Demon Dynasty

Lovely work from Brown dog to fullcream there. Fab goal from 50 for his first!

No ...the kids are screaming in horror at the unbelievably bad umpiring!

So Moniz kicks out of 50 up the line.... Port player couldve gathered but decides to leave it instead so it goes out.... then the ump calls it intentional haha. What a joke They then kick it back in and score a goal. The AFL has certainly stuffed the game big time from this side.

Nice shove against Curry not called there. Then holding the ball after taking on two tacklers and just throwing the ball in the air after. Yet ump picks out HTM directly in front. Horrible and got what it deserved... a shocking behind lol

Turner take a bow son. Great courage and mark there.

There's my answer... The Shack! 😅

I understand Moniz has probably been asked to learn some defensive aspects of the game but surely he should be up forward most of the time? Where else are the goals coming from at ground level on a regular basis?

Mid field looking decidely thin without Hustwaite. If we get anywhere near Port (within about 3 goals or so) or perhaps win, that will be an excellent result i reckon.

Team & Player Ratings to Rnd 5, 2024 vs H&A Season 2023 After six matches our Team Rating is down 5% on our 2023 Team Rating. That's not a long way off but it's still down. Mostly made up from... > Clarry down 33% so far vs 2023 > No Gus, statistically our 3rd best player in 2023 > Rivers off just a tad but making up ground in the last few weeks > Petty a long way off his 2023 rating following his interrupted pre-season. Personally feel he should not have been brought back as soon as we did. I stated that at the time and happy to stand by this call. At this level you cannot afford to play anyone who is/was this under-done. I would also argue this for Clarry, however who would we have brought in to replace for say Port or the Crows? I would now suggest we use Rivers to cover for Clarry if he needs an extra week or two off to fully recover. Better this than a recurrence! Marty covers for Riv? > No Bowey (inj). The Top 6 Rating is off 2023 by 4.5% That's mostly the Clarry & Gus factor. If Clarry was playing somewhere close to his 2023 Rating of '5.0' our Top 6 Rating so far in 2024 would be up by 2.5%! A few significant factors going forward include... getting Clarry and Petty right (if Petty has to miss matches to do a mini pre-season then so be it). Making sure Kozzy remains in the team and retains his early season form. Getting McAdam and Melk fit, firing and pushing into this 22. Getting better performances from our Bottom 6 players who are a fair way off 2023 levels. Player 2024 Rating 2024 Rank 2023 Rating % Change vs 2023 2023 Rank Change in Rank vs 2023 C Petracca 4.850 1 4.707 3.0 2 1 Max Gawn 4.208 2 3.350 25.6 7 5 Jack Viney 3.833 3 3.707 3.4 4 1 Steven May 3.725 4 3.213 15.9 8 4 T Rivers 3.375 5 3.696 -8.7 5 0 C Oliver 3.346 6 5.002 -33.1 1 -5 Jake Lever 3.345 7 3.131 6.8 9 2 A Tomlinson* 3.175 8 2.915 8.9 14 6 Ed Langdon 3.142 9 3.057 2.8 10 1 Judd McVee 3.100 10 2.320 33.6 22 12 T Sparrow 3.054 11 2.811 8.6 16 5 T McDonald 3.005 12 2.054 46.3 27 15 C Salem < 2.978 13 2.993 -0.5 12 -1 A N-Bullen 2.754 14 2.532 8.8 20 6 K Pickett 2.569 15 2.101 22.3 26 11 K Chandler 2.467 16 2.265 8.9 23 7 J Billings > < 2.445 17 - - - - T Woewodin* < > 2.432 18 1.406 73.0 34 16 M Hore 2.273 19 - B Howes 2.263 20 - - - - J V Rooyen 1.996 21 2.170 -8.0 25 4 C Windsor < 1.996 21 - - - - J Bowey* 1.950 23 2.820 -30.9 15 -8 B Fritsch 1.925 24 2.324 -17.2 21 -3 Ben Brown < 1.506 25 1.941 -22.4 28 3 H Petty 1.406 26 2.718 -48.3 19 -7 C Spargo* 1.200 27 1.886 -36.4 29 2 K Tholstrup* 1.100 28 - - - - B Laurie* < 0.775 29 2.235 -65.3 24 -5 J Schache* 0.700 30 1.525 -54.1 33 3 L Hunter - - 2.939 - 13 - D Turner - - 1.825 - 31 - J Melksham - - 1.599 - 32 - S McAdam - - - - - - Team Rating 66.33 69.86 -5.1 Top 6 23.34 24.43 -4.5 Bottom 6 13.41 15.17 -11.6 * 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

Scoring chains (scoring source) from Brissy came mostly off the wings (+14) and forward 50 (+8). Keeping in mind we lost by the total of these two scoring chain (scoring sources) ... 22 points Point being (per above)... did we fail to even up the numbers at stoppage or did so too late, giving Brissy a free hit most or all of the night? Left too much to too few for too long? Chain start region Note: region is from the scoring team's perspective. Category Region For Against Match Season Match Season * Kick-in D50 6 4.5 1 3.7 Centre Bounce Centre 9 12.2 7 6.8 Stoppage (Other) D50 0 1.2 0 0.0 Stoppage (Other) Centre 1 0.3 6 2.0 Stoppage (Other) Wing 12 15.8 24 11.2 Stoppage (Other) F50 2 8.7 10 6.0 Turnover D50 0 5.2 1 5.7 Turnover Centre 2 6.0 1 4.0 Turnover Wing 28 21.3 26 26.0 Turnover F50 0 8.2 6 5.0 Region For Against Match Season Match Season * D50 6 10.8 2 9.3 Centre 12 18.5 14 12.8 Wing 40 37.2 50 37.2 F50 2 16.8 16 11.0 Stats courtesy of wheeloratings.com (see 'Stats File - 2024' thread)

Hey Gents. Great work on these pods ty for all the effort and time put in. No doubt you'll cover many aspects of the why re Thurs night's result. Including losing Salo, Fatigue from the Adelaide travel wins, 3 matches in 13, Clarry's fingers etc. Usually i'd try and answer this question myself but i don't have time this week to trawl through the replay having only seen half of what happened from behind the goals. To see what i'm about to ask, you probably need to sit up in the bleaches of the Ponsford alongside Bin or score some behind the goal footage from 7! So my question... What impact, if any, do you guys feel our usual plus one behind the ball had in the result (assuming we went with that all night!???) which would've left us one down at stoppage (or more) assuming Brissy brought up an extra (or maybe more at times!?). We got smashed at around ground stoppages even with Max getting his fair share of hit outs to advantage. And it started from the get go with Raynor running rampant. At one stage we were 6 - 8 goals down. Surely you don't maintain a plus one behind the ball in this situation? Need to even things up at contest & start winning your fair share of first use & clearances and hopefuly hit the scoreboard more often and get back in the game. Did this (potentially stubborn?) adherence to structure cost us in any way on the night? Or did Goodwin recognise it at some point (maybe too late!??) and evened things up to try & cool Brissy's jets??

It's not that left field Mr Fence. I've also been suggesting this for quite a while but the tank & training needed to play through the middle (according to player interviews) is apparently a huge step up from HB roles. I like the idea but Riv has a few more years in the system and has played minor moments through the middle, and more major time in praccys. So we can probably safely assume he's also had some training to go with those occasional forays during the off season. Something that they'd need to do with Knuckles also so it probably wouldn't happen any time soon for him (on a regular basis anyway). McVee is certainly tempting and would also add something special through there if/when the FD ever decide to trial him there. Then there's the question of replacements for his present role. Same can be said of Rivers if/when he starts to spend more serious / regular time in there. And i hope we do. He looked super dynamic when he went there on Thurs night and def gave us a lift as well as four clearances and some nice exits out the front / side delivering inside 50. And that with only 33% attendance of centre bounces.

Same apart from his goal on the tight angle which was superb and a couple of solid tackles. Only 10 of those 18 were effective. Also had the equal most turnovers for us on the night with 6, alongside Sparrow & Viney.

6. Maxy 5. T-Mac 4. Rivers 3. Lever 2. Langdon 1. May

Last time i looked they were the ones in charge of proceedings Mono. Surely a healthy VFL means there is potential pathways for additional players to be developed and ply their craft which might lead to some additional talent feeding through to the AFL and possibly enhance that level of the game and hence the AFL's coffers? While i understand they don't wish to spend hundreds of millions on its up keep or expansion. Wouldn't it make sense to at least foster that league ensuring it grows, expands its audience/attractiveness of facilities somewhat and continues to slowly improve?

It would be a bit nonsensical to bring him straight back if it's not fully healed only to have him re-injure it. Football clubs have been known to guild the lilly although in this case it might be more a case of wishful thinking. Simon would be wise to continue to blood Rivers through the middle. He might be called upon more than expected over the next few weeks. And who knows... we might just accidently uncover a very nice addition to replace Salom (effectively Gus).

That first quarter in particular. Both teams pressure rating was well above AFL average but the Lions' were off the charts and that set the tone for their night. We couldn't go with their pressure in quarters 2 or 3 either. I'm still of the belief that if we had a ready made mid to come in and replace Clarry for this match we would have done so and sent him in for surgery post the Crows. There were a few concerned faces at the Cap's run on Weds when Clarry was leaving the track. In hindsight his horror rating against the Crows was the canary in the coal mine and he obviously wasn't comfortable with things on the track either post that match.

Clarry's had surgery. Salo out for four weeks (or 6!?) ... https://www.zerohanger.com/surgery-for-oliver-as-demons-confirm-extent-of-salem-setback-149419/

Surprise surprise... Clarry's off for finger surgery

Its been mentioned. Putting this one down to... 👉🏼 Koz 👉🏼 The Clarry stuffed finger factor (SFF) 👉🏼 Salem going off early at 7% game time (one rotation down from the get go) 👉🏼 Mental fatigue 👉🏼 Some physical fatigue 👉🏼 'Potentially' the fact that we continued with a plus one behind the ball and didn't even up the numbers around the contest or if we did it was too little too late. 👉🏼 Brissy's mega pressure and clean ball use, bounce of the ball as well Can't be sure about any of the above though of course. Mere speculation. Brissy brought mega pressure for the first three quarters while ours was well below AFL average* (approx 185-188 on pressure rating) aside from the last quarter. * @wheeloratings

Yes this was something i raised last night just after half time in the game day thread. If that was the case, especially after half time, then it would be a pretty dissapointing outcome for the brains trust if they allowed this to continue throughout the match or left it too late.

Round 5, 2024 MCG - Demons vs Lions Absolutely mauled. Especially the regular midfielders. Team Rating 20% off 2023. Bottom 6 off a cliff vs 2023! Hopefully a one-off off game following the two weeks in Adelaide but who knows. The numbers are no prettier than last night's showing with a few notable exceptions. Notably Max, Lever, Rivers, T-Mac & Lingers. Rivers with 33% CBA and quite serviceable out of the middle. Probably our best mid on the night. That has to tell the FD something surely? Hopefully they come around to playing him in the middle more often and just more! He just might be the dynamic lift needed and personally i think he has more upside potential here than Salem & Sparrow. One positive on the rookie front was a 20% improvement by Woe from his wobbly 2023 rating (many subbed results in there). Fritta & Petty barely registering a positive rating. BBB not far behind and pretty much the same lowely rating as last week. Minimal / poor supply obviously didn't help their cause. Not a great result for Chandler either. Player Rating Rank 2023 Season Rating % Change vs 2023 Max Gawn 5.025 1 3.350 50.00 Jake Lever 5.025 1 3.131 60.49 T Rivers 4.525 3 3.696 22.43 T McDonald 4.275 4 2.054 108.13 Ed Langdon 4.075 5 3.057 33.30 S May 3.525 6 3.213 9.71 Jack Viney 3.025 7 3.707 -18.40 C Oliver 2.775 8 5.002 -44.52 C Petracca 2.500 9 4.707 -46.89 A N-Bullen 2.500 9 2.532 -1.26 J McVee 2.450 11 2.320 5.60 B Howes 2.375 12 - - T Sparrow 2.300 13 2.811 -18.18 J Billings 2.150 14 - - T Woewodin > 69% 1.800 15 1.406 28.02 K Chandler 1.650 16 2.265 -27.15 C Windsor 1.650 16 - - J V Rooyen 1.525 18 2.170 -29.72 K Tholstrup 1.100 19 - - Ben Brown 0.950 20 1.941 -51.06 B Fritsch 0.600 21 2.324 -74.18 H Petty 0.075 22 2.718 -97.24 C Salem < 7% (inj) -0.025 23 2.993 -100.84 Team Score 55.88 69.86 -20.02 Top 6 26.45 24.43 8.27 Bottom 6 5.90 15.17 -61.11 < Subbed out TOG > Subbed in TOG Stats courtesy of footwire.com & wheeloratings.com

That would be very appropriate Mr Leg and a great accompaniment when listening to Ports of Paradise. The spiel off their website for this segment as follows... Ports of Paradise Palmtree Paddy A midcentury melting pot of sophisticated sounds from the golden age of exotica ... including jungle jazz, tribal percussion, Latin rhythms, early Calypso, cocktail lounge, stereophonic showpieces, space-age symphonies, and tropical island swing.

Nothing that a dose of 'Ports of Paradise' couldn't shake off! Bless ye olde Palmtree Paddy

A very clandestine message there L