Demon Dynasty

I see there's a bit of MFCSS virus still lurking about Uncle. Nothing a good Shiraz won't flush out! I'd recommend giving it a fair shake well before the bounce. Finished the remainder of my Wolf Blass grey off on the weekend PRIOR to the match and it worked a treat... anxiety quashed!

Yes i stand corrected Bin. Ok so lets call him a medium tall. He has 6cm on Harmes and 15cm (nearly 6 inches) on Pap. Too tall to take Pap (effectively) imv. And an even worse decision if that is the case really. Should be Jay all the way. I still think we win this one (or should) reasonably well but given the tight group/race we are in for a spot in the eight surely we'd want to drive the nails home for percentage!? It might come down to that in our last game against Essendrug. Imagine missing out on the eight by a percent or two and a few goals saved (in this match) might have been the difference! Like many forms of sport, success or otherwise can sometimes be a matter of "inches".

How about 5 LH? Harmes is a VG lock down player further up the field on someone with similar traits / size to him. Papley is a small forward who plays the role with aplomb and one of the slipperiest snakes up forward there is. That's too big an ask for the likes of Harmes who is much more confortable playing on a mid size player (usually not quite as agile as Pap) further up the field, away from the constant danger zone. This could still be a 5 or 6 goal game with the size of that back line and no Lockhart coming in to shut Papley down. And then we'll all blame Harmes and say "wow he needs to go, how bad is he this season!?". If this match up actually comes to pass can we at least not blame Harmes and blame the person who is playing him out of position and who overlooked Lockhart (assuming he isn't carrying an injury that is). Hibb was the other obvious lock down on Papley. We probably still win but we make life hard for ourselves not going in with Lockhart imo and instead bringing in another tall (poor in defence so far) in Smith.

Hibb out is a real bummer. Having a solid season and gave us some real run and fast play transition. Hopefully just the week. Not sure why we wouldn't bring Lockhart in for the lock down on Papley to replace him. Smith in is just overkill (talls) for mine given Sydney's smallish forward line and makes no sense at all unless O-Mac was an omission. O-Mac is def in SG's little black book he was a straight out for Tomlinson (moved down back to cover) and Lockhart the in for Papley. I'm assuming Harmes is taking on AVB's role on a wing / HF and they aren't looking to swing him on to Pap. He'll get smashed on that match up IMO. Fritschkrieg & ANB makes sense for the two other forwards who def needed a rest and a reset.

Yep many of their supporters can be right pains in the [censored] and carry on whenever they happen to be going along alright as if they're the next AFL messiah. Mind you they aren't alone here. There's a few other Vic club supporters with similar traits. The fact they owned us for quite some time with a mediocre side was an even bigger pain! Great to see them holding up the right end of the ladder instead of balancing it in the middle rungs and out performing their list.

There's no DH filter rjay? Could really use one here in Melbourne right about now

Shoenberg looks very handy following on from his promising work in the u18s

2018 final was better but gee i'm enjoying this match. So many arrogant Hawk fans getting to eat some more humble pie

Can't blame him being a tad cautious MNL. He should be able to push through that the more games he plays. Strangely enough a few bumps and bruises (even accidental) might be the tonic he needs to get there.

My bad D11 .... that was overall NOT inside 50! The furthest i can drill down on that stat is... Forward Half Pressure Acts (2020 averages).... Bennell 7.0 Spargo 9.4 They're pretty close in a number of their general stats to be honest.

Not that it matters but i'm on board Mr Leg. If he's fit and ready i'd be bringing him straight in for Kozzy (managed) this week. A touch of flare and poise around the drop inside 50 and just outside the arc would be very nice this week ty.

My lips are sealed OD. He is kicking goals at 100% accuracy at the moment so who am i to judge. But yes, it would be nice if he (and others around him) were kicking a few more of late.

Found them...see edit above D11 ?

I don't have access to pressure acts inside 50 D11 (Bin....anyone?) but.... Tackles inside 50 (2020 season averages) Bennell 0.4 Spargo 0.4 Edit* ... Just found them! ... Pressure Acts inside 50 Bennell 8.8 Spargo 11.4

I stand corrected on RIvers. I'm not convinced with Harmes at HB if he has to for Rivers on a wing. Mind you i think Rivers could do quite well in this posi also as you say. For now i'd stick with Harmes on the other wing for AVB. Hibbo!? Fingers crossed. That really throws a spanner in the works for me. You are lucky to be up there 58 and witnessing live sport. Groundhog day down here at the moment. Enjoy!

On a slightly more serious note 58.... Imho keep the changes to a minimum with a bit of management to lock this match in and let's get a bit more secure in the eight. Yes to Lockhart but not for the run imo. Stay at home on Papley. He is that dangerous he deserves a dedicated lock and i think Jay is the best of the bunch here. Sure, he won't keep him completely quiet but we don't want Papley doing to us what Tracc did to the Saints. Just need to lessen the damage somewhat. Keep Rivers playing as is for the intercept, bit of run and top notch disposal skills coming off HB. Let him do what he's doing well and keep building his confidence. Too early days to play a hard lock on a hardened nut like Papley imv. Kozzy managed for Harley or ANB sounds about right. Actually i would bring both in as Hannan deserves a spell after that ordinary performance. Harmes for a managed Vanders. Harmes coming in to the non-Mr Ed wing allows Tomlinson to push back into the O-Mac role, allowing Lever to remain as the 3rd man intercept role assisting May etc. So for mine it's... In: Lockhart, Harley, ANB, Harmes Out: O-Mac (omitted), Kozzy (managed), Hannan (omitted), Vanders (managed).

Apparently these bubbles 58...allowing full contact but NIL injury. Ok maybe the odd concussion or two

Possibly at some point Bobby. I could be wrong, but 2021 more likely if he is still on the list at that stage (i'm not sure where his contract is at). I reckon he would've needed a run at it before now, especially with the injury issue pre-season but who knows!

Ripping bloke. Owning that wing and sure beats some of the stop gap measures trialled through here in 2019. Challenge now is to find a complimentary cracker jack on the other wing. All power to Mr Ed

If you looked at the baseline stats as an outsider without knowing the result, i reckon 9 out of 10 would've said Saints must have won that Ox. So it's a real strange result that some might refer to as an outlier. If you played it 10 times over the Saints probably win most of them. We got smashed in the middle. Steele had a VG game here. Hill provided great run also. They won the meters gain count by nearly 500 and as you've mentioned the inside 50 count big time and still lost. Maxy a bit flat after the lay-off. So what happened? It's all been well covered in the other threads but a miserly defence (May / Lever), solid rebound off HB and wing (Ed was super), a match turner from Tracc, amazing last quarter from Clarry and solid work from Viney at stoppages. Weid was ok but the rest of that forward line was super flakey and is still a real worry. But yes they might have suffered from a lack of supply on the night.

Rnd 14, 2020 Metricon - Dogs vs Cats So after that pretty solid turnaround against quality opposition coming from a long way back at quarter time and their recent great form, i just thought i'd take a look how the Cats went this round. They bat deep at the top with nearly seven players hitting a score of 3+ and their bottom six score is off the charts at 9.775 The only time our bottom six have gone near that was against the lowly Hawks (9.300) and the Roos (8.500). That team score is big also. We've bettered that on two occasions, again against the Hawks (56.475) and the Roos (56.750) with our next best (statistical) performance against the Pies (50.800). Our round three performance against the Cats was our lowest for the year at 37.050 Maybe that's a good thing though given we only lost by three points? Three players alone had a massive 28 score involvements between them.... Danger with 10 and Stanley / Hawkins with 8 a piece. Player Score Rank Patrick Dangerfield 4.325 1 Thomas Stewart 4.050 2 Cameron Guthrie 3.550 3 Tom Hawkins # 3.225 4 Jed Bews 3.050 5 Luke Dahlhaus 3.050 5 Rhys Stanley # 3.050 7 Tom Atkins 2.950 8 Brandan Parfitt 2.700 9 Mark O'Connor 2.650 10 Lachlan Henderson 2.625 11 Gary Rohan 2.625 12 Mark Blicavs # 2.575 13 Mitchell Duncan 2.200 14 Jack Henry 2.100 15 Jack Steven 1.950 16 Zach Tuohy 1.800 17 Gryan Miers 1.775 18 Jake Kolodjashnij 1.675 19 Sam Menegola 1.525 20 Bradley Close 1.500 21 Harry Taylor 1.500 21 Team Score 56.450 Top 6 21.250 Bottom 6 9.775 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire.com

There is no need to bring in a defender for the sake of bringing in a defender for O-Mac imo PF. Tomlinson can just as easily cover for O-Mac down back, allowing Lever to keep playing as the assist / 3rd man intercept that he does so well. What we need to get right is the outside run & carry / contested marking on the non-Ed wing as well as the forward / HF side clicking. Tomlinson does provide the marking part when he's there so need to try & cover this off. Possibly Big Maxy, which is not uncommon anyway, but also the obvious for me here is Harmes. Not so shabby overhead and does well as an effective intercept / counter sling shot player running off his man. He's our 6th best intercept player just ahead of Maxy & Salem. But also well ahead of the competition such as Tomlinson, Jones, AVB, Harley, Hannan, Fritta & AVB. Outside of Tomlinson & Salem (who could share this role nicely with Harmes), he's also ahead of his main competitors for this transitional wing/ HF spot for meters gained in Jones, AVB & Harley this season. One area he isn't doing so well in though, pressure, sitting a fair way behind AVB. On another physical pressure measure though, tackles, he isn't far behind Jones & AVB. All up Harmes (sharing the role with Salem + assists in the air from Maxy) would be my selection to replace AVB this week. This allows Tomlinson to move back taking over O-Mac's role (omitted). Solve this other wing and we go a long way towards getting our forward 50 entries up. Then it's just a matter (again) of getting the connection / mix / form right up forward. This also means we can go through either wing from the kick outs and we become dangerous for the opp on either side. Switching to this wing also then becomes a more dangerous option, forcing our opponent to pay a little more respect to that side (ie., more options for us and not as predictable, placing a little more doubt / pressure on the opp to cover the non-Ed side). If we do these two things it improves our overall balance and in theory this should take our scoring and winning % to another level.

That has been the case for many years now H20. It's a dog's breakfast and fully compromised fixture that will always favour/benefit the AFL's favs. Any team sitting outside their bubble (eg., us) will need to have one helluva team and year to win an 'outlier' premiership, a la the Doggies in 2016.

He is still in the best mix (just) but at times we might need a different role player to suit the opposition match ups on the day. He is competing for that last outside player between the arcs / pushing forward with AVB & ANB imv and to a lessor degree Harley. Have to leave these calls up to the FD but....FCS can we at least keep him out of the back half so any turnovers aren't necessarily as damaging / costly and we give the defence a chance to amend / clean up the damage? Would love to see him get to 300, but probably needs to be this year unless he can somehow lighten up a little through the legs over this pre-season to handle the new role and truly believes he has a full season in him and willing to play a fair bit in the McGoos if required for the team's / club's sake.

He's a real footballer's footballer this kid but also has the spring and toe to be something extra. He's averaging 74% efficiency, just above AFL average, and our 5th best intercept player this season behind some significant seniors up top. Looking forward to watching this young fella's career develop.