Demon Dynasty

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?

He should be straight in and have him play in a similar pocket role to Nibbler His second half pressure & work rate against the Cats was superb.

Brown Dog for mine. Still plenty of work ahead to cement a regular spot and may be in and out a few times. But i'd have him straight in replacing Nibbler as his apprentice. Not saying he would automatically be up to Nibbler's standards but he might make a decent fist of it. Loved his second half against the Cats on Friday. Worth giving him a trial run for a block of games.

... Essington

Treating the supporters and members with contempt. Absolute trash coming out of the club, Simon and the Captain so far this season. That performance produced our worst Team Rating for the year and was similar to the rating we produced in the diabolical finish vs the Pies in 2024! Sttop talking, stop taking the mickey, stop with the Kumbaya culture and stop playing like amatures so often. Bloody unwatcheable rubbish being dished up for 3 out of the first 4 weeks and on track to finish bottom two or even spooners at this rate. The worst start to a season since 2013! DEELUSIONAL!

We've been playing in straight lines for years under Simon. I can't recall how many times i've seen our players running off HB and their first look is up the line. Often missing an inside handball or 45 kick option. Effectively burning the player coming from behind to support or running forward of ball early predicting and looking to take advantage on the counter. Of course sometimes you don't have time or space. You're pressured into the down the line. Or no one presents inside and/or they're well covered or even double teamed. But if they're there and you're still burning them often enough, guess what, some players aren't going to repeat these efforts. Coming off a wing into HF we so often look for that forward pocket target spot. Teams have known this from early 2022 or so and just load up into that zone for the spoil. They know we don't switch up or look for 45s (or can't hit targets to well when we do) coming towards the 50. We would have to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest teams to defend in the AFL. Now going into our third season playing this way. If Simon can't train / drill this out of the bulk of the playing group by now i can't see it ever happening under his watch. I had alot of faith up until about half way through last season. The way we lost to the Dockers was the final straw for me. I can only hope this all clicks for Simon and the playing crew in the next 4 to 6 (if he's seeing and recognising this...maybe he does and wants us to play this way??) and we miraculously begin to see some light and turn the corner. Not holding out much hope though. It feels like we're pretty much a lost cause.

There's a fine line between great pinny play & tilting Bubs

Mentha feels like quite a distant prospect right now DS. That could change quickly of course but he's struggling at times to hang in there at VFL level for now from what i've seen. Possibly another pre-season required (at least)?

I'd second this Bubs. AJ didnt have the greatest game in the twos but his attack at the contest (bringing ball to ground) and manic tackling / pressure is something sorely missing in our F50 at present and the team in general. While i appreciate Fritta has picked up his involvements and got busier in the last two weeks, he still hasn't hit the scoreboard. And if he's not finishing then really he just doesn't add enough elsewhere in his game to justify a regular spot imv. He's also competing for that medium forward spot with Melk yes? Conpetition for spots is also healthy and keeps players on the edge looking for constant incremental improvements in order to stay at the top. There's also no harm in spending a few weeks at Casey working on some aspects of your game. Some of the best players in the business have been asked to do so on occasions. And often come back refreshed and in a better mind set. It also allows us to try variations and combos with our forward 50 line up which, until now, has been our Achilles heal for nigh on three seasons. Had we been able to address this deficiency post LJ (who basically left in 2022 in mind even though body was still out there) & BBB (knees) i dare say we most likely make a GF in 2022 or 23. Maybe both!

Im with you Norm but i'd be going one further. Someone who's played very little at the highest level for this length of time surely needs at least 4 weeks minimum to train with the other senior forwards group. Get to know each other's strengths / manner in which they play / forward methods & ways of line coach. And just to find the pace of the game and get used to the extra noise etc at that level. Also give the mids & others a chance to recognise him and the way he plays at training and hopefully that confidence / connection on the track (if any) carries over into the real deal. You want to give him a fair shot otherwise there's no point. He'll probably struggle a tad in the first game or two. But no less a struggle than that we've seen from the likes of JVR & Fritta. By week three - four, sure, you then expect him to start hitting some KPIs eg; the scoreboard / score involvements / assists / pressure acts etc or it's sayonara. Anything less than a serious shot at it is an injustice and pointless imv.

If it were just to get a gig in the MFC seniors i'd also be asking that give Simon's conservative nature and want to play what he believes are his favs. However, as we've already witnessed with the likes of JJ & Bedford, there are other eyes watching Bubs. And they sometimes see the potential (or greater potential) than others might not see or choose not to.