Demon Dynasty

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

Webber would be handy to ask about the collarbone issue. I can only guess that in the early stages you may not be able to pound the turf as such and that might be where the setback is that then requires a stint of 'catching up' to get back to required fitness levels. No doubt there are other aerobic alternatives but at the end of the day this game is mostly about being able to cover the turf over and over again, especially the role he plays. So you need to get a certain amount of Kms into the legs. Entirely agree on not putting much blame on the forwards last night. However Petty looked pretty cooked for mine and to have him and BBB in the same forward line, where both are a fair bit off their optimum levels (and BB unlikely to ever get back there) can't be a good thing surely? P.S. Agree Rivers is a must to bring in to the middle for decent stints. He's a significant step up from Salo. Hopefully Goodwin woke to this last night. Turner or Bowey can come in and play the Rivers role once theyre fully fit and finding some form at Casey.

No Mr Old since March 12th. Hope all's well sir

That's a bit of a lazy response

Yeh nah. They'll just see him as one of their own if he's stinking of cheap booze and swilling from a brown paper bag.

The epitome of not doing that, or doing so too late, or not being capable of multiple leads laat night was the boundary run of young Caleb and what appeared to be zero players presenting on the lead. He had a few stationary ahead and yes he fluffed the kick but the only lead in that play (that i saw) was BBB about 5 or 10 seconds too late! And i'd suggest this is likely down to a pure fitness issue as far as BB is concerned. You can't expect a player who's continually in a rehab group and probably not getting the yards into him on the track, to play at the required level for a full four quarters. It eventually comes back to bite him and the team.

Absolutely. We were pantsed in the middle last night.

A loss doesn't bother me so much given the context of the previous two weeks but it was the ease with which the oppo played and scored, for three entire quarters. That's a massive concern in itself and should be sending some sort of alarm through to the coach & the entire FD. Let's not try and guild the lilly here, we were taken apart by a much better opponent on the night coming off a 7 day break.

Yep our only pressure up forward last night is Chandler & to a lessor degree Roo. And not necessarily saying they were at their best last night in this regard either. Just going on their general pressure and where that sits over a body of work. Kozzy is our best pressure player up forward and has been for some time. His loss, in terms if retaining the ball in that area or making it difificult for the oppo to exit as well as disrupting their set plays, should not be underestimated.

I forgot about Billings. Possibly Moniz for him if he hits the mark this week at Casey? One of the most insipid performances i've seen in the red & blue last night.

Hell no! I'd go huge for Harley Reid when his contract comes up. Game changer & generational player.

Only one is this Sat against Port. A bye the following week. The AFL have completely torched the VFL scheduling and comp. Bowey approx four weeks but might be one or two more if there's any setbacks and/or he may need a week or two to build up his tank via Casey.

Petty needs a mini pre-season imho IF he's to ever get back to the form he displayed prior to injury last season. Fullarton comes in to replace him for one or two matches during Petty's absence. McAdam (assuming he makes it) for the remainder (or earlier if ready in preference to Fullarton). Petty does his mini pre (roughly 6 weeks) then needs to knock the door down at Casey before any return. We are effectively a man down with him playing at present he is that far off. Not just in an attacking sense either. His ability to pressure/tackle is nowhere near where it needs to be for this level right now. I'd persist and bring in Joey (Woey) for Salem. Moniz / Hunter competing with Kolt (for sub) but dependent on how they perform against Port. Kozzie comes in for Kolt. I'd also review where Clarry is at. If it's just the finger and he needs these two weeks off to get it right, all good. If it's more than that and some sort of fitness issue then we might need to put another mini into him a la Petty before he returns as well. Problem is, who would you have come in to cover for Clarry during that time (if needed)? Edit: i just re-read your post and saw the Clarry pre-season suggestion. A part i hadn't read prior to writing the above. Seriously. Uncanny!! Thought i was reading my response to your post 😅

If we had a top line quality 4th mid available tonight (Gus), i'm almost certain Clarry would have been managed for this match into the bye.

Too early to write him off just yet. He's due back by Anzac eve but might have to build him via Casey for a stint before he comes in.

That's correct. Especially when Clarry is this far off his best. The oppo just have to cool our main extractor in Vines and if they're clean with their first use and connect on the outside, we end up getting smashed at clearances. Centre & Stoppage. The only way of turning that around is to wrestle back those losses and start winning more of them. Most teams don't have more than one main extractor in the 22 but when you come up against the best of the best and your main one is getting well covered or having an off night, you need a back up you can rely on. In the past that has always been Clarry. Sometimes he's even been THE main extractor ahead of Viney. When they're both on, there's almost no stopping us. Conversely, when both are off their best, or in the case of Clarry in the last two weeks.... way off his best or not being played at CBs/ stoppages at all (ie; playing out of position at HB), against top line oppo like tonight... we're toast. The engine room was running on about one or two cylinders all night. Some of best clearances had to come from fringe / make-do mids in ANB & Rivers (late).

Protecting that finger prob to get him to the bye me thinks