Demon Dynasty

Pretty decent summary shorty

We are in a bit of a fix Doc. Cant argue with any of that. The impact of an in form and fleet footed Hannan in the 2nd half last year as well as the injection of the hard hitting & clever decision making of AVB after his comeback, were both significant factors in us making finals and going deep.

Tongue in cheek D11. He does seem to be carrying a little too much though when you look in the flesh. Who knows he might shed a little (muscle!) and find half a yard as the season wears on. I'm probably seeing it all [censored] up but i think he hasn't been as bad as some are suggesting, given the poor form of the team as a whole. If we were somewhere near our form of last year he might be smashing it.

Personally from what I've witnessed he looks fine other than skin folds!?? ? He is big and mobile and hard to tackle if he hits the contest hard. We played him there in small doses last season and wouldn't mind seeing him play there a tad more. Rjays idea of Viney at HF (or even deeper) has merit alternating with Tracc in the middle. Might also help Viney shake off any tag a little. Play him off the circle a little and tell him to run through anyone that gets in the road (eyes only for the pill of course!)

Half forward yes but you still need speed out wide on the G to break a game open and/or defend against a fast break from a shallow entry into our forward 50. And if a sluggish wingman's opponent gets out the back on a fast break our defenders are toast . And with sluggish wingman you can't afford to push too high on a hard forward press. That almost kills the raison d'etre for the entire "lock the ball in our 50" strategy as the Opp will place a few quick smaller defenders to run off into space and hook up with anyone faster than our wingman out wide over the top! And as you say, their wingman don't have to be that quick...just quicker than ours...which isn't hard against Jones and Lewis. And thats exactly what the Saints did. Too easily picked off on either side on the fast break for multiple joe the gooses into forward 50 and a few joe the gooses beyond that, running into an open goal. In the case of Jones and Lewis they are unable to cover that option meaning the Opp can switch to either fat side and potentially gain an advantage with a slightly speedier match up if they move the ball reasonably quickly and accurately, which the Saints did very nicely for much of the game. Yes you might be able to cover one sluggish wingman IF you have HBs that are able to cover enough ground quickly enough to close down space on their opponent and play them closely enough when the switch is on. But even then you are still going to have a spare if they get away from a Jones or Lewis at any stage, creating an overlap player that's coming towards or inside 50 under little or no pressure. Easily able to hit up forward targets on a lead etc or even run into an open goal from or around the arc. Defenders have no chance covering this effectively much of the time as the Opp can pick either side of the ground at will and bring it in under little pressure with solid accuracy. You simply can't play sluggish players or even one on the wings at the G for long periods of a match against quality opposition and not expect to be severely punished in today's super professional game. Any coach who believes this is an option is going to be torn a new one by any half decent opposition. A great team will absolutely pulverize it and make it look like a training drill. Also you say as soon the HBs & HFs dropped off Lewis & Jones were toast. Chicken and Egg DS. We gave them a massive incentive to make multiple switches and do just that as they knew their wingman would eventually get the better of both our old boys out wide. If they can't see or don't believe that opening is in front of them they are less likely to try it as often leaving our HBs & HFs a tad less exhausted and probably able to punish more effectively going the other way or be more accurate at goal when having a shot. All the little wins (or losses) on the day add up!

Lewis only has a few limited assets left including his ability to read the play and intercept across HB, then feed off. Goody would have been about the only official in the football that would have felt Lewis (and Jones) should be played off a wing (at the G). Don't play him at all if he can't play his usual HB role in that case. It was an amateur call as was the idea of putting Jones on the other wing. By the times Lewis and Jones run "Hard" backwards the ball would already be rebounding (after having gone there already) and be sailing over their heads before they've gotten half way there. It's the quickest part of the ground, you don't play your slowest through there. Yet that's what our senior coach did from the get go. The Saints coaching group must have been laughing and licking their lips on seeing that set up at the first bounce but initially must have thought "settle boys....it's just a ploy....they won't continue with that one!".

The kicking in danger earlier also for the Cats overlooked by 4 umpires. They would call that against us 9 out of 10 times.

He did. Half his body was already over the line and he was given the slightest of shoves into the top of left shoulder. Ump called it without hesitating. The umps call things (or don't) very differently for the top clubs and players vs the also rans like us. Winning against any of the top 4 Vic clubs and clubs playing out of Marvel is an amazing achievement at any point in the calendar.

The umpires doing their best to get Hawthorn up. Amazing. Last free on the boundary was invented.

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!

.

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).