Demon Dynasty

It's not that crazy BoG. If we lose against the Tiges i would say it's a necessity. An objective review of the entire FD and list wouldn't hurt at all regardless, especially post 666!

I know....but ... alternatives? Until we get May in when fit and Lever....it's always going to be a band aid job

The outs are all plausible PF....IF we had some depth of talent in form at Casey to cover them all. The likes of Spargo & Cwag should still be playing at Casey to develop and learn their craft for another season or so before getting a recall (if justified and a spot becomes available). Bringing in Sparrow and Chandler is a deck chair job at this point in their career IMHO for the same reasons. Young blokes will only be scarred if they are exposed to too much ugly footy at senior level. Yes I'm putting Lockhart in which is against all that but he has shown a little and IMO we need a smaller defender out of the back pocket to combat the small brigade of the Tiges. Locky has shown a glimpse of something special albeit small but has played predominantly down back in his junior years and is supposed to read the play very well from there. Jones better suited to be being played mostly as a deep forward now IMO. So until we get Pruess, Nev, May, Lever, Hannan and AVB back this would be my best 22 for the Tiges... In: Keilty, Garlett, Lockhart, Stretch Out: Spargo, CWag, Pruess (inj), Nev (inj) B: Lockhart Frost Hore HB: J Wag TMac Hibberd C:- Salem Clarry Fritschkreig HF: Melk Weids Hunt F: Garlett Keilty Tracc Followers: Gawn Harmes Gus INTER Jones, Lewis, Stretch, Viney Edit: KK or ANB omitted... had one too many!

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Pruess injured NoSoup. Good changes aside from the forced Pruess which is unfortunate. But if it's a choice between Lewis or Petty i would be going Lewis provided he is being played in his usual position as HB sweeper. If not then a scarecrow on the wing might be a better option. Petty's last entre' on the big stage wasn't Pretty unfortunately. Would not be risking another entre' untill he's busting the door down at Casey and we are sitting on positive Wins v Losses. 2020 maybe?

KK (1.450) and Stretch (1.825) have been marginally better statistically BA. A coin flip on KK vs ANB though. ANB was just too far off his best over the first 3 rounds and i don't think he's done enough to justify a recall before those two, albeit it's a very close call, i still think they just get the nod if we had to choose....

Opp is definitely putting more work into Clarry and similar work as previous years into Viney. The challenge for them and the FD is to work out how they shake their opponents off more effectively and how we combat the extra attention on these two, as a team. Structure / personel wise do we have one too many genuine insiders if we include chunk in the mix? (limited time in there now but he's still in it). More time deep forward pls FD. Our other issue is the starting 3 in the middle. Something i haven't taken much notice of this season. I'm thinking if we are playing more than one genuine insider there (Viney, Chunk, Clarry) then we are doing ourselves a diservice. Too immobile and too easy for the opp to bare down on and smother resulting in more turnovers? 1 genuine insider max pls. The other 2 have to come from the likes of Gus / Harmes / Salem (in small doses?) and Tracc (again small doses). This keeps us a little more agile and adds (in theory) the ability to break away from congestion by foot more often with ball in hand without the potential of turning it over as often when we have 2 or more genuine insiders who tend to flip the ball around alot more by hand.

The idea is sound but you need to get it into the hands of our best ball users by foot who can hit up targets i50 and who also have a bit of speed/run in them allowing them to find space and steady a little before delivering. We must make the most of that last kick around the arc when coming inside 50 Scarlett. Our two most accurate ball users by foot right now are Salem and Fritschkrieg. Both must be played off either wing & groomed/moulded into that specialist role as the season progresses Their ability to play it successfully will take time. This is a must if we are to rescue this season and make something of It and go on to win a premiership during what is a very small window that remains slightly ajar. They may not be the medium term answer and we might need to recruit one or two specialists. Hec they might both fail. But these two are our best options in the short term. To even consider playing Chunk and/or Lewis through there, at any point in time in any match, beggars belief and one would have to question the sanity of whoever does so. Of course they will need to be rotated and others will need to play through there to relieve them while they're on the bench or when needed at times to match up on other opponents for specific roles. But these are the 2 go to players. Melksham, Hunt (if he can clean up his disposal) & Harmes as secondaries. Stretch as a 3rd stringer when needed to cover injuries or we are up against a zippy team like the Aints and higher rotations needed to help keep a fresh set of legs or for match up purposes (height/relative burst speed/ etc). Fast efficient transition is one of the critical elements in the modern game and has now become even more critical with the introduction of 666. We fix this area of our game and we fix much of our current woes in my opinion. We MAKE the opponent start chasing OUR tail (wearing their fresh legs out) a little more and worrying about how THEY are going to match up on us and.close US down...instead of the reverse which is what we are witnessing now. Playing one or two older fellas off the wing is the elephant in the room and its plain for all to see that this is our most obvious fail, but also our easiest fix, so far this season IMO. Pure insanity, especially on the G, and if persisted with by Goody, will only end in further weeping and gnashing of teeth within the FD, the club and its supporters/sponsors. Chunk deep forward, Lewis (if He continues) to HB.

Officially we may get a kind response DP but some feelings run deep and are ingrained in people's psyche and hence actions. In reality i would not be expecting anything different in future from the likes of Razor or Nichols. Hopefully the ingrained dislike for anyone running around in the red & blue is limited to those two.

✌? unfortunately watching the MFC is nothing like that box of chocs PF!

Lets hope his tenure doesn't damage us as badly as Malthouse did coaching the Blues.

Other than a few phases through the Swooper years forward craft has never been our forte TU. The Saints seem to be benefiting already from a little bit of advice from Dermy although our defence is not exactly the greatest test ATM. They must be doing something right in this area so far though given their ladder position.

We need a few zippy small to mediums up forward to help keep the ball in a little more often or cause a few extra turnovers tiers. Our one exception is Hunt but he's only good at closing in a straight line and very ordinary y'day. Jeffy the only other available that is capable of impacting. We have been deficient in this area for decades. Other teams seem to grow them on trees.

Are you suggesting he should have done a Fletcher Christian SW? I think most on here agree our best chance of winning is not to play Christian and his Co-Hort, Jake the Peg Lewis, on both wings but instead younger men with a little more zip! I'm not saying we will definitely win just through those 2 logical starting positional changes....but surely it improves our chances a little. And why wouldn't any decent coach worth his salt want to give his team the best possible chance of winning?

AF the ball was coming in at lightning speed with no light brigade (mid field roll back) in sight most of the time. Hore has had all of 3 matches to settle, two of those in a losing team, and yes missed the mark a few times yesterday but if we were mostly winning right now many would be lauding the FD for snaring such a super prospect down back. Hore has given us double the ouput of anything Oscar ever produced even on a day out...in a mere 3 matches! Frosty far from perfect but solid yesterday IMO. Again the ball was coming in so easily and quickly they were always going to be caught out on occasions and outplayed. Let's thank our lucky stars we have two tallish defenders with some height and decent closing speed to close down opponents on occasions (vs stationary witches hats) who are also able to provide us with some run and quick movement off HB, so critical in the modern game. Hore and Frosty both ranked in our top 10 performers yesterday (4th & 9th repsectively) using the average weighted stats i keep. Not to shabby. I also have Hore ranked at No.4 for the season overall (early days but nonetheless impressive) and Frosty ranked 18th (a total of 29 players having played so far up to yesterday).

It's partly a player / personnel issue (lack of outside runners / class / finish and quality smalls) but mostly a coaching / FD lead problem Sydee. I would not be too harsh on the team as a whole. There is effort by most and for me a there was a lift in that effort/output last week and y'day. Some are playing within their own limitations and others badly out of form due to the injuries etc pre-season. Sure some aren't up to it and may never be. Others coming towards the end of their careers. But it is without doubt the limitations of the coach and his panel as well as the list itself (which the players had no say in), which are having the biggest impact on our performances since the Prelim.

No quality small forwards who have crumbing front & square smarts. A bit of burst speed to burn off an opponent or any goal sense. Getting Jeffy back in and performing might help but apart from him that's abaout it at the MFC sadly. Our small forward stocks are shizen houzen. Preuss (when he's fit and in) is handy as he offers a get out deep for smalls to work their craft off and score. The trouble is we have no one to compliment his size and work (getting the ball to ground) so in many ways unless he is kicking around 2 goals or so himself in most matches, with our list, he becomes a bit of a liability (back up ruck relief for Maxy aside)

Our small (small - medium) forwards are a shadow of most other clubs ABG. We have no weapons here at present including any pace to burn off opponents and guys that know where the goals are and can dob a few in traffic. It allows the opp to easily defend, sending an extra number or two to the drop of our umpteen long bombs every time, without fear of the ground ball damage to the scoreboard usually taken by most clubs when the ball is in dispute. Apart from an ageing Jeffy (if he gets on the park and going) and Melksham having a rareish day out, the cupboard is pretty bare right now. Looking ahead, Lockhart's a maybe but not going to have much of an impact in 2019.

The experiment has a 50/50 hit rate. Let's not throw the baby out just because we have 2 out of 3 Key Forwards who aren't performing at an acceptable level. Pruess won't play anyway i don't.think...arm in a sling after the match. Jeffy for Spargo playing at the feet of Pruess (or the other two) for a start would help (needed this yday). Stretch is a must in for Cwags and needs a block of 3 games at least. Might be his last roll of the dice so he needs a fair go, subject to not performing abysmally early.

We have been the whipping boy of many over many decades DB. The club needs to ask for an explanation from the head of umpiring if it hasn't already

Nichols has had it in for the Demons ever since Hawn punched the ball away in 2017 from a crappy Nichols center bounce that went outside the circle.... "what did you do that for!?" Cried Nichols. Razor and him might be super close? It was definitely strange behavior seeing we were the ones receiving the free kicks.

Off seasons in such a tough League are going to happen Ox. Our problem is we just have too many of them. To drop back to bog ordinary again, where we were before Roos came on board, is unforgivable. A highly experienced assistant coach might offer some hope if there's one out there but need to wait till mid season before heading down that route IMO.

It's not easy to defend when there is so little pressure on players coming out of our 50 and we are playing dad's army on the wings. The Opp runs it off their HB and transitions too quickly/easily around either wing and bang, they're into their 50 super quick causing mayhem and panic. The Opp just needs to put a few quick smalls at the drop of a contest if they dont mark it and they're off to the races for an easy goal out the back or around the corner. You can't defend well without sufficient pressure beIng applied up the field.

Lewis marshals the troops from HB. He can't Marshall anyone from a wing as he is perpetually in flux trying to work out how he can cover his opponent when we dont have the ball (or directing others around him to do so).