Demon Dynasty

Bumping this excellent point as well. SO predictable and teams just load up to the side we are bringing the ball to. And we mostly bomb it there from hard on the boundary or not far away. Too easy to defend. Switch across if at all possible and attempt to change up the angle and/or allow time for a forward to push back then lead into some space (BB and/or Mitch to the fat side!!??). From memory i can only recall one such delivery to Fritsch from Mitch (apologies!). A lovely weighted kick from Mitch that resulted in a Fritsch goal. Outside of maybe North & the Eagles surely we are presently one of the worst teams for ball use & smarts coming inside 50?

I'd prefer to see Tomo remain, taking the 2nd best forward when May returns. Assuming Petty isn't right i'd like to see him swung forward and see how we go. Subject to Petty getting up... Ins: May, Hibbo & Bedford Outs: BB, Hunt & Sparrow

Round 11, 2022 MCG - Demons vs Swans Well for third week running we are a mile off our 2021 season average team score, down 15.5%! A mild improvement on last week's result (-17.5%) but still a bridge too far to get the job done against the better sides. Max comfortably BOG for us. Decent game from Clarry but over using the handballs (20 vs 9 kicks)? Gus played a super game i thought and the score indicates same. Tracc's result, a big improvement on last week but also well off his usual standard. A good come back from Salem. Harmes well off his best. Hopefully both better for the run next week. Benny Brown get's the poo award this week (statistically) and it would appear to reflect what we witnessed last night. Hunt & Jackson not far behind! Sparrow a worry as well. The three turnover kings... Viney (8) and Tracc/Jackson on 6 each. Our genuine forwards not bringing the heat inside 50? Only two tackles between the lot..... Kozzy 1, Spargo 1.... the rest... Zip! Clarry the most for anyone with two! Even Lingers & Lever got one more than the other forwards! Player Score Rank Max Gawn 5.675 1 C Oliver 5.425 2 A Brayshaw 4.725 3 J Jordon 4.125 4 Ed Langdon 3.775 5 C Salem 3.725 6 Jack Viney 3.350 7 Alex N-Bullen 3.325 8 C Petracca 2.575 9 Jake Bowey 2.300 10 Jake Lever 2.200 11 J Harmes 1.950 12 K Pickett 1.925 13 A Tomlinson 1.800 14 B Fritsch 1.700 15 H Petty 1.625 16 M Brown* 1.575 17 C Spargo 1.500 18 T Sparrow 1.375 19 L Jackson 0.825 20 Jayden Hunt 0.750 21 Ben Brown 0.550 22 Team Score 56.78 Top 6 27.45 Bottom 6 6.58 # Hit outs to advantage not captured * Only played one match...not an average score Stats courtesy of footywire.com

Nibbler pretty much shanks to the left every time. Do we roll the die against the Pies and bring Bedford in for Nibbler or Sparrow to hit the scoreboard a little more often and bring some speed through the middle? Mid field looks really pedestrian/flat footed of late other than rare cameos from Kozzy.

Thought Rivers was still off even at that level Robbie. Could be a week or more away before finding decent form but might be wrong and just MV. I cant recall many marks outside of the one you mentioned but yeh it was a solid genuine pack mark. Thats one more than most took yesterday aside from Maxy. I do agree he would probably halve an aerial contest most of the time though. People saying he is pretty poor defensively and will get shown up when we don't have the ball are correct but isn't that what BB has been bringing the last four games anyway? Barely fired a shot old Benny. Put any body on him and he's done cause he isn't leading for some reason and instead seems to want to play from behind and from deep in the square. I have to say our forward craft, outside of Fritsch, is woeful. Does any of this fall on the coach Stafford or? The other areas are playing their part to some degree although the constant bombing from mids & HBs is shizen as well as the lack of defensive running by some of the mids.

Majak would at the least bring the ball to ground and not get out muscled as often in the one on ones including most of the ruck contests. Desperation stakes but could we bring him in for Benny this werk & plonk him at CHF when not taking the hit outs in the middle? I would be worried once the ball hits the deck but Maxy aside that's probably true of most of our big fellas on this list. Jackson wasn't too bad at ground level earlier in the year here but seems to have lost his mojo as soon as the pressure gets turned up (plenty of mates). Weids looked very vanilla after half time in the ressies. Unable to bring a high level for more than a quarter or two regardless of which comp he's in and runs under the contest/ball far too often/drops too many overhead sitters (and thats at VFL level). Other than Macca we just don't have a genuine KTF who can stand up under heat on the big stage at the mo. JVR is not the answer as a KF either. Might make a decent 3rd tall given time. Need to look elsewhere for a KTF and set ourselves up for 2023 & beyond. Keep on keeping on with this same line up and we'll be here talking bout the same old problems again this time next year (against the better clubs).

Would love to see Bedford get a bit more game time. We lack some serious speed and far too often fail to finish in front of goal when we get on the end of some good work up the field. Bedford offers speed and the ability to finish off the work. Problem is who makes way. Sparrow maybe? Seems to have had some fairly ordinary moments in the last few weeks or am i being to critical? (overlooking the good bits?).

Good luck trying to fix what is a flailing forward line along with those kicking/running in to it (who are also often to blame with terrible kicking and/or poor choices). We are in desperate need of a pack marking/busting KF who can kick set shots or goals on the run as if they're shelling peas (assuming ball is delivered favourably more often than we see now). And if not doing that at least bringing the ball to ground more often and getting involved also at ground level more often. We dominated most of that 3rd quarter. Most sides, bar the bottom two atm, would've probably opened up a decent lead and gone into the last quarter with the wind in their sails and something like a four to five goal lead. Instead we just keep leaving the door open. Then, having spent too many tickets, we can't manage to close said door in the final term. Bro predicted that last quarter outcome about 2/3rds of the way through the third quarter. We are becoming reliably unreliable up forward and with our forward craft in general. We are our own worst enemy here and i just can't see where the solution will come from within the current list. Weid had a decent first half but a fairly quiet second half with Casey. Having said that will probably get the call up for BBB who hasn't fired a shot since he posted his interview about how lucky he was to have crossed from the lowly Roos into a premiership side last season. One has to wonder if there's been a little complacency on BBB's account here and/or he's dined out on last year's result a tad too long. One player i do like at Casey as a potential future medium sized impact forward is Ellison but he isn't on our list and untested at AFL level. Regardless, surely there's someone lurking around (free agent?) we could snaffle for 2023 and beyond? Having May back will probably help restrict many teams to a lower score but if our forward line fails to fire, the better teams will most likely continue to run over the top of us late far too often me thinks. We rely too heavily on the May factor i reckon which has glossed over some of the forward issues we have witnessed in his absence. The Cats have one of the easiest fixtures post the buy. Can see them getting ahead of us if we don't solve our forward issues. How annoying would that be. We have to play them at the Cattery in Rnd 17 as well.

Hibberd's close. Finished strongly in the second half today. Is he really ready for a big clash against the Pies before the buy? If the fitness dept & he thinks so then he is a good chance to come in for Hunt. Hunt did ok early but seems to get a little flakey under pressure and unlike last season he is rarely involved in many chains off HB or breaking off HB like Viney did at one stage tonight for example. Not saying he has to do so very often and might be under instruction to play a hard lock D behind the ball (ie no licence to run & break lines) but boy we just look too stagnant across HB now. And on that point do we have too many intercept / slow players across HB now with both Salem & Bowey playing? Does Hibb come in instead for Bowey? Hibb gets the lock down role and Hunt plays the Bowey role but more as the transitional runner off HB breaking the lines and getting the ball forward asap hopefully to a more open forward line? May in makes us a 2 to 4 goal better side. Have the mids (bar Viney & Clarry) forgotten to run super hard both ways to help out more often across HB as they've gotten so used to trusting such a settled/trustworthy defence (until May went out) they are instinctively loose and not paying their opponent enough respect on occasions? Allowing them to get off the leash through the middle too often?

The 2nd worst team coming inside 50 in the League

BBB het in front for once FCS

ANB always shanking it left!?????

Why do we continue to appear to have most leads (and pretty much all TFs) going wide to the pockets?

There's a reason for that....none have played at this level for a while and the Swans are coming off a great come back win. Tails up. Hold judgement till the 2nd half. Takes a while to pick up AFL pace. In the end it will come down to winning the mid field battle

I'll 2nd that....fire up minions!!

Mitch you're up!!

There's a few here but not enough voice ....need to fire up and get some noise going. Swans are probably outnumbered 3 to 1 but bring the louder voices among the few

Get Tomo to kick in. Salem's kicks off FB are falling too short a little too often allowing the Swan smalls to swarm

Can someone please take the mic off that 10 year old girl co hosting the pre-game and quarter time entertainment

Super quarter from Kozzy

Mitch did enough last week and on a number of occasions earlier as well. Deserves the chance. Fingers crossed he does well

Yep...no sign of Macca yet

Buntine's had a good day

Is there any position White cant play haha

There's no immediate genuine KF option. Mitch handy as a lead up or tall (get ball to ground) back up option for this season. Will need to trade in a big hitting impact forward for 2023 imv.