Demon Dynasty

Fair enough 64. Whatever floats your boat mate.

I think horses for courses here. He is likely to take Hunt's position if he does come in. But lets look at the opp when selecting. For example if/when we play Freo again.... who covers Fredrick? Cant see Hibbo keeping up in this particular match up. so I'd be going to Hunt here but he needs to be in tip top form to go with him. If he goes back to Casey does that hinder or help his him i wonder? Maybe neither and all's well and he gets the call up for match ups like this for Hibbo. Probably talking gobbledygook (nothing new!) but no harm discussing.

Not dissapointed to the point of 'chicken little' syndrome 64. That's just your (incorrect) assumption. I don't need to watch anything i watched /went and most of those weeks we had Macca up forward. May out the last two has also hurt us but May doesn't kick goals to give us a defendable score. But he (and Salem back) will make us harder to score against for sure Remember that Tomo was the preferred option last season prior to going down. So with Tomo back we have an option to use Petty forward. Your view is different and you believe we'll just return to winning form. I would like to think so to but not with the present KTF line up of the two Browns. One of them hasn't fired a shot in four weeks. And while im happy to give Mitch a decent go before making any judgements, he didnt hit the scoreboard once either in first game this season. He'll need help and at this point, aside from Maxy, all other talls that play forward are badly out of form. So....Forward line needs a bit of help. You have said yourself we have the luxury of a 10-0 start to kick in with training loads. Now 10-2. If we can throw Macca behind the ball for a while im not sure what the fuss is about throwing a tall defender up forward for a bit who has already been played there on occasions prior. And in a few of those i thought he showed something even as a wet behind the ears 19yo rookie. Might handle it alot better now he's matured? There's no harm in looking for ways to improve as a team. Goodwin preaches that philosophy all the time. This may or may not be one of them. Being versatile as a team is also handy and part of that is some players being able to be switched into diff roles (if/when times call for it...even in game if someone goes down) Do i expect it will happen.... nup. Is it worth a short trial run (assuming Tomo stays in). Why not!

100%. Lever is really the only piece of the puzzle that needs to slot in now. We'll have that line up from this week. Just need Jake to get back to somewhere near his 2021 form at some point. Doubt it will just click against the Pies but who knows. Still need to put a defendable score on the board though.

Fritsch & Maxy our only multiple goal scorers the last two weeks. Bedford the other but not playing. Averaging 8 goals a match agaisnt top 4 sides without Macca. Good luck defending that sort of score line for the win against anyone other than Norf & the Eagles. This team's in fair degree of pooh right now without Macca and a badly out of form Benny. Can't see Mitch being a match winner or getting it to ground often enough on his own for the smalls. Maxy ...well yeh but he's already playing there and kicking multiples but we're still losing. Jackson badly out of form as well. Gonna have to try something. Agree with the Op. Keep Tomo in (i reckon he stays in this week anyway) and trial Petty forward for a few weeks (assuming he's right to go). If we don't you can kiss this week goodbye as well me thinks. Doubt we'll be capable of posting a defendable / winning score against the Pies with the current forward set up.

Lever looks lost at see playing anything other than the spare across HB. He also looks a fair way from being fully match fit. Was it Lever they took aside last season to do a mini mid season 'pre-season' as he missed most of the actual pre-season due to the knee recovery? Given enough time/match practice, Lever might find his mojo at some stage but right now he's actually causing us a few headaches / clanger turnovers and goals from those turnovers. Just hasn't been able to get on the pace so far. As highlighted on 360 tonight, the oppo appear to be targeting his opponent big time when coming inside 50 as they know he'll probably be pretty loose and unlikely to man up much of the time. May returning should help here but he still looks a fair way off his 2021 match hardness / best form. For us to fully fire this season we need him to get back to his best. In Goody we trust!

I dont know SD. Too many tweaks! The FD make good $$ and get paid well. I'll let them worry about it My brain hurts thinking about it 😄

Gawn - Best on Ground Viney - Contested Clanger Beast Petracca - Duck that Lurgy Oliver - Kick it Champ! Brayshaw - Batman's Utility Belt Salem - Settled in Nicely Jordon - Take Game On Langdon - Likes to Bomb Jackson - Covid Brain Fog? Neal-Bullen - Right Hand Post! Bowey - Blown a Woofer? Harmes - Out of Sight M Brown - Needs some NOS Spargo - Lost in Fargo? Fritsch - Hangin in there Lever - Another Pre Season? Tomlinson - Higher, Harder, Faster! Sparrow - Bit like Caro? Petty - Gutsy second half Pickett - One Quarter Wonder? B Brown - Off to Kwik-E-Mart Hunt - Piggy will Fly?

Tomo might be ok. It was his first game back for some time and was effectively playing the May role. Let's see how he goes on the 2nd forward with May back this week. Reckon Goody will back him in from here.

The authorities were doing a fair bit of sorting of the oppo riff raff chaff last night. Much better than previous home games anyway from what i witnessed.

2022 AFL Regular Season Home Match Attendance Team Games Total Average Richmond Tigers 5 277,499 55,500 Carlton Blues 6 282,203 47,034 Collingwood Magpies 6 269,286 44,881 Essendon Bombers 5 196,719 39,344 Melbourne Demons 6 228,300 38,050 Fremantle Dockers 5 170,361 34,072 Adelaide Crows 6 197,580 32,930 West Coast Eagles 5 162,576 32,515 Hawthorn Hawks 6 184,030 30,672 Sydney Swans 6 168,266 28,044 Port Adelaide Power 5 137,079 27,416 Geelong Cats 5 132,908 26,582 St Kilda Saints 6 153,412 25,569 Brisbane Lions 5 118,628 23,726 Western Bulldogs 5 109,417 21,883 North Melbourne Kangaroos 5 73,565 14,713 GWS Giants 6 66,265 11,044 Gold Coast Suns 5 51,178 10,236 ALL 98 2,979,272 30,401

Won contested possessions by 14.... 150 v 136 Won uncontested by a massive 35 .... 198 v 163 Won effective disposals by 23 Matched them in center clearances with 10 each but just lost the stoppage clearances by 3. However we had 10 more clangers. Sydney had 13 more score involvements which might suggest they shared the ball around better? Contested marks weren't that diff with the Swans only ahead by 3 here. Turnovers and intercepts both exactly the same. We had one more goal assist and meters gained pretty much level. So aside from 10 more clangers (sloppy work?) where did it go wrong? From what i witnessed Sydney appeared to bring more pressure throughout the match. Especially frontal pressure, backing the their fellow player to come up and support them from behind. Tackles seem to back this up with the Swans 75 to Demons 53. 22 more tackles throughout the match is a fair chunk. 18 more marks as well meant they controlled the game and switched quite effectively with patience, waiting for the weakness / opportunity to present in our fold back zone. Speaking of the zone, i reckon we fold back way too far and give the opponent far too much space in our forward half to flick the ball around the back and eventually hit free targets up the field. While i'm not expecting supermen capable of closing gaps 100% of time and staying within a few meters of their man for the entire match, i reckon we are way too lax the other way here for too long and give up too much ground too soon. This feeds into the opp racking up a stack of possessions and brings their player's into the match, building confidence with every minute that goes by, while we remain without the ball....effectively going cold. By gaining easy ground quite quickly the opp is also left with stacks of energy to launch their attacks and often from very dangerous positions on the field. Having May present probably masks this fold back (lax) strategy somewhat with his impact making that much difference. Sydney having 23 scoring shots to 16 indicates they got way too much ball forward of center and connected with their forwards far more often for shots at goal. We also appeared to over use the handball. Sydney having 18 more kicks and a massive 56 fewer handballs. Going more direct & taking the game on? Whereas we flipped the ball around by hand alot more inviting more pressure and hence the 10 extra clangers? Or do we just have a few too many players out of form at the moment regardless? Oh silly me....nearly forgot about our amazing forward connection/cohesion and our incredible form in front of goal 😁

Weighted Average Scores up to & including Rnd 12, 2022 vs H&A Season 2021 Just over the half way mark and all forwards, bar Spargo and to a lessor degree Fritsch (not far away), remain in Struggle Street compared to their 2021 performance (statistically). Lever unable to close the gap on his 2021 form since his return and has now begun to fall further behind. Tracc losing some of his early gains in the last two weeks. Viney, Gus and Lingers the stand out improvers so far. Viney just leaping over Tracc to take the No.2 spot. Sparrow & Jackson having a good season overall, albeit they've dropped a way a little in the last three weeks. ANB holding his overall substantial gain on 2021. Max back to 2021 form after last night's stand out performance. 23 contested possessions! Must be some sort of record for a ruckman. 10 score involvements. The only downside....zero tackles. Adding a nominal amount to allow for hit outs to advantage (say 0.75) i would say Max should be sitting in the No.2 ranked position at this moment just ahead of Viney & Tracc on a score of approx 4.17 Taking no notice of Mitch or Salem's results just yet having played only one game a piece. Hunt and Tomo a fair way off their 2021 levels so far. Player 2022 Score 2022 Rank 2021 Score % Change vs 2021 2021 Rank Change in Rank vs 2021 C Oliver 5.250 1 5.258 -0.15 1 0 Jack Viney 4.133 2 3.171 30.34 8 6 C Petracca 4.104 3 4.041 1.56 2 -1 Steven May 4.083 4 3.926 4.00 3 -1 A Brayshaw 3.763 5 2.836 32.69 12 7 C Salem* 3.725 6 3.879 -3.97 4 -2 Ed Langdon 3.676 7 3.092 18.89 9 2 Max Gawn # 3.427 8 3.439 -0.35 7 -1 J Harmes 3.279 9 3.520 -6.85 6 -3 Jake Bowey 3.133 10 2.881 8.75 11 1 L Dunstan 3.025 11 - - - - L Jackson # 3.023 12 2.355 28.37 21 9 Alex N-Bullen 2.975 13 2.388 24.58 19 6 J Jordon 2.969 14 2.908 2.10 10 -4 T Sparrow 2.914 15 2.023 44.04 28 13 Jake Lever 2.790 16 3.661 -23.79 5 -11 T Bedford 2.465 17 - - - - T Rivers 2.438 18 2.658 -8.28 13 -5 H Petty 2.025 19 2.086 -2.92 26 7 K Pickett 2.009 20 2.378 -15.52 20 0 C Spargo 2.006 21 2.068 -3.00 27 6 Joel Smith 1.957 22 1.375 42.33 32 10 T McDonald # 1.939 23 2.516 -22.93 15 -8 J Hunt 1.927 24 2.597 -25.80 14 -10 A Tomlinson 1.925 25 2.475 -22.22 16 -9 Bayley Fritsch 1.908 26 2.155 -11.46 25 -1 Mitch Brown* 1.575 27 2.475 -36.36 16 -11 S Weideman 1.571 28 1.055 48.91 27 -1 Ben Brown # 1.519 29 1.855 -18.11 30 1 J Melksham 1.433 30 1.853 -22.67 31 1 Average Team Score - Top 22 69.17 67.23 2.88 # Hit outs to advantage not captured * Only played one match...not an average score Stats courtesy of footywire.com

No idea but pretty sure this week it'll be DemonSam

Turner for Tomo is also an option. In our best players at Casey last two weeks. One week in for Tomo and straight out would be pretty harsh though?

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