Demon Dynasty

What is Lever doing there? Has no opponent, in no mans land, and still manages to get sucked into the contest instead of protecting the inside outlet at the contest

Viney lowers eyes for first time in a season!

Can we assess, hold up when needed, look around and pick the right options. Then hit them up particularly up forward? Do we play that ridiculous front half zone tonight as per the Cats and last year against the Tigers? Hopefully that's well behind us and we bring the pressure intensity on our oppenent through the corridor. Can the Weid take a few grabs, get involved and hit the scoreboard? How does Harley go? Do Salem and Melk finally show "SOMETHING"!?? Good luck fellas and lets hope we pull a finger or two out.

This season only AF. To learn and appreciate the finesse required to find a forward or at least deliver to their favoured side more often and run on to the ball. That and learn forward craft a little more. Add another string. At present we only have one mid, who when he rests or drifts forward, looks likely to kick the odd goal. I'll give you one guess who that is. Unlike many of the better clubs, most of our mids rarely worry the scorer, including Clarry. This season is a rare chance to instil some learnings.... then reset for 2021. Clarry returns to a major role in the middle again. But this time a better more well rounded Clarry coming inside 50 who can also score when resting forward.

Thank you where do i sign? They would probably want more though

I agree to a point AF ....what i would love to see with Clarry this season however....is, you guessed it, learnings! ? But seriously. I would love to see him play this season more forward to start adding an extra 'forward' string to his bow. He can also drag or shake a hard tag forward. Hopefully he also learns a little extra forward craft. Find the goals on occasions. A bit of finesse / finish to do so. Then appreciates what it takes to deliver more effectively to a forward on a lead or to his fat side etc. That appreciation hopefully leads to some more finesse on finishing when he goes back into mid field and starts looking for forwards coming out of the middle. If he keeps going the way he's going at the moment we are potentially looking at another Viney/Gus ball murderer with ball in hand AF albeit he will still be a contested beast but that's about it. The little agility / breakaway / baulking side we saw from Clarry early on is dissipating by the week imho.

So a glutton for punishment OD like all good Demon supporters! ?

I hope you aren't allowing the maid to drink pre-match Uncle. Particularly the ordinaire stuff!

A little pity for the maid might be in order OD

CB are you tall and big? Can you mark ok by any chance? Doing much at season's end for the next few years?

Jack at last count there's about 200 plus threads on here covering this. Assuming, like me, you live in Vic "The Infected State" (new Vic Road's number plate moto due in August), then you'll probably have plenty of "me" time on your hands to scour through them all at your leisure over the next 6 weeks.

Rjay If you recall, much of our drive from roughly mid season 2018 that gave us our winning momentum into finals came once Gus and Harmes (to a lessor extent?) were switched into the middle on a more permanent basis as inside / outside players (Harmes in more of a run with role on occasions) vs inside (Viney & Chunk) with Viney still recovering and Chunk slowly being pushed to a wing (swing man off HB & HF also). It was the addition of this inside/outside breakaway (clearing congestion more effectively more often) ability that played an important role in this momentum change imho. In other words....there was no Viney, until he returned as a red hot tackling/clearing machine into finals which I'm sure helped on the big occasions adding an extra rotation and breathing room for the other mids to rest / recover in the two winning finals. My gut feel now is similar to yours, Tracc & Gus play more time through the middle Yes we already are but play them more to squeeze out mostly Viney and to a lessor degree Clarry (both playing bigger roles/time resting forward) AND also bring in Harmes as well to do same. So getting us loosened up to more of an inside / outside bias mid field with better spread ability (a la the 2nd half of 2018) ....your three regular startimg mids should be... 1. Tracc - bull inside / outside with reasonable finish coming inside 50 who can also drift forward and goal on occasions. 2. Harmes - As per Tracc just a slight cog down with average finish inside 50 but also a handy / solid run with who gut runs both ways. 3. Gus - Handy, albeit inconsistent, inside / outside clearance/link man with relatively poor disposal coming inside 50. Rarely scores and not the greatest two way runner or run with option. And four others in the regular rotation... 4. Clarry - Plays mostly forward or starting bench and also relieves the above as required (approx 60/40 ish). 5. Viney - As per Clarry but approx 70/30 ish and more time on the bench in order to ensure when he is on the field he has reserves in the tank to smack in hard on tackles, hitting contests hard and the ability to lose opponent on the burst when up forward (approx 70% of time). Moving into more of a specialist medium/small forward role taking on opp defenders to pressure for turnovers inside 50 and opportunist goals where possible. 6. AVB - Similar to Viney (approx 70/30). Both playing the same role off the bench. 7. Melk - As per Viney & AVB but roughly 80/20 IF in form. Given present form he is on the Fringe 22 imv and might be brought in if he has earned the call up and others above under perform / incur an injury. Having the last four in the regular mid rotation keeps all mids fresh but also provides us (and the opp) with different looks up forward and through the middle. The starting three makes us a better balanced mid field with some real break away grunt (Tracc & Harmes) and break away evasiveness when in form (Gus) imv. Gus being the weakest of that three given his poor finish, inconsistency, lack of two way running and inability to hurt on the scoreboard very often. Possible replacement needed at year's end (along with Viney) subject to performance / role playing ability for the remainder of this season. Extract from foxsports.com Sept 2018.... ...."Angus Brayshaw has been thrown his fair share of responsibility and has excelled, becoming a genuine inside-outside midfielder. Meanwhile, James Harmes has earned the opportunity to go head-to-head with the opposition’s best midfielder. The pair have become a crucial one-two punch alongside inside midfield maestro Clayton Oliver, allowing the Demons to dominate the clearance battle in most of their games. Given the trio’s hot form in recent weeks, adding Viney back into the mix proved to be an incredible bonus — rather than a matter of filling a gaping hole in the side. Harmes said Viney’s presence allowed the Dees to change up their inside midfield rotations — especially with the likes of Christian Petracca and Aaron vandenBerg able to pinch hit " ...

There's just no vision / composure / finish with ball in hand too often Bin. As you say a real shame as you won't find too many better tackling / contested beasts in the AFL. I thought we would have seen layers added to his initial crash / bash style by now but alas, sadly not.

One of the all time classics right there Uncle. Not even a replay either. Channel 7 always very 'AFL compliant' ?

Have been a massive Viney fan and patient for many seasons PS. Effort is never in question but.... Barring a massive turnaround in form and method of disposal / execution / agility away from congestion (instead of running all ahead full steam most of the time), his value and time may well be nigh at season's end imho. Might be time to trade for value while there's still value.

Dawks need to get a total of 25 points if they are to avoid their lowest ever score under Clarkson of 31 points (time reduction adjusted).

Frosty not doing too bad tonight and plenty of niggle. All things being equal wld much rather have Frost running around in defence than Smith or Lever at this point.

Until we get better inside outside runners who can escape congestion with agility / burst and then distribute the ball with more aplomb / finesse PSD, i fear that any such shuffling is just that. My only trustworthy / worthy exception at this point in time, who i honestly believe offers all of the above (power/burst and agility away from congestion plus decent AFL ability to hit targets), is Tracc. Playing mid/resting forward as he has been is working well. Don't make him a mostly forward / part time mid or we are robbing Peter imo. I would ask each of Clarry, Viney, Gus & Harmes to play stints forward and see who gets/wants one role or the other in terms of connecting from middle vs stealing goals, pressuring inside 50 etc. This may or may not help in their understanding of how necessary it is to assess and finesse the kick as much as possible coming i50 to the advantage of target player. Then ask these same players to do same for their forwards during shorter stints in the middle. Rinse repeat till one or more of them are assessed as being more suited to one bias or the other. Plenty of matches left to experiment and decide which of these fellas are worthy playing a combined role mid / forward or maybe a dedicated role only. It might turn out that none are quite up to the task and we need to start blooding again to remedy our issues here.

We are such an easy coaching get on so many levels. The opp knows we will (too often) send too many numbers to the contest. They compete but don't send the extra instead maintaining structure and most likely a spare at HB that's been left behind by our extra number at the ball. All they need do is maintain structure and decent pressure around the contest. Gamble that if we get it it isn't really a loss. If we do, they then pressure down, we usually only hospital handball to a player who is also in close to the contest zone. Sometimes that comes off but then that player is under severe pressure and misses the next chain....etc or a quick get out dumped kick often straight into the hands of their spare across HB that we've gifted them. We are also so inept at transition away from the contest, even if we get free, they are quite content in the knowledge we will probably stuff up our next disposal anyway if they circle us in a little. See Viney last week at the opening bounce. Turnover/s eventually occurs, they get it and have outlets sitting away from the contested zone. Hit up that loose player or two with a decent handball (or more) or a short kick and they're out. We then also give up territory on occasions (not always) and zone off so loosely that the opp cruises through our front half, picking their way up to mid field. Then choosing where when to launch from and to with ease. See the first 2 or 3 quarters against the Cats. See Rnd 5 versus the Tigers last year. There was another against the Swans one season under SG, the round escapes me. Does he ever learn? So he drops that disastrous strat last week against the Tigers and we at least compete and hold our own in the first. But then we see the terrible disconnect highlighted by Gazza and others on here (Red Zone/Veil Mist) between our mids & forwards. Forwards often doing the right thing but not even being looked for/spotted and comsequently hit up on occasions. Then there's the lack of a decent Key forward to take the odd clunker / pack mark or bust a small pack on a lead, bringing the ball to ground for the mediums and smalls. Occasionaly they do but then we rarely see any of the mediums/smalls front & square or on the run reading off the pack. Instead we usually only see the opp doing this and running it out with ease more often than not. Where's the forward pressure from our smaller brigade? ANB probably one of our better exponents and opens the season quite well, but then gets dropped!? I mean wth is going on? I have seen some bad coaching (certainly not just the coach, being not helped by lack of talent at times) but i would place Neeld and SG right up there at the top of the poor coaching tree in the 5 decades i've been watching. He has about 4 to 6 matches to turn the mess around imo. I seriously hope he and the boys do as i hate to think where this club will be financially at season's end if we have another outcome similar to 2019.

Lever can hardly complain as the loose + 1 down back LN. He should be happy he's getting a game at the moment. Not exactly setting the world on fire vs expectations. Hopefully he'll come good but he surely couldn't (shouldn't) be in any such mix (IF there is one...and there shouldn't be....they've achieved nothing as a group till now) at the present.

Hunt: Was woeful against the Tiges and barely gave a yelp. Had to go. Too much of a gap between his best and worst right now and far too often it's the latter. Appears to be at the crossroads. Smith: wiithout any Casey to gauge his form / improvement from i can't see how he returns to this line up this year unless we get to the last few rounds of another wasted season and wish to experiment with him up forward prior to delisting. Tomo: He aint no wingman sorry. I would be looking to re-engineer as a CHF (if Weid and Brown flop) or CHB to allow May to go forward (if Weid and Brown flop). Fritschkreig & Bennell have his measure on the opposite wing to Langdon. Potential bust looming if he cant make it as a CHB or CHF imo. Rivers: Unlucky. Thought Lockhart may have gone before Rivers. Probably being managed though and might be better for the rest in the medium term. As for the Ins: not bad but would have replaced Melk with Brown, Jackson or Bedford (a scarecrow might do a better job at this point). Unless we are switching say Clarry or Harmes into a mainly forward role in this match he really needs to be asked to step up and contribute out of the middle. Perform this week in this role or sayonara baby. How he maintains his spot after the last few weeks AND plays forward (assuming he does) is a bit spooky really. Has a few mates but hardly given a yelp so far. Speaking of mates...what the hec has happened to Salem? Needs a major rocket / tap on the shoulder. I'd be bringing in ANB for Salem asap. Bloke has dropped off a cliff the last 8 matches or so. A shadow of what he showed in glimpses a season or two back. Don't mind the Ins / Outs aside from Rivers but plenty of room for improvement and a few bog ordinary others lucky to have escaped unscathed.

Viney was worse imo. Vanders at least improved a smidgen. Bit of a coin flip though. Would have considered ANB for Viney. Push Harmes into the starting 3 mids with Tracc & Clarry. Viney's crash bash effort can't be faulted but what he does (or doesn't do as the case may be) afterwards is a blight on our great game and a massive coach / team / confidence killer.

He improved on the previous weeks performance. Ok it was very marginal but he has a few extra credits in the bank. Add to this he is returning from a long layoff. Probably gets him over the line....just.

No arguments from me DG...blows a decent horn!