Demon Dynasty

Shouldve been 5 up at quarter time had we taken our opportunities W. Then kept fluffing opportunities in the second. Give them some credit though they gave us very little space all night and the first half arm wrestle between Stringer & Tracc was a beauty with Stringer pulling away through the middle stages, Tracc doing some good work at times but mostly at the book ends. You are correct W, our early bad misses gave them a sniff, and over use of hand ball also brought the heat on ourselves over and over. There's a bit of fine tuning needed here and a few players were well off their best as well. The predictable and stagnent slow play kick outs (and general play) across HB out wide to the left flank also played into their hands in defence. Made entries inside a crowded 50 messy and cumbersome to watch. Coming in from the same side of the ground along the wings in that first half was too easy to defend. Needed to switch more often and / or look for a handball or 45 kick on occasions to change lanes and potenntially free up a forward on the fat side or in a different leading lane for a few more lead up marks. Might be wrong but i cant recall us hitting up too many on the lead in those first two to three quarters!?? Stating the obvious but Salem is a very big out as the intercepting link up QB across HB. His pin point passing / decision making and reading of the play around D 50 is at another level to most. Lever also and i feel Hibb back for Hunt is probably the best option once fit. I'm a big fan of Hunt and love what he brings at times but there's a bit more reliability / grunt and pressure around the ball, especially at ground level, when Hibb is up and about for mine. I realise you cant always have every player you want fit and firing every week but that back six goes to another level with Lever, Salem & Hibb up & about. Fingers crossed we can get one or two back in the next three weeks or so.

Harmes was very solid AGAIN tonight. He has some tank and is always buttering up / presenting when the chips are down. While maybe not THE most talented player in the team, the bloke has amazing grit and character and never takes a backward step. Don't underestimate the hurt factor either. He hits & tackles hard and other players know he's about. Hard as a cats head & built like a tank.

Smithy what a game son!!!

Yes been superb. Just like to see him kick it to the top of the square occasionally coming i50. A few too many shorties to the pockets. Just mix it up a bit and keep the defenders guessing etc

Sensational!

Barely sighted apart from that one mark at the end and the snap at goal earlier. Backs doing a great job so far but we are also way too predictable on the rebound always heading to the left HBF. I have yet to see any player across HB take the game on and pull the trigger through the middle other than Clarry on the end of a few chains in the first quarter. Its all sideways and/or lateral towards the left boundary. Maybe Essendrug are plugging the middle very well but....All this does is gives their mids, zone and defenders more time to set up and our forwards less chance of being hit up on a lead. The above also makes our forward line too congested. One of either Macca or Weid needs to be instructed to push up higher to make space out the back for others to lead into and/or Kozzie to crumb. And boy does he need to start doing the basics like front and square / crumbing. He's been super ordinary so far from what i have witnessed.

Won't be an issue LH. With that run up he'll need to play from here anyway...

I find when both these two (Macca & Weid) are in the same team playing forward they too often get in each others' road on the lead and/or both are leaping at the same incoming high ball far too often. Hopefully this can't happen tonight assuming Macca plays mostly back.

Ben Brown rarely rucks as we have two in the side already and they both play a fair bit of their time forward also which covers that aspect most of time. T-Mac usually takes more (rare) ruck duties than BB when he is played forward also. Mitch should have been the auto call up for BB after kicking 7. Astonished they gave Weid the nod....he did very little (on comparison to Mitch) in the VFL from what i witnessed. Mitch showed he was more than ready and looked to be marking everything. Goal accuracy right up there also vs Weid who is usually sub par on the big stage.

Unfortunately (or fortunately from a team perspective) me thinks they will be pinching votes from each other which will most likely prevent either from getting the chocolates. Not to mention the likes of Max, Jackson, Fritta, Viney etc popping up occasionally.

Yes that is correct Cards. The ball just doesn't spend as much time overall inside 50 i guess hence the forward's chances of racking up a relatively high statistical score (in these tables) is heavily dependant on tackles, getting the ball inside 50 (if they push up outside the arc), contested marks, marks inside 50, clearances (if they happen to get the odd one up forward ...pretty rare for a genuine forward), score involvements, tackles i50 & goals. These tables don't capture other areas of forward play like ground ball gets & pressure acts but then again they don't capture these two stats for any position on the field. To give you some idea of how a forward scores in these tables across a season here are the season average scores for our genuine forwards from last year from highest to lowest... T-Mac 2.516 K Pickett 2.378 B Fritsch 2.155 C Spargo 2.068 B Brown 1.855 (does not include the odd hit out to advantage up forward) J Melksham 1.853 S Weideman 1.055 and average scores across all 3 Finals... B Fritsch 2.583 (roughly 18% higher than his season ave) B Brown 2.508 (35% improvement on his season average!) C Spargo 2.117 (slightly above season ave) K Pickett 1.558 (fair way off season ave) T Mac 1.325 (well below season ave)

I didn't realise that was gone. Is it still available for Tesltra / Fox subscribers i wonder? I seem to recall a couple of D'landers had access to the full data set above and beyond the version we could all use and access via their Telstra / Fox subscription. That's a shame if this is corect as you could compare players in season as well as across their entire career. It also allowed you to drill down to see things like kicking accuracy, ground ball gets i50 etc, rather than generalised stats like disposal efficiency etc.

Round 2, 2022 Metricon - Suns vs Demons Bowey with the No.1 ranking! What an effort from the young rookie with less than 10 games experience. Quite incredible really. And of course rising star nominee for round two. His score in this round right up there with some of Clarry & Tracc's best statistical efforts (scores) over the last few years on these tables. His first half in particular was some game as he intercepted so many entries and set up so many rebounds when (i felt) we were under the pump somewhat. 16 intercepts in total for the night with the next best from either team being Tomo with 10 (great effort in his second game back). Top 5 Meters Gained > Tracc 780 (Sun's Touk Miller the best on the night with a massive 944...is he worth at least a 'run with' next time to cool him off a little... Harmes? However he does turn the ball over alot topping the tables with 9), May 625, Bowey 572, Tomlinson 527 & Clarry 521. Tracc would have scored / ranked higher here but for being our turnover leader on the night with a fairly hefty 8. Having said that he did get an awful lot of the pill. I couldn't really split Bowey, Tracc and Jackson on the night who i thought were, in their own fashion/style & roles, our top three players (visually from what i witnessed on the box anyway...can sometimes see things very differently at the ground of course). Team score of 67.05 was only a smidgen off that of the average team score of the top 22 players from last year (67.23). Although the humid / moist conditions probably had some say on the night, this might be an indicator that the Suns could well be a bit of a sleeper team to watch from here. They aren't that far behind us on the experience front either, tracking about 15 games (or approx one season) of experience (on average) behind the team we fielded on Sat night ... Average Attributes Gold Coast Attribute Melbourne 189.3cm Height 187.3cm 87.5kg Weight 87.6kg 25yr 0mth Age 25yr 4mth 82 Games 97.2 Player Score Rank Jake Bowey 6.300 1 C Oliver 5.150 2 A Tomlinson 4.800 3 Steven May 4.750 4 C Petracca 4.100 5 Tom Sparrow 4.075 6 Luke Jackson 4.050 7 James Harmes 4.025 8 Alex N-Bullen 3.975 9 James Jordon 3.975 10 A Brayshaw 3.175 11 Jack Viney 3.150 12 Ed Langdon 2.475 13 Trent Rivers 2.350 14 Max Gawn 2.225 15 Joel Smith 2.175 16 T McDonald 1.625 17 K Pickett 1.450 18 Ben Brown 1.200 19 Bayley Fritsch 1.000 20 Charlie Spargo 0.700 21 Jayden Hunt 0.325 22 Team Score 67.05 Top 6 29.18 Bottom 6 6.30 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire.com

Hope to see Lever & Hibb come back cherry ripe. Im sure the FD/Fitness crew wouldnt risk them if not ready as we have plenty of weeks ahead and fairly solid depth to cover. Trusting the FD/medics on this one and that they'll also get the balance right down back.

There were also three missed getable goals either side of three quarter time. Say we get two of those and add the insanely corrupt free kick goal to Weightman at the end of the first. We should have been up about 40 points a few minutes into the final quarter. The scoreline flattered the Dogs.

Is it any wonder Gil didnt get his record opening round crowd total! Think i'll be calling the club shortly pretending i'm old Siddy boy with no mobile phone and get an analogue entry membership card (or whatever it is)

Yes i noticed at one stage B Smith was jumping around to the left and right each time Clarry tried to get to the front position at a center bounce on one occasion. Clarry was highly amused and actually did a little jig of his own at one point while having a bit of a giggle.

Some interesting and very valid points DEE f thanks. Lets hope Viney can stay as fit as he appeared on Weds. Looked pretty sharp for mine and did some handy clean up work at the center bounces i felt.

Another howler of a decision was the one with about 2 minutes to go where Clarry was called for holding Macrae. They just had the usual side by side joust that you see 50 times a game in the middle bounce and Macrae broke away in front of Clarry to attempt to get to the ball drop. The whistle in that decision was one of the quickest calls ive ever witnessed....as if pre-determined. The other issue is the constant calling against Max at least once or twice in almost every game he plays for "blocking". Yet i witnessed something similar from English or at the least "front on contact" or simlar with no eyes on the bounce of the ball.....just looking straight at Maxy and jumping into him with both hands pushing into his shoulders ....yet zero free kicks for Max. Max appears to be being targeted in a biased manner by certain umps and this discrepancy needs to be raised by the FD with the AFL immediately and hit on the head before further damage is done in the coming weeks. Having said that, sometimes Max is often caught coming from behind which sees his arms draping over shoulders or hands in the back etc and the frees are there. So Max also needs to work on getting to the front a little more often to reduce the likelihood of being pinged so often and improve his own chances of receiving a few more himself imho.

Round 1, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Bulldogs Tracc backs up his amazing NS performance of 7.55 with a 7.35! Top 5 Meters Gained > Tracc 869 (Doggy's best...Macrae with 569), Clarry 549, Langden 446, May 384 & Viney 329 Have left Salem out as he played only 13% game time. Haven't watched the second half replay but Harmes must have turned things around pretty well in the second half to end up in the top 10 here. Nice result Jackson! Team score approx 5% off that of the average team score of the top 22 players from last year. Not bad given the outs down back and the loss of Salem early in the match. Player Score Rank C Petracca 7.350 1 C Oliver 5.125 2 Jack Viney 4.150 3 Ed Langdon 3.875 4 Alex N-Bullen 3.525 5 J Harmes 3.450 6 L Jackson 3.325 7 A Brayshaw 3.250 8 Ben Brown 3.150 9 Max Gawn 2.950 10 Steven May 2.825 11 James Jordon 2.675 12 Tom Sparrow 2.250 13 Joel Smith 2.200 14 T McDonald 2.150 15 Jayden Hunt 1.975 16 Jake Bowey 1.850 17 Toby Bedford 1.825 18 Charlie Spargo 1.700 19 Bayley Fritsch 1.675 20 K Pickett 1.650 21 A Tomlinson 0.975 22 Team Score 63.90 Top 6 27.48 Bottom 6 9.68 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire.com

A few observations after watching the first half replay.... 👉 Defence was not the same without Lever but generally held up well under the circumstances. Kudos to the guys playing back. In particular Smith who i thought played a very solid first half. 👉 May appeared to have Naughton inside 50 much of the time in this half but when Naughton pushed higher up the ground May appeared to retain his spot as the last man back. All good but then who was picking up Naughton as he pushed up the ground? It would appear no one in this first half. While i understand this is a difficult ask at the best of times, with most of our Premiership defenders out this task became even more problematic on Weds night. Something to ponder over for the future as he is a very tricky match up both on the ground and in the air. A direct match up when he pushes up the ground doesn't really come to mind at this point but it's something we need to put some work into for future encounters. Anyone? 👉 English took front position against Max most of the time when Max pushed forward, resulting in a number of frees against Max for ITB. One of which should have been a free to Maxy as the first push came from a Doggy defender behind him who cannoned him into English. Of course that first push of Maxy was missed. Would like to see Maxy work for the front possie on occasions to mix things up and hopefully force the free kick in front of goals also. 👉 The 2nd quarter tap outs were almost always to the punt road end and or slightly sideways and half the time straight into a waiting doggy sweeper. Would have thought our two ruckman would wake to this earlier but seemed to be missed as our boys were often sitting out back. I also felt too many players in the middle got sucked too close to the ball drop. This meant when we did get the odd possession we were often hand balling to a player within three or four feet of each other were under immediate pressure and dumped off to another player in close etc etc. There was very little handball to a player on a different line out wider / or a tap across/ forward in their direction for the quick transition inside 50 as they mostly werent there to give to (a la the GF). This resulted in a few turnovers in the middle, even when we got our hands on the ball first (which was pretty rare in the second) which helped the Dogs big time. Probably only a set up tweak needed here which i'm sure the boys addressed at half time as things seemed to improve here in the second half. No doubt some first game cobwebs happening. 👉 JJ had a mare and looked completely out of sorts in this first half. I understand the want on here and possibly by the FD to stick with a winning combo but to me JJ has looked out of sorts since about 2/3rds of the way through last season with not many credits remaining at this point. I would probably seriously consider Bedford as in front at this stage. He just looked to have more speed and to be more at the pace than JJ for the most part. 👉 Harmes not far behind JJ. Much of his not so great work happening around HB where he always seems out of sorts IMV. Harmes much more suited to playing a bullocking role through the middle working off his opponent as a run with minder role when we don't have the ball on the likes of say a Macrae or a Bont. Did a few good things in tight to redeem but overall i didnt like his game much in this first half. Has plenty of credits though and the second half probably a different outcome from what i recall at the ground anyway. 👉 The big play maker for the Dogs across HB is of course the smallest fella on the field in Caleb. His influence in that second quarter was immense and he was left to run amok without anyone checking him. And not just across HB. He pushes right up to the 50 meter arc at times as a key link man. As a coach or coaching panel against the Doggies do you ask the question "Do we try and take away or at least limit what we know is a key strength and/or a part of the Doggy's DNA?"? For me Caleb is a key part of how the Doggies tick and how they arrest / maintain momentum from their opponent. Much of this is obtained on the counter. Sure i would not be too worried in the opening salvo of the first quarter where its a bit of a turkey shoot in any match. Let the players sort themselves and lets see who appears to be hot and who might be somewhat off early and review at quarter time or at least have option B up the sleeve. In this case i would have looked to have Kozzie run with Caleb after they got on a bit of a roll on in the second.... say 3 goals, and just asked him to blanket him until half time. Reset from there. Kozzie was not that influential, other than a few opportune pressure cameos which sure, were very handy. But i would have much rather seen him sacrifice his game a little from early on in the second quarter post the third goal and review at half time. 👉 Like to see Clarry hit the afterburners when he takes possession more often as we know he can... and look to break free of the congestion then head out wide or long. Not a major issue. Just a minor tweak towards more of this and a little less of the in close dinky hand offs to another player under severe pressure. Tracc also on at least one occasion.... sold Clarry into trouble in the middle bounce when a quick kick forward was in the offing (in the second quarter). 👉 I thought Viney (both quarters in patches) and Tracc (especially in the second) were immense at keeping us in the arm wrestle early. Ditto BBB. Some fabulous timing of leads / leaps on his part along with his usual accuracy from distance. Macca down back was also VG for mine and really steadied us under fire in the second. 👉 Big Maxy on one occasion gave a block free to English in the middle bounce, but then when the favour was returned by English with 2 minutes to go to half time at a bounce just forward of the middle Max received nothing in return. It would appear Max is severely behind the eight ball here by the umpiring fraternity, who will basically immediately call him on any apparent blocks but ignore them the other way! This needs to be brought to the attention of the AFL by the FD immediately with examples shown given that the players are now unable to vocally remonstrate on field. 👉 The free to Weightman at the end of the 1st quarter gave the Dogs hope coming in to the 2nd and was crucial in their second quarter turn around. They also received some very fortunate bounces from the middle ruck contests 👉 During patches of the second quarter we gave them way too much room coming out of our D50 and continued to do so as they moved the ball up the field. This will only improve the opp's chances of converting and i just can't see any significant advantage that helps us here. Once the ball hits our 50 arc players must simply close up the distance little by little with the pressure wick fully cranked by the time it's anywhere near the middle. Rolling back as the opp finds hole after hole in our D as they waltz up the field to the middle and beyond is just asking for trouble and something most skilled / highly fit teams will just consider money for jam. Allowing them to kick easy / consecutive goals on the run. While i realise this situation doesn't usually last for more than a few minuets in short stints in particular quarters, it's when it moves beyond a few minutes / short stints IMHO that ends up seeing big runs against us, often resulting in teams gaining confidence / belief that they are a show even if they're down by thiree / four goals etc in the early part of a match as we saw on Weds night. Sometimes these runs won't be caused by this issue but i find more times than not this is our biggest Acchilles heal. Yes teams are going to get a run on at times and there's nothing we can do. Sometimes it might be simply fatigue that's causing the gaping holes and the opp's just having a great quarter or a purple patch over 10 to 15 minutes. I get the momentum stuff but i still believe there's room for tweaking here. 👉 Someone received a 50 from Hannon at some stage in the second (Spargo / Gus!?). Went forward and two fellas were sitting on the fat side of him....with plenty of leading room. To me the best option was a lead from one of them (think it was Kozzie & Bowey) into that fat side. Taking the kick from just outside 50 the kicker was never going to make it. The Doggys were all looking for the kick to the top of the square and predictably thats exactly where we went and the ball spilled and was easily cleared as they had so many back. A lead up from one of the smalls might have seen us taking a set shot from about 40 meters out on a not so tight angle for a crucial goal to pull back the lead further. Instead both these blokes just turned their back and walked away from the kicker towards goal from the 40 / 50 area. Opportunity missed IMV and would like to see some of the smalls (vs leaving it mostly up to Fritta for example) pull the trigger here a bit more when the space IS clearly there on the fat side and at least look to double back on the lead here a la Harmes to Fritta in the third quarter of the GF.

Yes just a coincidence. Was a clash of knee caps with Salem coming off 2nd best (chipping some cartilage) Conservative guess would be 6 to 8 Sure beats an ACL ~ throws salt over shoulder & checks the evil eye key chain

It tells me you are an infatuated tragic like many of the motley crew on here..... 24 hours of good news....congrats x 2

Quite a blast it would seem you had WWC. I've been up in the boxes / bleaches on a few occasions. While i love the corporate freebie action in terms of the food / drinks flowing, i felt a step removed from reality and the noise / atmosphere of the mosh pit. Especially when the glass to the box was closed! Even when open its still NQR imv. It is nice to see how the other half live once in a while though and froth away knowing someone else is picking up the tab. On such a grand occasion it doesnt really matter where you're at anyway. As long as you're there to witness and soak it all up with a friend or two. Keeping the beers rolling is a must however and if i was there there's no way you'd be stopping at one. Bottoms up lassie!

Bold & the Beautiful eat your heart out!