Demon Dynasty

The issue is....we improved in the middle in the second half of 2018 once Gus and Harmes started playing more time in and around the middle with Viney out injured for quite a while during most of the period leading up to finals. Chunk also beginning to spend slightly more time resting forward or off HB. Gus offered a bit of the inside / outside mid we had been missing to that point when we had Chunk (inside), Viney (inside) and Clarry (inside) playing most of the starting 3 for the first half of 2018 and of course prior to that (2017). Whenever those three played together for the most part of a match we got plenty of contested but suffered with genuine clean clearances and were often smothered by teams who would sit off these three waiting for them to gather then tackle the [censored] outta them, win their fair share, spread to outliers and then off to the races. None of those three quick enough to cover any speedier outside mids once they got it. Harmes slowly started taking on the game's best mid and shutting them down as well as getting them the other way on occasions pushing hard forward. Does anyone recall seeing the movie Seabiscuit? Well if you did, in his famous championship match race with War Admiral, Seabiscuit wasn't great out in front, even though he was super quick and bolted out of the blocks, as he tended to get bored and lose concentration. So his rider in this race (Woolf?) was under instruction to allow War Admiral to come alongside. That he did with a super quick gain along the back straight pulling up alongside Seabiscuit with ease after Seabiscuit bolted out of the blocks as he often did. Surely War Admiral would zip past Seabisuit and win at that incredible closing speed!? But as War Admiral came alongside, Seabiscuit looked him in the eye, sized him up, and then said that's enough mate. Taking off to show him who was boss and win this legendary race by 4 lengths. To me this is Harmes in a nut shell. Get him zoned in and focused on a tough challenge, prod him to stick it to that player and give some back, and away he goes. Allow him to roam in areas of the ground he isn't familiar with and just go shoulder to shoulder to defend an opponent and he looks right out of it (disinterested?). Is Harmes our Fritsch of 2019? So many errors of judgement by SG. So many blunders, year after year. I've seen some reasonable set ups, structures and balanced line ups that SG has put on the park on occasions, mostly in that second half of 2018. Only to see them disappear just as quickly a month or so later. I wonder if he even knows them with all the changes to players and roles we see from week to week.

And the time before that it was the late Dean Bailey (R.I.P.) over Kevin Sheedy. Albeit he wasn't the only one making the decision it was this group think decision that ultimately then lead to the Mark Neeld decision. Out of the frying pan.....Twice bitten VERY shy.... no thanks. Would rather have Lyon or Hodge (if he was in the system with an apprenticeship under his belt) over Gazza. Clarko's the one you want.

Rnd 9, 2020 Metricom Stadium - Demons vs Power Well i certainly wasn't expecting the diabolical performance we witnessed last night but the "to little from to few" i witnessed last week, sadly went to another level this week. A couple of ugly numbers arising out of this match ("just a couple?" i hear you say... yeh i know but i don't want to be up past midnight)... Disposals per goal ... must be some sort of record at 74. Just let that sink in for a moment. Count to 74 and imagine the work going in to each goal The team score is very ordinary but wasn't our worst for the season. That came against the Cats @ 37.05 The team score however, was 11% down on the average team score from season 2019 ... AND The Team score was down 21% vs our 2018 season average. The Top 6 score was the worst for the season A horrid output from Viney but not his worst for the season. That was against the Tiges in Rnd 5 with a 0.70 Gawn's worst game (statistically) for the season AFL Disposal Efficiency usually averages about 73%. We were at 66%. Would love to know what our kicking efficiency was. Some absolute howlers. Two special ones in particular from Clarry that's burned into the grey matter. Who would have thought....Salem at the top of the stats rating. Now i didn't think it was a great game by any means but then again no one really played out of their skins last night. Visually i thought May, Lever, Hibb, Maxy and Langdon put a fair effort up (might have missed one or two but who cares...the overall effort was abysmal). The rest of the non-rookie boys were complete crud IMHO. Player Score Rank Christian Salem 3.575 1 Clayton Oliver 3.000 2 Michael Hibberd 2.750 3 Steven May 2.650 4 Ed Langdon 2.300 5 Angus Brayshaw 2.225 6 Jake Lever 2.200 7 Christian Petracca 2.100 8 Tom Sparrow 2.000 9 James Harmes 1.950 10 Nathan Jones 1.650 11 Max Gawn # 1.575 12 Bayley Fritsch 1.400 13 Jake Melksham 1.400 13 Sam Weideman 1.300 15 Oscar McDonald 1.225 16 Kysaiah Pickett 1.000 17 Mitchell Hannan 0.850 18 Jack Viney 0.850 19 Luke Jackson # 0.800 20 Jay Lockhart 0.600 21 Tom McDonald 0.600 21 Team Score 38.000 Top 6 16.500 Bottom 6 4.700 # Hit outs to advantage not accounted for Stats courtest of footywire.com

May is Captain material. The only bloke with venom and agro who gives it to the others around if they [censored] up. The only adjustment...how he delivers the barrage. More Hodge like would be helpful maybe. In full agreement with those changes. Probably wont happen though. Brown gets a look at CHF for 3 to 4 and IF that's a flop then May MUST go to CHF. He is a leader and i reckon needs to take the game by the scruff of the neck and is capable of dragging the rest by their ball sacks to victory or at least die trying. It's time to start kicking winning scores. Tomlinson replaces May down back. Season's gone. Subject to Brown being given a chance (and doesn't look like he is on Goody's favoured list) we must roll the dice and see what we've got with May playing out of this position. He is very good down back but we need the leadership and grunt up forward. The forward line is a complete rabble without him and IMV he is our big hope, bar a solid clean out at season's end.

How about he just gets going. This is a great example of the partial reason we are crud. The same olds just keep getting a game even when they serve up a dog's breakfast and the BS continues the next week. Why should anyone perform when the coach continues to bring back his favs. There is no venom with Goody. Too pally pally with the players. They have no fear of him and it shows. Many played like they were on holiday last night. Maybe plenty are in the hub. Complete jokefest of a club at the moment. Zero leadership from the top down to the FD and into the playing group (bar a select few trying their guts out).

Maybe smoking too much Leon (me that is!). Think you missed the gist of the gist. Never mind. If there's that many ructions and factions going on then this club is truly up the proverbial without a paddle.

I'm considering reporting you to the delusional police Leon for upsetting so many happy clappers tonight. Truthful or not, Deesgracefull summary indeed! Their leader will be crying in his beard and may need a good wad of this to ease his anxiety and anger, IF he doesn't have you on mute already..."Gandalf!?? ...Gandalf?? Ahhh there you are"...

That would make complete sense Ox as that was a wooden spooner performance / effort we witnessed tonight. Worse really. Looked to me like an AFL club playing a half decent VFL side. We are not even in the AFL ball park now.

Mahoney and most of the FD need to go. Whatever they've tried to put out on the field is now toast and they've been dishing this rubbish up to us for all but a handful of games in the 2nd half of 2018 plus two finals . This all started from the woeful capitulation to the Pies in the final round of 2017 when they had nothing to win for and we had everything but the game played out, in terms of effort/spirit, the complete reverse.

I just finished watching one of the weakest most pitiful efforts in the red and blue ever. Let me help you.... Belief, Spirit, Skills, Grunt, Polish, Finish, Smarts, Genuine Forwards, Pressure, Pressure inside 50, Connection (everywhere), ACCOUNTABILITY (almost everywhere), Passion, Love of the Game, TEAM WORK, Skills, LEADERSHIP. We are [censored]. I would shift Goody aside on the quiet and get Richardson to takeover as the silent caretaker and start the search for a new SENIOR EXPERIENCED coach now behind the scenes and clean the entire coaching group out bar a few newbies at year's end. This is a failed FD we are watching turn to crud on the field before our very eyes. The team needs a significant clean out as well at year's end. Some awefull players on this list who need to be moved on. Did we just re-sign Fritsch for two more years? My gosh that's already looking shakey. There were some try hards out there tonight and some who at least gave a yelp but boy oh boy is this club flakey. As flakey as it gets both on and off the field. As far as i'm concerned, any chance we had of turning the sinking ship around walked out the door with Roos & PJ, ably assisted with the appointment of one very ordinary coach, in Mr S Goodwin. 2019 & 2020 = SHIZEN HOUSEN!

Guys i got home late. Thought chanel 70 was on series tag. Wait ....no recording as my series tag for AFL was too low down the pecking order. Arghh....wot to do. Wait i got Kayo yippee! So i sit down with dins and a cold ale hoping to at least witness a hard fought contest with a team that's eager to improve. Now i have no idea what's happened. I have not read one post on here and i don't know the result. However, i just had the unfortunate experience of watching one of the most undisciplined bunch of rabble attempt to play something resembling AFL footy i have ever seen. Easily rates up there as a top 50 or so i think and ive seen some horrors watching this mob. All rookies excused. The rest who have 70 plus games or more, apart from a few try hards, well words escape me. Abomination? So i head into the 2nd hoping for the best but expecting more of the same. We don't even look like scoring a goal at this point with one rushed kick from a defender (Lockhart...who actually wasn't too bad that quarter) and a bog ordinary nothing kick from Clarry into the post after the siren. Could it get worse? Yes it could. If we keep playing at that sub standard we'll be lucky if any networks will even bother with us from here. Who the hec would want to watch this rubbish. Very hard to polish a turd i'm afraid. And it all started with a wet behind the ears Georgiardio easily losing Oscar as Port brought it through the middle, taking a simple overhead, and kicking truly. His bro, lead foot Tom, aint helping one bit so far. And Harmes!?? What the hell's going on there? Chunk doing his usual get ball ...turn ball over immediately through the middle trick. We almost look like we've raised the white flag from the get go. I hope i'm proven wrong. Off to watch the 2nd. Oh what joy.

Or possibly on the Bin 28 (Penfolds)?

LDV if there was ever a year you just might get away with that.....this one is it!

Sorry mate i only just saw that one. Always appreciate your contributions and feedback as well. Thanks ✌️

Thanks Buck. Just looking for a few tasty statistical trends and morsels, where possible, among the on field mayhem. Hope all is well with you during the madness that is 2020.

Not a great number Kent and his first 5 matches were pretty ordinary. However, his last two matches i've personally seen a bit of a turnaround. Certainly not at a level that sees him at his best from the last two seasons but imv an uptick vs the first 5 rounds. The numbers tend to support this a little as well. Adjusted for the 20% loss in game time the above 2020 season average sees him off around 19% vs 2019. As you say, far below his best. But lets keep in mind, Salem was one of only a select few who held their own (or improved on their previous season) in the horribilis that was 2019. Using this same method he finished 3rd in 2019 and pretty much on par with his 2018 average score. Pretty darn good. He really only dropped away from memory in the last 4 to 5 matches last season unfortunately. Now two matches doesn't make a swallow or a season but.... taking his average score in the last two matches 2.55 Add in the adjustment for the 20% loss of game time vs 2019 (ie., 2.55 x 1.20) and we get a score of 3.06 That's 11.25% off his 2019 average. Still, not great, but 10%ish is very much within reach if he continues the momentum of his last two matches. More so the match against the Hawks vs the Lions but many players lost some momentum in this one. Let's hope he can keep heading north a tad more from here and get back to the Salem we thought was really making a fist of things for a while there.

Thanks also George. Ultimately winning is the best stat of the lot. If only it were that easy. Road to Finals / GF - Triple Crown Update (to Rnd 8, 2020) Vs the Lions Meters Gained Differential (looking for + 200 or more) ? -73 ❌ Marks inside 50 Differential (any positive is a win but the higher the better) ? -1 ❌ Contested Possession Differential (looking for a +10 or greater) ? -5 ❌ Season Averages (the one that counts) Meters Gained Average Differential (looking for an average of + 200 or more) ? +74.6 ❌ Down 25 on last week's average but holding in 7th place. Down 493 meters vs the previous week against the Hawks. The top five with current ladder positions in parenthesis below. It is worth noting that only the top three clubs have a +200 (or greater) average here. That's one more club than last week (the Cats). 1. Power (1st) 2. Cats (3rd) 3. Tigers (9th) 4. Bulldogs (6th) 5. Lions (2nd) Marks inside 50 Average Differential (ideally we need to see a top 6 ranking) ? 4th! ✔️ Holding in 4th place with a +1.7 average differential. The top 5... 1. Lions 2. Power 3. Pies 4. Demons 5. Tigers Contested Possession Average Differential (looking for +10 or more) ? +11 ✔️ Holding in 2nd place. The Pies still ahead with +14 average differential. The top 5: 1. Pies 2. Demons 3. Cats 4. Kangas 5. Lions

Great pick up DS. Clarry did get one or two frees for holding by his opponent but that was about it for our mids from what i recall. With their coach coming out of the Clarkson sausage machine why doesn't this surprise me. If this is the case then we should put a complaint in to AFL HQ and if no response start training it ourselves and man handling the opp around stoppages. What's good for the goose...

Thanks Polly. Will try for an update this evening.

Weighted Average Scores at the end of Rnd 8, 2020 Adjusted for 20% less game time this season, the team score so far is still tracking about 1% below that of 2019. That number itself would appear to be an ok result, However, given how ordinary 2019 was, after seven matches sadly i have to report we are still treading water (statistically). No improvement at all in an overall team sense. And approx 11% off the team's average from season 2018. There's some worrying individual results here statistically also. In particular Salem & Gus. But more so Harmes, Fritsch, Nev, Melk and Hunt. That's six out of seven who played last night. At this level most teams would struggle to cover one or two players who are in and out of games like a yo yo form wise, let alone five or more. We might have a light on injury list but we have plenty who are nowhere near playing at a level that will see the team succeed at AFL level ie; finals or better. And then there's the rookies you are trying to bring on plus an inept forward line that can't put a score on the board for more than a match or two. As much as i would love to say we are on the cusp of a major change in direction vs 2019 i'm going to call it now. We would need a minor miracle for that to occur and for us to make finals from here given our bog ordinary forward line. It's the elephant in the room that needs fixing. A genuine goal kicking KF along with a classy inside/outside goal kicking mid both desperately needed for 2021 if we are to finally taste some finals success on a regular basis. Player 2020 Weighted Score 2020 Rank 2019 Weighted Score % Change vs 2019 2019 Rank Change in Rank vs 2019 Christian Petracca 3.864 1 2.616 47.71 10 9 Clayton Oliver 3.486 2 4.643 -24.92 1 -1 Max Gawn # 3.368 3 3.256 3.44 4 1 Jack Viney 3.057 4 3.068 -0.36 5 1 Steven May 2.475 5 2.446 1.19 14 9 Ed Langdon 2.400 6 - - - - Alex N-Bullen 2.338 7 1.984 17.82 21 14 Christian Salem 2.300 8 3.448 -33.29 3 -5 Michael Hibberd 2.167 9 2.124 2.02 20 11 James Harmes 2.107 10 3.850 -45.27 2 -8 Nathan Jones 2.050 11 2.711 -24.38 8 -3 Angus Brayshaw 1.979 12 2.894 -31.62 6 -6 Oscar McDonald 1.975 13 1.877 5.22 26 13 Jake Lever 1.900 14 2.313 -17.86 17 3 Harley Bennell 1.875 15 - - - - Aaron Vandenburg 1.819 16 - - - - Jay Lockhart 1.788 17 1.660 7.71 31 14 Mitchell Hannan 1.720 18 1.325 29.81 36 18 Tom McDonald # 1.638 19 2.150 -23.81 19 0 Adam Tomlinson # 1.613 20 - - - - Bayley Fritsch 1.418 21 2.641 -46.31 9 -12 Sam Weideman 1.417 22 1.818 -22.06 23 1 Neville Jetta 1.305 23 2.264 -42.36 18 -5 Joel Smith 1.158 24 - - - - Toby Bedford * 1.150 25 - - - - Luke Jackson 1.117 26 - - - - Jake Melksham 1.114 27 1.931 -42.31 23 -4 Kysaiah Pickett 1.079 28 - - - - Trent Rivers 1.033 29 - - - - Jayden Hunt 0.858 30 1.958 -56.18 22 -8 Mitchell Brown * 0.625 31 - - - - Charlie Spargo * -0.250 32 1.375 -118.18 23 -9 Average Team Score -Top 22 48.754 59.623 -18.23 # Hit outs to advantage not captured

Appears to do a good job of negating the more stay at home forward types, even the strong overhead ones, at least for 2.5 to 3 quarters anyway. Is he still lacking a serious AFL tank? I'm not as convinced as some when he's asked to play on more athletic mobile types, including at ground level. Horses for courses at the selection table for mine. Maybe Marty for those types when he returns and finds fitness and some form. Oscar for the less athletic stay at home 2nd string options.

Rnd 8, 2020 Metricom Stadium - Demons vs Lions Too little left to too few when we are up against quality opposition. We got smashed in the second and weren't able to stop their link up run out of the middle, through the middle and around half forward. So many fumbles under heat (ball ups and stoppages) and unable to hit up the next link player on our side often enough or wide enough (too many dinky inside handballs that drew more heat...falling back into bad habits under heat against quality opposition?) or for more than a few possessions when we didn't. Some terrible shooting at goal by some didn't help. Sorry but Weid needs to kick at least one of those three goals tonight. Every goal is crucial against the rated clubs Two contested marks, Zero goals, 3 effectives and one tackle inside 50. That's just not enough output from a KF if you aren't kicking a goal. Not a bad return by the Jones boy tonight. Gus continues to be a serious concern. What's up with Harmes this season? Way off his usual form sadly and could be the difference if he gets back to that. Team score was 11% off the average score in 2019 tonight and 21% off 2018's. The bottom 6 score the worst for the season. Player Score Rank Christian Petracca 5.175 1 Clayton Oliver 4.400 2 Jack Viney 3.325 3 Nathan Jones 2.625 4 Steven May 2.525 5 Max Gawn 2.475 6 Christian Salem 2.450 7 Ed Langdon 2.400 8 Michael Hibberd 2.200 9 Jake Lever 1.850 10 Angus Brayshaw 1.700 11 Bayley Fritsch 1.550 12 Luke Jackson 1.450 13 Harley Bennell 1.400 14 Jake Melksham 1.400 14 Jay Lockhart 1.175 16 James Harmes 1.100 17 Sam Weideman 0.625 18 Kysaiah Pickett 0.550 19 Neville Jetta 0.250 20 Mitchell Hannan 0.225 21 Oscar McDonald 0.150 22 Team Score 41.000 Top 6 20.525 Bottom 6 2.900 # Hit outs to advantage not accounted for

That about sums it up for me LT. He looked as if he was in about 2nd gear most of the night and was sooking it up coming off the ground. His attitude is the pits and not a great look for those around him, particularly the rookies. Time to look elsewhere while he still has a modicum of value.

Needed to go back further behind the mark and assess. Had he done so he 'might' have gotten the 50 but unlikely from the umps who were against us for much of the evening. Instead he lost his head and almost immediately played on to a player leading to probably the lowest % spot in the forward line. Terrible decision making. No poise forward of center all night other than Chunk and Melk.

I love Nev but have to agree here. Time to bring Rivers in and while he might need managing on occasions he has to be played as much as possible from here on. We are badly missing an in form Marty Hore for Oscar as well. Oscar is ok if he doesn't get a 2nd tall forward that's both athletic and a strong overhead mark. When he does he is cooked after about 2 quarters or so and the opp look to go through that player much of the time to take advantage.