Demon Dynasty

To be fair Tracc does have 2 players sitting just outside the arc that were hittable with a solid pass, one calling for it. There was 90 seconds on the clock. Time enough to score again even if he blows that pass and its turned over for a goal. Sometimes you need to push the envelope a little to win.

Exactly ?

I can only hope he is following his direct opponent off the field BZ and we cant see it. To gift any opponent a spare man, even for 15 or 20 seconds at that crucial juncture, beggars belief.

The other interesting aspect here is we have a player exiting the field while in front with 90 seconds to go!!?? Surely we needed all 18 on the park with no Cat spares at this critical phase?

Jones wasn't the reason we lost on Sat. Easily in our top 5 on the night and top 10 for the season. Has he lost half a yard this season and that's impacting his game generally? Probably. Have some of the other younger mids passed him along the way and become more dangerous and damaging. Yup. But that's a good thing and part of our evolution surely? Something Jones would be more than pleased to see I'm sure. Does he bomb too often? Yes. Can he improve his kicking and start hitting up more leads coming inside 50 this late in his career? Probably not at this point. Is he giving off too many suicide handballs vs previously? Might also be a case of the drop in speed and feeling more heat in congestion more often. So what to do? Time to find one of our greatest clubman and most courageous co-captain a new role and spend less time through the mid field and from what I've witnessed this is already happening...gradually. Where to from here? IMHO I would be sending him to a HF role with occasional relief through the middle for genuine insiders like Viney & Clarry when being rested. But minority of the time mid, majority HF. One thing a coach loves is a player that's going to be fully committed every time he runs out and prepare as a top pro every time. Yes the Jones boy has limitations and a number of flaws but he more than makes up for it overall. Still plenty of good football left but will need to find a niche that involves less time through midfield. And a significant change this late in career wouldn't be easy. He's one of the greatest stories for this club in the last decade and one of the few shining lights during what was a very gloomy period. The Jones boy might not be A grade but he IS the glue that has held this club together on the field for arguably a decade now. Just as he has lifted this club from the doldrums with many years of sweat, max effort and toil, it's time we all get behind him folks and lift him up on our shoulders to greater heights! Stick fat guys. Go the mighty Demons!

I can't think of another viable equivalent 'in form' option with similar AFL experience at Casey even if you wanted to drop 0-Mac right now.

Thanks Dimmy. Jonesy had a pretty ordinary month or so as we all know. At least prior to last night. And especially his game last week. Probably why he's come under scrutiny. He has dropped a little from earlier in the year as a result. The above system had Jones ranked 4 after Rnd 14 and Gus was 6th. Gus has effectively surpassed Jonesy as the season's unfolded. Lewis is having a great year statistically and doing some great work with ball in hand (mostly....still the odd horrible clanger / decision or two every match however) but it's what's happening to him defensively when the opp has the pill that is pretty worrying. Has real trouble closing any opponent down with a whisker of leg speed as we know. Occasionally gives professional holding the man frees away during a match to counter this issue. He knows he is toast if his opponent gets past him as we witnessed in the closing seconds last night. Hibberd out (and also Hunt when in form) was a huge loss for us here last night. Lever goes without saying also. And yes, young Fritschkreig is having a stunning first season eh. He has effectively gone past Hogan, Harmes (just), Tracc and ANB in year 1!

We have one of the worst defences in the league ....and everyone knows it DD. We are also never able to ice a quarter or end of a match out in a close game. Continue to turnover the ball even when in possession with minutes to go. Possibly something to do with the too many having ordinary disposal skills by foot and hence not willing to take the risk / fallout of missing a short / medium target. So instead they go long, like Tracc last night. As i have said from about middle of the season, Goody & Co need to focus a large portion of training on execution skills with particular emphasis on hitting short / medium targets by foot (if we aren't already doing so). I haven't been to a training session this year but i wonder if we are targeting this aspect of skills other than a small session mixed in amongst everything else. The Hawks focus on this for a minimum of 20 minutes three times a week apparently and everyone's involved.

Please post the details on here PF... only if successful!. We could all use the therapy. Then again part of the required recipe might mean never returning to D'land!

Season 2018 - Latest overall comparative weighted average stats Includes all players who have played so far as well and last night's heartbreaker. After next week i will do a stats form guide update for each player showing how each has faired since round 14 and their comparative ranking movements from then till now. Note that Maxy's ranking is skewed too low as i am unable to account for the 'hit outs to advantage' stat. Add about 0.75 for that (no science involved!) and you have a rough indicator of where he is at (3rd or thereabouts)..... * Denotes player has only played 2 games or less and would generally not be included for comparative purposes. Just throwing them in for anyone that's interested.

Apparently Goody has said he is at least 2 or 3 weeks away. Really need him and Kenty back in ASAP to replace JKH & Tyson.

This ^ AND.... 1. A classy outside winger with speed who can finish off his line breaking running hitting targets and at goal from around 50 (a la Fritschkrieg but with a little more power on the burst out of congestion) in the vein of Burgoyne (yes i know he is a rare find....something similar somwhere!??). I have no idea whether that's Gaff. Maybe. He scrubs up pretty well in the stat comparisons. My one worry though is his kicking efficiency which is a fair way from elite i think. Burgoyne obviously at the top end sitting at 71.7% (i think the AFL average is around 65% - 68% (or thereabouts) vs Gaff @ 64.5% (both stats are career averages)... http://www.afl.com.au/stats/stats-pro#/Compare?playerIds=CD_I210012,CD_I290801&comparisonTab=h2h 2. A gun medium power forward who can play a little time through the mid field also if needed. Who can take the opposition apart in the air and on the ground (Gary Ablett Snr / Danger style). Someone who can take a match by the scruff of the neck and turn it on it's head in a 10 minute burst. Someone slightly lessor would do also along the lines of a Daniel Bradshaw. A clutch mark and goal kicker in crucial moments from distance and just from whatever angle etc.... Trade all NQRs at the end of this year for the 3 key players above and we start winning silver. There are at least 9 on the present list IMHO that we can trade / delist and 2 who are possibly going to retire anyway in Vince & Pedders. A total of 11.

JKH and Jeffy are about par right now in terms of what they are delivering (or not!). Who do you replace them with? We only have medium tall forwards like Kent and Vanders left in the McGoos.

I didn't think he ran off him in a damaging sense at all SW. If he can't handle Hawkins one on one (keep the goal scoring to 3 to 4 max) or any other decent KPF then what is his role in the team? Goody should therefore not play him at all. Would be better off playing Keilty or Pedders in his place and having Frost take the big boys from the get go. Anyway, it's the same old same old at Demonland. Whenever a chance to secure a sound spot in the Top 4 or 8 becons, we always blow it. Still have a very soft under belly against the rated clubs.

Which part SW? The ultimate role of a defender, especially a key one, is to defend and keep your opponent from scoring too often (ie., limit the damage). Struggles to hold the better key forwards in the comp when the question's asked. Goody stuffed it in part by stubbornly refusing to move him off Hawkins earlier, but O-Mac has to accept part of the blame surely?

Just a statistical take on tonight to compare (somewhat objectively lol) to yours PF. Keep in mind Max would usually place higher as i can't factor in hit outs to advantage. Harmes played a pretty tough lock down role so his rank is probably skewed as a result. Clarry a furlong ahead of anyone else and nearly got us over the line with that performance tonight IMHO.....

6. Clarry 5. Jones 4. Fritschkrieg 3. Lewis 2. Tracc 1. T-Mac

Yes, that was a knee in the back (or hip). Goody is turning him into a 'neither here nor there' player though Wise by playing him up the field far too often. He's becoming average (and sometimes sub par) at both, with the odd (but far to seldom) fine performance up forward (and on the scoreboard). Only send him back or up the field when parking the bus in last few minutes of quarters or if we are a mid fielder down through injury on the bench. Otherwise he needs to impact and score goals more often as a KPF. Bring the ball to ground more often also for the small crumbers nearer the goals. Just my opinion but i think this strategy from Goody is costing us in some of the big games and the close ones, like tonight, the first match against the Cats and the Port match to name a few.

JKH a liability also. Hogan still hasn't found any consistency as a key forward either which is hurting us on the conversion vs number of inside 50s. Just isn't playing at a high enough level often enough at the moment. This BS of having him play a high game for so much of the match also. Rubbish. If Hulk kicks 2 or 3 tonight we win that match. Needs to become an impact power forward and a regular 2 to 4 goal player. Goes missing on the scoreboard in far too many matches. He was recruited as a key forward not a mid fielder from what i remember and while i appreciate the work he does up the field we are robbing Peter to pay Paul playing him so much up the field IMO. And i don't put this so much on Hogan as Goody. Poor judge of what is needed IMO. We had Tyson in tonight to replace Hannan. That's your extra mid. No need for Hogan to play through there also. Goody tried this one before as well against Port. Another fail.

After the 5th goal (at least) one would have thought so Moon. He is just TOO SLOOOW to react. Not pro-active and doesn't see the bleeding obvious nor get some of the basics right. Playing T-Mac up the ground so often is a liability also IMO. He is just too slow to react and gets caught too often. Too many turnovers in poor parts of the ground instead of getting him to play deep from the goal square more often where he plays his best forward craft and impacts on the scoreboard. Wasting energy and costing us on the turn over by continuing to push him up the field. Dumb coaching.

The MFC needs to protest to the AFL to prevent Nichols from ever umpiring another game of ours. The guy clearly has issues with the MFC. Two insane examples (for a start).... the Harmes 50m penalty decision tonight (which clearly wasn't there) and the one against Melksham in the square running into an open goal against Port (which i'm still scratching my head over) Has had it in for us ever since from last season when Max knocked the ball away and he cracked it.

Not only that, why listen the the idiot fitness guys and rotate him on the bench for so long in the the last quarter while the cats took over in the middle and got momentum back in their favor. Just go with what feels right FFS! Those extra few minutes he could have come on earlier may have cost us the match....along with a couple of cheating umpiring decisions that swung the game back the other way when the Cats where down. The 50 meters against Harmes when he was clearly leaving the area (Nichols) and the free kick to Ablett when it should have been holding the ball against him in the last quarter which IMO completely changed the face of the game in the Cat's favour gifting them a crucial goal.

Dropping the ball Ablett paid holding the man....only against the Demons and for Ablett

Woo hoo! Great play jones to Melk ....nice finish

Frosty to Hawkins ...thank goodness