Demon Dynasty

Could this have something to do with work rate, ability to get from contest to contest (fitness), ability to play a mid field role effectively (experience factor) and (as far as i understand from more expert track watchers) our coaches almost always playing a +1 in defence (a kick behind the ball) and allowing most of our oppo's a +1 (or more in some cases apparently) at stoppage? In terms of work rate / experience / fitness, I’m not including Tracc so much as he is often pushing forward a fair bit and having to use energy / effort to try and score. But then there's the remainder. Clarry... off to a slow start but in two of the last three weeks has started showing signs of getting back to somewhere near his usual rating levels. Let's hope that continues as that would be a great outcome to build on in the back half. Viney... Started off beautifully. However, ever since Rnd 4 vs the Crows his form has slowly ebbed away. possibly copping a heavy tag or maybe the stinger issue flaring up? Here's Viney's average stats and Ratings from Rnds 0 to 4 vs Rnds 5 to 9. He has improved on the tackling side and clearances but dropped away significantly in almost all other areas. In particular his two way running (rebounds & inside 50s both down), intercepts, one percenters and score involvements. Turnovers also up substantially since Rnd 4. His player rating down a whopping 28% vs the first five rounds. #7 J Viney Rnds 0 - 4 Rnds 5 - 9 % Change Contested Poss 10.8 9.0 -16.7 Uncontested Poss 12.2 11.2 -8.2 Effective Disposals* 14.8 12.6 -14.9 Disposal Effeciency % 67.9 65.8 -2.1 Contested Marks* 0.2 0.0 -100.0 Marks inside 50* 0.2 0.2 0.0 One Percenters* 2.8 1.6 -42.9 Clearances* 4.2 5.0 19.0 Rebound 50s* 2.6 2.0 -23.1 Inside 50s* 4.8 4.2 -12.5 Tackles* 5.0 7.2 44.0 Score Involvements* 5.2 2.8 -46.2 Meters Gained 377.6 382.6 1.3 Turnovers* 4.2 5.8 38.1 Intercepts* 4.0 1.2 -70.0 Tackles Inside 50* 1.0 1.2 20.0 Time On Ground % 81.6 76.0 -5.6 Goals* 0.6 0.0 -100.0 Hit Outs to Adv* 0.0 0.0 - *DD's Player Rating 3.9 2.8 -28.4 Sparrow...Usually the next in line through the middle (last season and beyond) behind Clarry, Tracc & Viney (sometimes Gus also) but this year is starting to be overlooked on a few occasions (zero CBAs vs Dogs & Eagles) and played elsewhere. I'd love to know in what role as he just isn't the same when not being played through the middle imho. After chatting to him at training about what role he was playing when not in the middle, he indicated he wasn’t exactly sure. He did state that he enjoyed going through the middle the most however and that statement was after a decent performance through the middle (possibly in the second half) of a match that escapes me. ANB... worked very well against the Blues (and Eagles?). However are we potentially giving up too much of his usual two way running to cover off for Tracc & Clarry in the pocket role on the fat side of stoppages or is he still playing this role post 666? Picket... As per ANB. A very handy addition but again are we potentially giving up some serious goal opportunities and pressure inside 50 due to time / energy spent through the middle. I'm not saying don't play Kozzy in the middle either. Just questioning the amount of time spent and getting the balance right between mid v forward minutes. Are we recouping the amount of time spent through the middle in terms of the extra score involvements, goal assists (hitting targets inside 50) and effective clearances?

That rating is from the last two years DZ. So effectively he never dropped away, at least in this aspect anyway. We should never forget some of the mammoth efforts from the champ over many years now to either keep us in games, nearly drag us over the line on his own back or even change the course of a match to help win them with pretty much no drop off except for a number of rounds so far this season. And we should also remember that when Clarry is on he is at another level to most mids, even some of the greats we have come to know over the last 6 to 8 years. There are a number that have come on in the last 18 months of course that are now matching those feats in certain matches. And as we witnessed over the weekend, a rampaging Reid has now announced his arrival and will (most likely) be something else altogether.

100% ... to not consider tags or coolers on the likes of Cripps, Walsh, DeGoey, ND, Butters, JHF & Reid is just pure coaching insanity of the highest order. Goodwin is not alone either as the theory goes "you will upset the team defence". Well so what. If you don't you are more than likely going to lose anyway.

Yep and we also (STILL) don't deal with expectations very well it seems. I'd love to see the W L ratio in games where we are odds on fav to win like Sunday. I doubt it would be very pretty. There's still a problem in the upstairs dept alot of the time. That shows in the way we open matches too. Far too meek and mild. There's no manic white line fever across the board of late with this group bar a few usual exceptions that comtinue to fly the flag. The hunger for the attack and manic pressure for four quarters (across the board) is no longer happening for whatever reason. A fair amount of complacency appears to have set in to this group so far this season which is a real worry. Possibly the lack of depth on this list and pressure for positions in general? Re-signing the likes of Schache, the failed Grundy experiment i(nstead of going after another quality mid) and extending fairly lengthy contracts to those who are barely just fringe players couldn't have helped surely. To be fair we were cruelled with late season injuries in 2023 which derailed our finals campaign. However the ruthlessness Goodwin preached (that was needed throughout the club) at the end of 2020 and became apparent through 21 and much of 22 & 23 doesn't feel all that apparent in 2024 for mine. Not across the board anyway and for four quarters anyway.

There are supposedly remnants of the Borealis storm still smacking into the atmosphere. This can cause a temporary disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere and is known to effect the cognitive ability and clarity of its inhabitants. I would therefore take no notice of any ramblings and rantings from usually sane D'land contributors this week as the G scale levels are no doubt off the charts. This would also help explain the loss on Sunday. The boys were obviously showing the effects of the solar storms, not unlike a bad case of sun stroke. This solar syndrome is commonly referred to by scientists as a 'G stroke'.

He could if he turns it over as often as he does at Casey when playing through the middle. Possibly worse given the additional pace and pressure around the ball at AFL level. Also he would not effectively be replacing Sparrow's mid field role (this week anyway) as Sparrow did not play any minutes starting as a mid (at CBs) on Sunday.

He played as a forward with GWS for a few years early on and never really established himself here. I'm not adverse to the 'idea' Deevs but i reckon that experiment would need to be trialled via Casey for a good block of games first. See how he fares and go from there.

I must have missed something here. Clarry is now Clarice?

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2024/05/21/who-are-the-afls-most-clutch-players-champion-data-names-the-top-15/

Team & Player Ratings to Rnd 9, 2024 vs H&A Season 2023 Player 2024 Rating 2024 Rank 2023 Rating % Change vs 2023 2023 Rank Change in Rank vs 2023 C Petracca 4.470 1 4.707 -5.0 2 1 Max Gawn 4.118 2 3.350 22.9 7 5 Steven May 3.743 3 3.213 16.5 8 5 C Oliver 3.693 4 5.002 -26.2 1 -3 Jake Lever < 3.681 5 3.131 17.6 9 4 Jack Viney 3.398 6 3.707 -8.3 4 -2 A Tomlinson* 3.175 7 2.915 8.9 14 7 Ed Langdon 3.106 8 3.057 1.6 10 2 T Rivers 3.095 9 3.696 -16.3 5 -4 C Salem < 3.093 10 2.993 3.3 12 2 Judd McVee 2.980 11 2.320 28.4 22 11 A N-Bullen 2.915 12 2.532 15.1 20 8 T McDonald 2.869 13 2.054 39.7 27 14 T Woewodin < > 2.658 14 1.406 89.0 34 20 T Sparrow 2.623 15 2.811 -6.7 16 1 J Bowey < 2.615 16 2.820 -7.3 15 -1 B Howes 2.463 17 - - - - C Windsor < 2.385 18 - - - - M Hore 2.273 19 - - - - J Billings > < 2.268 20 - - - - K Pickett 2.253 21 2.101 7.2 26 5 K Chandler 2.130 22 2.265 -6.0 23 1 B Fritsch 1.963 23 2.324 -15.5 21 -2 J V Rooyen 1.875 24 2.170 -13.6 25 1 S McAdam* 1.675 25 - - - - B Laurie* < > 1.463 26 2.235 -34.5 24 -2 D Turner 1.425 27 1.825 -21.9 31 4 Ben Brown < 1.391 28 1.941 -28.3 28 0 H Petty 1.228 29 2.718 -54.8 19 -10 C Spargo* 1.200 30 1.886 -36.4 29 -1 K Tholstrup* 1.100 31 - - - - J Schache* 0.700 32 1.525 -54.1 33 1 L Hunter - - 2.939 - 13 - J Melksham - - 1.599 - 32 - Team Rating 66.00 69.86 -5.5 Top 6 23.10 24.43 -5.4 Bottom 6 13.77 15.17 -9.2 * Played less than two full matches (in total) < Subbed out at least once or more (player rating could be somewhat comprised) > Subbed in at least once or more (player rating could be somewhat comprised) Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

Round 9, 2024 Optus - Eagles vs Demons *Update to the earlier Round 9 Ratings post which had the previous round (Rnd 8 against the Blues) as the header. Mods if you are able to fix the earlier post's header by any chance then feel free to delete THIS duplicate & thanks. Player Rating Rank 2023 Season Rating % Change vs 2023 C Oliver 4.700 1 5.002 -6.0 Max Gawn 4.075 2 3.350 21.6 C Petracca 4.025 3 4.707 -14.5 C Salem 3.675 4 2.993 22.8 A N-Bullen 3.275 5 2.532 29.3 T Rivers 3.025 6 3.696 -18.2 J Bowey 2.825 7 2.820 0.2 Jack Viney 2.775 8 3.707 -25.1 K Pickett 2.650 9 2.101 26.1 J McVee 2.625 10 2.320 13.1 B Howes 2.400 11 - - T Woewodin > 61% 2.400 11 1.406 70.7 B Fritsch 2.175 13 2.324 -6.4 J Billings 2.125 14 - - S McAdam 1.675 15 - - K Chandler 1.650 16 2.265 -27.2 T McDonald 1.475 17 2.054 -28.2 T Sparrow 1.275 18 2.811 -54.6 C Windsor 1.100 19 - - H Petty 0.925 20 2.718 -66.0 B Brown 0.850 21 1.941 -56.2 S May 0.750 22 3.213 -76.7 Jake Lever < 7% 0.200 23 3.131 -93.6 Team Score 52.45 69.86 -24.9 Top 6 22.78 24.43 -6.8 Bottom 6 6.38 15.17 -58.0 < Subbed out TOG > Subbed in TOG Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

Reckon there's been a dusting off of a round table and a good Powwow a happening somewhere. There's no way SG would leave that result on the table and festering. Some honest open discussions / reviews had today me thinks. Expect to see a number of changes this week. That was an unacceptable performance.

Yes for Bowsa or even Billings to assist with transition chains and the last kick coming inside 50. Kolt in to share the 4th mid role with Sparrow as the tactical sub for a block of 4 to 6 matches to see how he handles it? Although Sparrow didn't attend any CBs vs the Eagles so what is his role at these times? Run with cooler on someome post bounce or a medium HF role shared with someone else like McAdam? If so i'm not sure that's working either. So if the FD decides "no Sparrow at CBs" this week for whatever reason... just bring Kolt in for Sparrow to attend a fair % of CBs and Sparrow plays the tactical sub?

You might be on to something there DZ. Not necessarily all but maybe a fair percentage? Covid is supposedly running amok in Melb at present from what i hear on the grapevine. Probably unlikely but who knows. Stranger things have happened.

Round 8, 2024 MCG - Blues vs Demons The last time we had a Team Rating worse than this was Rnd 10, 2023 vs port in Adelaide with a 51.85 That was also during the indigenous "Narrm" rounds . I’m not sure that means anything but a pattern is starting to emerge when we play under that name. The bottom 6 rated players in this match were a mile off the 2023 average rating, down a massive 58%. I point this out as many scribes often say you're only as good as your bottom six. Clarry finishing in the No.1 spot is some sort of positive yes? That's two weeks from three where he has lifted substantially following a relatively poor start to the season (for him). Woey also on limited sub game time of only 61% coming in equal 11th spot! For such a young inexperienced player in a losing team this is a fabulous result and an indication that he is starting to find his feet. After finishing in second spot last week vs the Blues, May uncharacteristically posted his worst rating in some time, down 77% on his 2023 rating. He wasn't alone with a number having some very poor to ordinary results including Petty (-66% vs 2023), Brown (-56%), Sparrow (-55%), T-Mac (-28%), Chandler (-27%), Viney (-25%), Rivers (-18%) and Tracc (-14%). Our KFs have been an ongoing problematic theme for a long time now. We are obviously thin through the middle without Gus. All good if all the key guns are firing on all cylinders but so far this season we have only seen that happen in roughly four of the first five rounds. Something i would like to address further in response to a post by Watson 11 above which i will attempt to get to later if i can find the time. Player Rating Rank 2023 Season Rating % Change vs 2023 C Oliver 4.700 1 5.002 -6.0 Max Gawn 4.075 2 3.350 21.6 C Petracca 4.025 3 4.707 -14.5 C Salem 3.675 4 2.993 22.8 A N-Bullen 3.275 5 2.532 29.3 T Rivers 3.025 6 3.696 -18.2 J Bowey 2.825 7 2.820 0.2 Jack Viney 2.775 8 3.707 -25.1 K Pickett 2.650 9 2.101 26.1 J McVee 2.625 10 2.320 13.1 B Howes 2.400 11 - - T Woewodin > 61% 2.400 11 1.406 70.7 B Fritsch 2.175 13 2.324 -6.4 J Billings 2.125 14 - - S McAdam 1.675 15 - - K Chandler 1.650 16 2.265 -27.2 T McDonald 1.475 17 2.054 -28.2 T Sparrow 1.275 18 2.811 -54.6 C Windsor 1.100 19 - - H Petty 0.925 20 2.718 -66.0 B Brown 0.850 21 1.941 -56.2 S May 0.750 22 3.213 -76.7 Jake Lever < 7% 0.200 23 3.131 -93.6 Team Score 52.45 69.86 -24.9 Top 6 22.78 24.43 -6.8 Bottom 6 6.38 15.17 -58.0 < Subbed out TOG > Subbed in TOG Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

Narrm strikes again! Are we sure it really means Melbourne and not some sort of word that results in subject matter being cursed with bad luck etc!?

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Laurie still turning the ball over too often through the middle at VFL level. Sometimes under very little pressure too. Hits the panic button and clangers it straight back to the oppo. Has some serious work to do here before you'd reconsider bringing him back in imho. If we were going to trial anyone from Casey i'd rather Kolt for a block of matches before Laurie (at this point). The guy at least has some wheels, white line fever and hits in hard once the ball bounces.

The kick - mark game is ok at times when you need to slow play for momentum purposes to cool an oppo run on or to ice a quarter or match winning lead in red time. To start the match (and continue it for lengthy periods throughout) playing this method is going to slowly cost you on the scoreboard both offensively and defensively. And lose you alot of matches againat the top liners and occasionaly against lessor likes as we witnessed yesterday. Especially as the game progresses, fatigue starts to set in & skills drop off slowly or in some cases depending on the player and where he's at (eg; fitness / form / coming back from injury too early ... eg; Bowsa) ... dramatically. It also doesn't work well when forwards don't play in front a kick up the field and/or don't work hard enough (or are unable to for whatever reason) to present as the next outlet for those coming off HB or through the middle under pressure. To see our lack of forward craft in general still persisting this far down the track post 2021 is infuriating and super frustrating. Especially when you watch many other clubs do it better, a number of which were well behind us (in general) in their development in 2021. To move away from the kick - mark rubbiah you would probably need to switch out a few players whose DNA is based on playing a mostly short / possession game such as Salo and Bowsa. T-Mac has also had this side trained into him in the off season probably because he couldn't be trusted with longer passes (say 30+ meters). We are overweight these players now and lack serious running power off HB. Aside from Rivers, who tends to go on a solo and hang on to the pill for too long too often and McVee, if he feels confident in working off his opponent up the field a little. The only options i can think of to replace the likes of those two at present (via Casey) are Woey (comes in from Sub) and Moniz. Moniz would definitely give us more running power off HB vs say Bowsa and personally i think he'd bring a better game at ground level plus a little more pressure around stoppage. Salo is a work in progress through the middle but TBH im not sure it's a project worth persisting with at this point. I'd much rather see Salo moved into the Billings role and use his kicking skills to try and find targets with the last kick inside 50. He can also kick the odd goal on the run (rarely but it does happen). I'd also look to bring in Kolt from here and just blood him through the middle for the rest of the season with a view to seeing IF he can play this role in place of the likes of Sparrow or Salo. Both of whom just don't add enough value here for mine. At least trial it for four to six weeks and go from there. So to change the above plus try & fix some of our forward woes you are looking at... Out: Bowsa, Billings & Sparrow (sub), BBB, Petty In: Moniz, Kolt, Woe, Fullarton & JVR Sparrow as sub, Salo into the Billings role. Moniz takes the Bowsa role. Kolt takes the Sparrow role and potentially Sparrow tactically subbed in. In the first few matches you would probably need to ease Kolt into the Sparrow role by initially playing him as sub first. The other option is to also bring in Sestan to replace Salo but probably a tad early in terms of his tank / knowing the role / second efforts. I'd experiment with it though against the likes of the Kangas & Tigers to see what he can bring to the table playing the Billings role vs Salo and at least find out where his development (want) is at and go from there. We also desperately need to get Clarry back to peak fitness / form but i'd say that horse has probably bolted for season 2024 now. Bottom line though.... if we continue on this current path we'll be lucky to make the eight let alone thinking of a prelim so you may as well try / trial things to see where the list amd certain players are at in orfer to prep yourself for the trade period and off season, hopefully setting ourselves up for a tilt at 2025.

Agree but again he is presently struggling to play out 4 quarters at a high level for Casey. He also seems to lack the white line manic attack at the ball to take the next step. Might find it as the year goes on but will need to imv if he's to get the call up. Always looks better playing inside 50. Pretty good by foot as well. Is he a possibility to replace Billings? Kicked four goals yesterday but very quiet after half time.

He's just starting to find his feet at Casey Picket. Showed some very positive signs early on Sat but then dropped away again. Fullarton should've played ahead of Brown to see what he can offer and as a chop out for Max (not Petty!). Petty's efforts / energy would have been better served playing more time forward and as an outlet mark / interceptor down the lline tonight.

1000% Whether it would have mattered but regardless the decision to play Brown ahead of Fullo always looked to be a very poor one.

Because we are attempting to find avenues to goal due to having no genuine Medium/KFs other than Fritta kicking goals on a regular basis. So we play Tracc alot more minutes forward to try and counter. Match against the Blues a great example. Clarry is a shadow of his former self from 2016/17 onwards this year. He also started to lose some of his extraction work for whatever reason towards the end of last season, leaving that mostly to Viney from then onwards. Shut Viney down effectively and we lack the ability for extraction and first use, especially with Clarry not firing at his previous level and Tracc up forward so much. Having said that, Tracc is more or a receiver / clearance player than an extractor / first use type, but a very good one of course. Sparrow has not come on as we might have hoped to fill the missing hole of Gus. He occasionally plays a 'pass mark' game but then goes missing for massive chunks in a game like tonight. And the mid field performance we watched tonight was after a 10 day break! Unfortunately there's no one ready to come in from Casey as we speak (mid field wise) that might offer some improvement although i would def consider bringing in Moniz for Billings to play a HHF role and a close to goal role for Kozzy when he's running through the middle. The other option is Sestan who kicked 4 for Casey but doesn't seem to have the four quarter tank and second efforts as yet. Very good inside 50 though for a few quarters. Neither of our two so called 'speed forwards' in Kozzy or Chandler bothered the scorer tonight. Add to that only 1 opportunist goal from one of our two KFs and you have yourself a recipe for disaster as we are too reliant on one player, Fritta, to kick most of our goals. We also have a stubborn Coaching panel who seem hell bent on playing a plus one behind the ball instead of evening up the numbers at stoppage, even after witnessing that we are being beaten soundly in this area for the first few quarters. Most oppos play a plus one at stoppage against us and its working to great effect this season in a number of matches. To lose clearances badly most weeks and expect to counter that, plus some, by intercepting with your plus one off HB and outscoring the oppo that way is frought with danger and putting far too much pressure on your defenders and mids imho. The game style needs to have a better balance of wins from stoppage vs so much reliance on the turnover game. Especially when you aren't a very good transition team like us.

Its the way we lost 189. Good teams go down in close matches fighting to the bitter end. That win was far too easy by a bottom 4 club. A fair amount of the game is played above the shoulders but you also can't afford to play so many who are nowhere near the level like Brown, Petty & Billings. There were a few exceptions but in general we were also soft as butter tonight. That's a hunger, want, fight issue and Goodwin has a real problem here after tonight. If he thinks you can just hit the track harder and solve these issues he'll need to think again. Some serious soul searching needed behind closed doors as to who's up for the fight from here. Goodwin will need to revisit his end of 2020 mantra of the club becoming more ruthless as we are a shadow of 2021 right now.

We just regressed by about 8 years tonight. Absolute insipid performance against one of the worst teams in the AFL bar about 4 to 5 VG players plus the young gun Reid. Lost at selection by continuing to play an underdone Petty and Brown who are both not even close to the level. Billings as well... putrid. Fullarton may not have offered much more but should've played ahead of Brown. No white line fever from far too many, no run and foot skills horrid. How so many looked cooked off a 10 day break is mind boggling. Why May was not put on to Waterman from the get go is astounding. Fritta about the only player that looked as if he new what he was doing. PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE??? Especially through the middle. The two way running and hunt has dissapeared bar Viney. Back to the drawing board for all involved. That was an absolute horror show from start to finish.