Demon Dynasty

Thanks DS. Looks like Harley is struggling to get to the required fitness level at present then. Otherwise, IF fully fit or very close, he seems like the obvious player to take over from a sluggish Tomo/AVB &/or Chunk other than say Harmes playing a run with or lock down on an inside/outside mid like Sidey. Anyway it is what it is.

Is he playing a role (at present) that Harley would also be playing if fully fit i wonder? If he is then to me that's a straight swap. Don't get me wrong, Jonesy is doing ok but as you say, not tackling and playing a link role between the arcs with a bit through the middle on rare occasions. While you wouldn't expect Harley to hit the middle contest much, if at all, i see Jones as getting in the way in there now anyway when he does and superfluous to our needs. Harley, when fully fit, should also be able to push forward and kick a few goals at times as a bonus. Something we are unlikely to see from the Jones boy very often from here. This is not a slight on Jones either, he's done the hard yards and been a grand player/clubman. Just where he is presently at in his career. I still think there's a little more in the tank also once he gets fully match fit so not unhappy to see him stay for now but plays much better closer to the attacking arc than the defensive one. Mind you his kicking on the weekend wasn't too bad at all and he was involved in 6 of our scoring chains.

Horribly out of form playing in role he hasn't played much of prior. He'll be fine in the middle in a pure tagging role /pushing forward on occasions and can easily share a pressure forward role with Jack on the odd occasions he is required to tagg. It's not a permanent role. The team needs to be capable of flexing when required to do what's best for the team on any particular day. That day is coming with a tag a must on sidey this week. You are giving the Pies a free hit by not doing so and Viney will blossom in a pressure forward role (part time). It's not an issue and not sure why some have trouble seeing this option. It's not like we haven't witnessed Harmes play this role, and play it very well mind you, on prior occasions

I think you were meaning more time 'forward' rjay? Yes to this balance though. It's whatever is best for the team and Viney playing a mix biased towards pressure forward and some relief burst stuff in the middle for Gus sounds about right whether it''s 60/40 70/30 etc. Play this mix with Sparrow relieving one of Clarry and Tracc and we should roll into finals.

Maybe a can of ye old grippo or crack-a-jack is in order Dr. Pitty we can't get to training.

Simples... Out ANB in Viney to play a Forward/Mid role....in that order.

Rnd 11, 2020 Adelaide Oval - Demons vs Roos Mr Oliver, over 500 meters gained two weeks running and another outstanding game. Gus at the top with 563! Let's look at some of the output.... Clarry ? 25 effectives running at just under 81% efficiency. Nearly 8% above the AFL average and into elite ball use territory. 6 clearances, equal with North's Dumont on the night. 2 rebound 50s, 8 inside 50s, 5 tackles 7 score involvements, 6 intercepts and a goal. The only bit of shine off all that was the 6 turnovers but to be expected somewhat given the amount of pressure through the middle. Tracc not far off ? 19 effectives at 66%, 2 marks inside 50, 4 clearances, 3 inside 50s, 3 tackles, a massive 12 score involvements (Fritta the only other who was close out of the 2 clubs with 9), 6 intercepts and a goal. Also 6 turnovers the only downside. Gus ? Same effectives and efficiency as Tracc, 2 clearances, 3 rebound 50s, 8 inside 50s, 3 tackles, 7 score involvements, 5 intercepts and a goal. 7 Turnovers. Big question...how important is the ruck position given we only had 7 hit outs (no idea how many to advantage) between T-Mac and LJ and still won in a canter? Thought Hibb and Langdon were both very good tonight. Hibb back to near his best it would seem. Total team score the equivalent to that against the Hawks. 15.8% up on season 2019 and 1.6% better than 2018. We are only as good as the opp of course. The next few weeks will tell the tale. Player Score Rank Clayton Oliver 6.400 1 Christian Petracca 4.375 2 Ed Langdon 3.800 3 Angus Brayshaw 3.675 4 Michael Hibberd 3.050 5 Jake Lever 2.975 6 Christian Salem 2.825 7 Tom Sparrow 2.800 8 Sam Weideman 2.675 9 Tom McDonald # 2.675 9 Trent Rivers 2.450 11 Bayley Fritsch 2.325 12 Luke Jackson # 2.175 13 Charlie Spargo 2.075 14 Kysaiah Pickett 2.000 15 Adam Tomlinson 1.975 16 Mitchell Hannan 1.925 17 Nathan Jones 1.850 18 Aaron Vandenberg 1.375 19 Jake Melksham 1.150 20 Steven May 1.125 21 James Harmes 1.075 22 Team Score 56.750 Top 6 24.275 Bottom 6 8.500 # Hit outs to advantage not captured Stats courtesy of footywire.com

There is a time to play a lock down and there isn't. This is a must imv as he is their go to guy so much of the time right now and always a potential game breaker. You have my vote Ox

Out: AVB & T-Mac In: Gawn & Viney

Many said the same in the final round of 2017 WtM ...and i reckon it's been a fair while since we won three in a row. The Pies rarely put in ordinary performances regardless of which team they field and in the main are usually super competitive. They are the real deal albeit yes, a tad under manned as you say.

Keeping a lid on it as we've played a couple of the cellar dwellers two weeks running. First half we looked pretty flakey and anything was possible although Norf looked like a B grade team out there skill wise. Apart from some very early questionable assists from the umps, reasonable play from Norf on a few of those turnovers, a couple of gifts from us we should have been 4 to 5 goals up at half time had we connected / converted better inside 50 imv. A solid 2nd half mixed with a few too many moments of ineptness in front of goal. Had we kicked just a little straighter that would have been an 80 point plus thrashing. LJ was amazing in the middle and around the ground. Very early days but looks the goods and possibly an excitement machine, given enough experience and pre-seasons. Our two small forwards did their job very nicely. Spargo brought a solid game tonight and even showed a bit of urgency / zip with ball in hand along with some clever decision making and excellent attack on the ball. Kozzy is still a fair way off but he looks to have all the good bits to become a very very good small crumbing pressure forward. His decision making tonight and hitting up targets inside 50 was hard to fault. We looked unstoppable whenever Clarry, Gus & Tracc were the starting 3. Sparrow seemed to be replacing Clarry when he was resting and, although pretty quiet / average early, he slowly worked his way into the match and even went forward to kick his first goal. T-Mac. Well lets just say he can no longer jump but brought a serviceable game at times and Goldy certainly never got hold of the middle bounces or T-Mac / LJ at any stage. In fact apart from a few nice efforts at ground level and a few handy taps i thought Goldy was pretty ordinary most of the night. Is he coming to the end of a very good career i wonder? Happy with the win but the real test will be the Pies and seeing if we can put three in a row together. Hopefully Big M and Viney back and fresh should help. If fit, Viney comes in for AVB and obviously Big M for T-Mac.

Reckon you hit the shiraz VERY early Uncle! And why not

Wonder if Norf will look to exploit our lack of height in the ruck tonight by pushing Goldy forward for a fair chunk of the match? T-Mac unlikely to be able to go with him down there nor LJ.

Subject to where his bod is at i couldn't agree more Layzie. His impact on those around once he performs also should not be underestimated. Inspirational come back if / when he does as we saw with his team mates' reaction to his first goal. One goal from Harley could be worth 2 goals from another player vying for the same spot in terms of its effect on the team as a whole.

You can have all the stamina you like CF. The 2020 format doesn't reward stamina that much unfortunately and much of the reward is from players hitting in and away from the contest with mobility and a bit of power/ speed on the burst. Including closing speed to tackle and pressure. Critical in this format also. Hence why we saw Clarry & LJ have solid games last week. The game is always unforgiving in reg format but this year the burst advantage has been magnified by about 20% meaning anyone who's a tad plonky is going to be exposed and taken advantage of much of the time (or at least the opp will attempt to do so with their match ups) on match day. O-Mac another who is vulnerable in this manner, depending on who he ends up on on the day.

G'day Nascent. This didn't come up on my reply feed for some reason so apologies for the delay. I have explained this once before already but it was some time back and i can't find the response. Anyway, i've inserted the answers to your questions above ? Hope this helps make a bit more sense of things.

Not a bad idea Polly. Could be possible. I'm not a big fan of excel graphs so i'll take a look around and see what's out there. Have to be able to cut and paste in here as well without any major loss of formatting etc. I've noticed it isn't as friendly this year as previous years.

After Tommy's last effort i'm wondering about his Bin... 3 effective disposals @ 43% (30% off AFL average), 2 Contested marks (1 inside 50), two 1%ers, 1 tackle in four quarters, 2 score involvements, 2 turnovers, 0 intercepts and 0 goals at 91% game time. Will need to be a miraculous turnaround.

That's the most obvious main assignment for the day to ensure this isn't a coin flip result. We're about to see how switched on (or otherwise) SG & his brains trust are and they're not off to a great start. Selecting a completely out of form T-Mac ahead of Pruess and either expecting an out of form T-Mac to suddenly click up forward and throw a junior, who was just finding his feet / confidence up forward, on to a ruck giant in Goldy. Or expecting T-Mac to mostly ruck against Goldy (i doubt it though as if that were the case surely you would leave a winning forward line as is and just throw Pruess in to do exactly what he was recruited for!).

Because we are not one of the AFL's VIC love children. The AFL clearly treat some clubs (and players within those clubs) differently to others. As evidenced by (just a few examples there's plenty of others over the decades)... ? The club raising this with the AFL apparently on a number of occasions but zero response / protection on the field prior the match against the Crows ? Zero response to multiple incidents (mostly by the same player) towards Max against the Crows, even when they were clearly in plain sight of the umpires on at least one or more occasion and even when many were a country mile off the ball. ? Burgoyne laying exactly the same tackle as Nibbler but gets off vs Nibbler 4 weeks. Bartlett needs to take this vision and keep hammering Gil till he gets an appropriate response, on the field.

Melk says hello W4. Can't remember the last time he was dropped and he's had plenty of chances bringing the same efforts or lack thereof. Rarely tackles anywhere let alone inside 50 where he should be bringing decent heat for a senior.

And he will stay that way if we keep giving him only one game stints

I would think Harley even more so PF

I don't think so. Would've named Pruess instead of T-Mac if they were only looking for T-Mac to fill the centre bounce / square ruck duties surely. But then again. Tomlinson can't ruck to save himself from what i've witnessed, nor shoukd he be expected to, but happy to be proven wrong.

Thanks Uncle....Pruess sitting around for this exact scenario but let's bring back T-Mac . Just as LJ was finding some touch up forward let's throw him into the ruck against the hulking Goldy so he can get mashed. There's an old saying i live by ..."If you don"t be bloody stupid you'll be alright".