight. Not sure whats going on. Kozzie can't afford to just assume if he plays on quickly and kicks around the body he will kick an easy goal. He gets very limited chances to effect the scoreboard as most small forwards do... he needs to go back more deliberately, do the basics, and get the conversion on the board. Goody just said we are very relaxed....no issues re scoreboard. I'm the reverse and believe we've been to laconic forward of center and most of the time have just blazed away thinking it will all just happen instead of being more deliberate Have we kicked ourselves out of it... And as i write...Smith at ground level.... ughhh

Don't forget the Sunday Press! ...

BB with one of Weid / Plugger is a step up from Weid & Plugger IMHO Will be interesting to see how this combo goes. Given he has been in the system for quite a while, Weid should be starting to find some consistency. However, I just worry about the above the shoulders part, ground ball / pressure side and his maturity in terms of his skills / picking the right options on the angles when shooting for goal. Hopefully this improvement comes with more game time & training at the highest level but we would want to start seeing a fair output from here if he's to hold his spot.

There is no reason Mitch shouldn't be looked at if he kicks the door down at Casey and one or more of the other talls are under performing

I agree re Bedford medi sub. Bettter to rotate with a few others if possible and get more games/experience into Bedford at VFL as well as keeping him match fit ready? Poor bloke must be picking out a few splinters of late

We'll agree to disagree W... Gus is starring in the Winger HB role. No change there imv especially if they bring Dunstan in vs Bedford.

There's no way they will tinker with Gus's role at the mo. Working a treat. Jordan to cover more mid minutes with more TOG or Dunstan comes in. Can't say ive seen/heard anything from Casey that would see Dunstan knocking the door down as a direct Viney replacement. Maybe he's done enough though.

Final teams by tomorrow evening i believe so the starting 18 is still open. Gut feel instincts (ie; throw a dart)... Smith possibly coming in for Lever, Bedford for Viney with Sparrow / Harmes to share more of the Viney role between them? Mostly Sparrow. Harmes still playing his usual hybrid MF/HF role with a little more bias toward MF minutes? Bedford to get a bit of MF time with these two but more as a high HF/Mid when these two are off and or pushing forward.

I saw a Tiger's team close to their recent winning best only 2 weeks ago. I would not take them lightly at all. We'll need to bring our best on the night. Hopefully the boys can maintain the rage and the hunt but quietly confident we can bring it and get over the line for the baker's dozen. Also looking forward to seeing BB back to stretch them a little up forward and hit the scoreboard.

It's an absolute coin toss. As a coach how would you decide who comes out between the two? There is something in the above and the fact plugger M is a premiership player with plenty of career credits. Looks to be struggling to get off the ground in the marking contest though. But still has the edge in smarts on the ground (in serious traffic/heat) & in closer to goal IMV, especially with set shots on the angles. There was one shot Weid took on a 45 from about 35 out on Sat, which i thought he would've been better served kicking a Stevie J. Instead went for old school drop punt and missed. Does he have this option in his arsenal? If not he should have by now. Also they're both very similar style players whose games are more suited to starting from nearer the square? Both limited in range to about 45 meters out. How often have i seen both going up for the same pack mark with no synergy between either recognising one is better staying down or maybe putting in a disguised block to help out the other. BB better on the lead in general, harder to counter, takes the opp's No.1 defender (helping out Weid or Tommy), sometimes drawing two defenders (meaning another forward is free ...somewhere...again possibly helping out either Weid or Tommy), draws more free kicks and can often kick the distance accurately from 50/55 out. Benny also averages about a goal a game more than the former two and any coach worth his salt will take that if it's in the offing. Sorry Weid/Plugger lovers but i reckon BBs commin' straight in for one of them if fit. BB comes in but also nothing wrong with healthy competition between Weid & plugger M. Tell them both they are vying for the same spot for the rest of the season .... say two to three week blocks? but staying in longer if they can meet specific performance criteria, goals/goal assists/score involvements & pressure i50 obviously making up a fair chunk of those KPIs.

Weighted Average Scores up to & including Rnd 5 , 2022 vs H&A Season 2021 May leap frogs Clarry to take the lead (just) for the first time in season 2022. Tracc up two places from last week into 3rd and Viney jumps three places into 4th, neck and neck with Harmes to round out the top 5. Pretty sure both Jackson and Maxy would be ahead of Viney & Harmes if hit outs to advantage could somehow be captured. Player 2022 Score 2022 Rank 2021 Score % Change vs 2021 2021 Rank Change in Rank vs 2021 Steven May 4.575 1 3.926 16.53 3 2 C Oliver 4.525 2 5.258 -13.94 1 -1 C Petracca 4.400 3 4.041 8.88 2 -1 Jack Viney 4.045 4 3.171 27.56 8 4 J Harmes 4.000 5 3.520 13.64 6 1 A Brayshaw 3.890 6 2.836 37.17 12 6 L Jackson # 3.600 7 2.355 52.87 21 14 Jake Bowey 3.475 8 2.881 20.62 11 3 Max Gawn # 3.370 9 3.439 -2.01 7 -2 Ed Langdon 3.215 10 3.092 3.98 9 -1 Alex N-Bullen 3.185 11 2.388 33.38 19 8 J Jordon 3.160 12 2.908 8.67 10 -2 T Sparrow 2.920 13 2.023 44.34 28 15 T Rivers 2.531 14 2.658 -4.78 13 -1 Joel Smith 2.367 15 1.375 72.12 32 17 Ben Brown 2.175 16 1.855 17.25 30 14 Jake Lever 2.063 17 3.661 -43.65 5 -12 A Tomlinson 1.956 18 2.475 -20.97 16 -2 B Fritsch 1.865 19 2.155 -13.46 25 6 T Bedford* 1.825 20 - - - - S Weideman 1.817 21 1.055 72.23 27 6 C Spargo 1.770 22 2.068 -14.41 27 5 Jayden Hunt 1.570 23 2.597 -39.55 14 -9 T McDonald # 1.530 24 2.516 -39.19 15 -9 K Pickett 1.390 25 2.378 -41.55 20 -5 Average Team Score - Top 22 66.73 67.23 -0.75 # Hit outs to advantage not captured * Only played one match not an average score Stats courtesy of footywire.com

Round 5, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Giants Team score off the charts at 74.0 Last night's performance was a massive 10% above the average team score from season 2021! To give you some idea of how good this was, our best score from our 2021 Premiership season was Rnd 6 vs The Tigers @ 71.93 (Chunk's last game at the G) And the Grand Final.... 69.50 Conversion rate was 70%, one of the highest i've seen from any team. Tracc tops the table this round with 24 effectives @ 80% efficiency, 7 clearances, 6 inside 50s, 2 tackles (one inside 50), 12 score involvements (most on the night, next best was Spargo with 9!), 3 intercepts, 573 meters gained (most on the night) 4 turnovers (quite low for that many possessions) and 2 goals. Reckon the disallowed goal fired Tracc up big time last night! Another fabulous game from May who must have gone very close to BOG with another strangulation of the oppo. One of Spargo's best games in the red & blue? Top 5 Meters gained.... Tracc 573, Spargo 478, May 447, Clarry 440 & Maxy 426 Player Score Rank C Petracca 5.875 1 Steven May 5.675 2 Jack Viney 5.425 3 C Oliver 4.550 4 Max Gawn 4.125 5 Jake Bowey 3.775 6 J Harmes 3.775 6 A Brayshaw 3.525 8 T Sparrow 3.525 8 C Spargo 3.500 10 J Jordon 3.400 11 Trent Rivers 3.325 12 Ed Langdon 3.175 13 Alex N-Bullen 2.850 14 L Jackson 2.800 15 B Fritsch 2.700 16 Jake Lever 2.525 17 J Hunt 2.400 18 H Petty 2.025 19 S Weideman 1.950 20 K Pickett 1.900 21 T McDonald 1.200 22 Team Score 74.00 Top 6 29.43 Bottom 6 12.00 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire