Demon Dynasty

We've lost any potency we once had to put serious pressure in for extended periods or run back in support / intercept a kick behind the ball etc. Once the ball clears their congested area of immediate contest they basically jog around ball watching and looking to run down the odd tackle in traffic if they happen to get close enough. Although it improved from a low base tonight, our pressure game has also been poor for much of this and last season vs what's required if you're to compete with the better clubs. Teams are just toying with us on transition, around stoppage and on the spread once the ball is out. We're also now playing amateurish footy around stoppage (again) with too many getting sucked into or ball watching at the contest. If the oppo gets first use, which is usually about 50%+ of the time, alot of the time they can easily find exits out the front and then they're off to the races easily as one or two too many of ours are still back at the stoppage / contest area.

Bowey gets to the right places, works his butt off but also has very poor vision, often panic kicks and kicks to a 1 v1 , a 2 v1 or to the non favoured side of player / or on his head etc. He almost never looks inside when running forward either. Everything in straight lines. Easy to defend and rarely tests or asks questions of the oppo defenders. If he cleaned the vision, delivery a decision making up he'd be an outstanding player.

And sadly he has been completely brain washed onto believing that the old method of clearance / contested & bashing ball forward to get as many i50 entries as you can (and trying to get repeat entries through more crash & bash / pressing high etc) is still the way. Max has had it drilled into his poor bonce so many times and continues to believe that "weight of numbers will win the day and is the Melb way" and that eventually the wheel will turn. "Just take more learnings from losses and work harder each week". All that this constant (Simon's inability or unwillingness to change things up effectively) has done is, over time, made us the easiest team to plan, train and play against on game day. Unfortunately we have become an oppo coach's dream fixture. We make most teams look like potential premiership contenders. Even the dud ones like Essington and Norf.

What leads woe!? Count them on one hand. A few others that were timed poorly or in Rooh's case... running under the ball. Rooh mostly runs away from the ball carrier and gives them nothing to hit up. A very good senior school footy team would occasionally play their forward method better than ours. Our ball watching and inability to man up is incredibly poor. In that final quarter when we needed to get the ball back but refused to break out of the ridiculous back half zone. And that's on the coach. The players are no doubt following instructions. It's got to the point that the players really need to start changing things up themselves in game and not listen to what the coach/es are telling them to do. You're 20+ points down with 10 min to go and still zoning off / guarding grass as if you're 2 to 3 up coming into half time. What's Simon thinking with all of this? It's certainly not going to win any games of footy other than against another shocking team in a similar hole like WC. I doubt we'd beat them on the road either though. Looking more and more like adding another spoon to the cutlery drawer.

This may have been posted elsewhere but still appropriate here... The astonishing numbers that show how far the Dees have fallen - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1295850 And FWIW a look at the Player Ratings of 2021 vs 2025 from this article as well as my own ratings from these same seasons. Keeping in mind that this article might be using the average data from the first three or the first four rounds. My Ratings are averages from the first four including against the Cats...

Don't tell me we've got the smiling assassin again!!??

It's been trialled before

100%... it's so far out of town. That we have made something of it is ok but Caulfield can't come soon enough... IF it does ever come that is.

Better pray that aint Max DZ

And which D'landers would they be BBP?

Yep ... let's double up with another good rib workover on arguably our best mid/HF player. As Max would say whenever facing adversity or danger... "and loving it"

The likelihood is we won't ever know the answer for those two DJ as Simon refuses to play one of them and the former's potential form and/or settlling in with the other forwards / mids and learning his role / how play the role and improve on playing the role (at the senior level) is treated with contempt.

Spargo, Sharp or maybe Sparrow at CHF?

You could just as easily replace the header on this thread with... The MFC - Where did it all go wrong (Post Flag)

Yep... like Rooh, Sharp, Petty, Spargo. They should never be demoted!

ANDY....bring it back!!!

Just swap for Whitford Casey are better drilled, structured and lead than the seniors. Love what Simon brought us but he's well and truly run his race, out of ideas, unable to deal with and fix the elephant in the room (forward woes) and has zero selection integrity.

Come on Bubs.... we have some sort of plan with the "kick it to the pocket" strategy. So successful that we've been using it for three seasons or so now. You know the old adage ..."when you're on a good thing"... The last sentence made my morning 😆 On a serious note though, you have pretty much captured the essence of the state of our forward craft and ball movement coming inside. Great summary.

GW might DROP you on your head with that comment PF. P.S. where is Uncle Bitters?

Presently 15.8% down on 2024 -18% on our 2022/23 peaks

Congrats to Spazz. One of the nicest footballers and people you will meet in any club. Re Playing Mentha ..... Firstly his form in the last few matches doesn't warrant a call up (yet) and he's super green. Would be very unfair putting him in right now. Throwing him to the wolves a la Watts imo. Playing JVR, AJ and Fullo in the forward line is opening us up to less pressure and wins at ground level. More so than we've seen to date if that's possible, which is a scary thought. To me it would be Fullo plus one of AJ or JVR. A coin flip on the latter but for me AJ just. He's a contested beast and a tackling brute who will make those around him stand a little taller. AJ can give Max a chop out in the middle and Fullo can do same inside 50. AJs last match doesn't warrant a call up either though but i'd have him in ahead of Rooh right now just for the tackling, general pressure, pack crashing and general hurt factor around the ball. Is a Fullo / AJ combo (Rooh & Fritta out) combo likely at selection this week given Simon's poor record of selection integrity and constantly gifting players (in horrible form) further games? Not a chance. No dpubt one will be chopped but one will def stay. Brown is worth considering ahead of Mentha imo. Brings the pressure, tackling and manic effort and good to very good recent form at Casey. Very versatile too. Middle, on the ball in a Nibbler type role or as a medium / small pushing forward to assist and crumb / pressure.

Even if we correct that substantially though Jnr we still have.... Poor decision making coming inside 50. Eg; bombing wide or deep into a pocket instead of looking inside more often for the free player on 45s, fat side over the top to advantage or kicking to someone on a lead. 2. A forward line that struggles to take many marks inside 50 and who are very often poor at converting. How often have we kicked ourselves out of the game early in the last few seasons? Pressure that is often below the AFL average. Since 2024, we have been one of the worst pressure teams going both in our forward 50 and in a general sense. I personally can't see us fixing some or all of these in the near term when we've had 2.5 seasons (or thereabouts) to fix No.2 and failed miserably (so far).

We have been well below AFL average (185) on the pressure front now since 2024. We occasionally reached that level or slightly above in some quarters but drop away badly in others. Add to that our clearance issues and as Bin says, no game style will probably hold up or be very effective. You'll be chasing tail all day. I believe the clearance side has alot to do with the drop away of Viney & Max's involvements and form in terms of first use (extraction) in 2025 (so far). Last year it was also impacted by the absence of Clarry (in a form and first us sense where we pretty much left extraction solely to Vines and to a lessor degree Max) and Tracc from Rnd 12. We would have also expected Kolt and Rivers to be somewhat involved with first use assists this season but alas, Kolt hasn't played yet and Rivers was moved back to cover the loss of McVee. How effecrive we are (disposal efficiency) from clearances probably has deteriorated (from an already low base) with the drop in form of Viney from 2024 (player Rating down 27% so far on average this season) and the fact we haven't had Kozzy in the middle for the first three rounds. But regardless it was probably never that good even with Kozzy there in 24. Add the woeful forward line output to the big drop in Viney & Tracc's output (Tracc's Player Rating -29% vs 2024 average) and to a lessor extent Max (-14% vs 2024). Plus Kozzy only returning last week and that will help to explain our clearance / efficiency and conversion woes somewhat. Of course then there are our poor methods of transition off HB and connection coming inside. Highlighted by so many against the Cats. We look like a poor VFL team trying to play AFL with alot of amateurish moments. Such a hard watch. Add to all that the fact that we just mostly guard grass, do that pretty poorly as well, and allow oppos to so easily move the ball through our zones now and you have a recipe for a potential wooden spoon looming if not addressed / rectified quickly. If that is truly the case (moving to slick handball side and/or more use of handball?) then we were (are) coming from a long way back as i'm pretty sure we were rated the least accurate team by hand (handball efficiency) at one point during mid to latish season in 2024. At the same time i believe Freo were rated No.1 in terms of HB efficiency. In the first four matches this year, Freo are the slowest team in terms of retaining the ball prior to giving a handball off, but they are also the most direct and efficient. That is, they are gaining the most yards forward (meters gained) on average vs any team so far with each handball. Mostly via forward handballs of course. Not dissimilar to Geelong's premiership year in 22 if my memory serves me correctly?