Demon Dynasty

WD I'm no expert so I'll leave that to the coaches and recruiting staff. All I know is footy ovals are pretty big. There's a lot of ground to be covered. When you have the pill you can do that by great use of the ball with good vision and skills that allow you to hit up targets quickly by hand or foot to maintain possession, no matter where the next best option might be. If you can't see or find one you're only other option is to try and run away from your opponent or kick/paddle/hand ball the ball to your advantage and hope it bounces nicely so you can run on to it somewhere away from the opponent chasing you and reset again. When we haven't got the ball we need to be able to close down quickly on our opponents and pressure them when they are attempting to dispose as per above and win ball back either on ground or through the air. Either way you need a good sprinkling of players who can cover the ground quickly and are very deft of vision and skills by hand and foot (ideally both sides of the body). Obviously such players are extremely hard to come by which is why you probably only see a handful or less in most teams. The Hawks prefer them like this but are willing to take a one sided player ....usually left footed, and it seems to work a treat for them with the game plan Clarkson runs. At the MFC I am currently struggling to come up with one of those who has good to explosive speed, strength, vision and sublime finishing skills. Tracc looking like he is going to be a cracker at this point. We had one other in Watts, who had his moments in patches, but his effort side was questioned by many during the course of his career at times. Alas he has now moved on as we decided to look elsewhere. We still have a long way to go if we are to be a serious finals contender with the current list IMO. Our speed, finesse and finish (especially our method of entry coming inside 50 and finding targets or getting it to their advantage) is still a big work in progress for mine and we will need many further recruits and personnel changes before becoming a genuine and consistent finals contender.

Viney nothing like a Martin or match winner OD I agree. Simply saying that he can turn the momentume when he''s on the park and going well. That doesn't mean we will win though. As we saw on Sunday yet again, we often go close but still haven't found someone we can rely on to get us over the line and grab the chocolates. Maybe this weekend we might see something a bit more special with the Easter Bunny hopping about!

OD to me Viney can lift the team and turn the momentum of a game in our favour when he is fit and on and that's about it right now. But still not necessarily a match winner as such. Tracc is looming as a potential. Clarry gets a lot of it but still wouldn't call him a super star or match winner. We are still lacking a mid fielder (or HF) who can work his way through or away from congestion with agility/pace and hit up targets/kick long goals on a regular basis and really worry our opponents. Haven't seen this much at the MFC outside of Lyon (when he wasn't injured), Jakovich and Flower.

We are also quite a slow team across the ground WD which might also explain our inability to defend a high press. Means we can't close ground very quickly to get in the face of opponents making it relatively easy for them to work their way through it and get out the back quickly. They only need to find a runner out wide or over the top and they're off to the races with little chance of any of our guys catching em. Dropping the full high zone press and instead manning up or slightly off the opponent most of the time might be our best option. At least the opponent will be under some perceived or real pressure on the receive and we are not so vulnerable to our usual joe-the-goose. Dont mind the concept at all and your point about our mid field grunt (including a fit Viney) being able to go with most except Sydney is spot on. Need to use our strengths to our advantage and minimise our weaknesses.

Yes I think that took the wind out of the sails 77

Asbury been pretty ordinary at times...costly there

I agree with that Buck but the Toiges have been on the rough end of the pineapple for the most part (if you include non decisions). About a 4 to 5 goal assist so far me thinks.

Martin is a beast.... love the way the coach isolates him up forward. Rance been pretty good this last quarter or so

This is a solid post and some great points Dante. The main points for me here are composure and finesse once we have the ball in hand. If you overlook these two aspects you are doomed to live in a Demon dream about the prospects of this team from here until whenever that changes (hopefully sooner than later!) Our handballs and kicks are often directed to no one in particular. Too many on our list are so often the NFL style of player in the last few minutes of a countdown, just hail marying handballs and kicks forward without looking or assessing. Often attempting to pass to players well outnumbered/about to be tackled, or just in an unrealistic low percentage pass/handball position. These are more often than not long and loopy disposals also, giving little chance of the receiver gaining/maintaining possession and our opponents plenty of TIME to close the play down, spoil and get numbers around to assist. The above results in way too many easy turnovers back to our opponents when we had a chance to find a target or slow down a little, get a few handballs out into the clear and find a target latterly or up field if the option is there. We are just one constant break neck "go forward at all costs"" team it would seem, even to the point of ignoring free options on the inside or behind play in a better position to receive and with more chance to impact as they will have more space/time. We don't look to go laterally or backwards very often when options are closed off up field (yes the opponent, especially good ones, can defend VERY effectively sometimes and have numbers back!!!) or under decent pressure, or look for the switch often enough. In fact Max was one of the few players I can recall who found a target laterally inside in the first quarter. Most others across HB just break neck forward....go go go! Looks great when it works but once the opponent knows what you are on about they can organise and defend this, even better than early on when the game is in its infancy and no one is yet truly aware of your style. It's then only a matter of time before our opponent gets on top of us given our method above. Even if we are getting a stack of of the pill like, the first quarter of Sunday (9 clearances to 1 or zero at one stage well in to the first quarter!!!!!), we WASTE so many opportunities it is a real shame. Too easily defended! Great at getting the pill from a stoppage, mostly wasting opportunities when the ball is on the move or in our hands. Simple as that. No wonder the Cats got on top in the 2nd. They had us worked out and organised even more effectively down back then just continued to take advantage on the scoreboard. I can count only one kick from Melksham coming off HB through the middle where one of our players lowered his eyes and hit a target (think it may have been Hulk) in that first quarter with all the clearances/possessions off HB and inside 50 entries (or just outside) that we had. And some examples of the worst offenders at break neck "all ahead full" bombing/handballing in that first quarter?.... ~ Sorry Cap: I love ya to death bro but....In that first quarter you continued to spray wide, didn't look, bombed bombed bombed, sprayed it wide to a player well covered, handballed to a player about to be tackled etc. Plenty of possessions but most resulting in poor disposal from poor decision making or panic forward disposals. ~ Lewis: On one occasion gets a nice handball receive and loose at HF just panic kicks a left foot tumble punt forward giving our forwards no chance and the Cats just ran it straight out back down the other end. Luckily O-Mac spoils it out of bounds. ~ Harms: Earns a free kick at HF and doesn't assess. Just plays on quickly (towards boundary...how about wait and assess / look inside first) and kicks in hope (way too wide) to an invisible man in the pocket who is unable to get near his extremely short kick (Hannan) and the ball is out of bounce in a low percentage area of the forward. How about we do what good teams usually do and go back behind the mark quickly, try to hit a target on the lead on a better angle or kick it to the hot spot? Or pass it off laterally around HF on a better angle in the hope that the next player might find a target (and keep possession!!??). Luckily ANB got hold of the pill shortly after from the throw in and in one of our very rare "front and square" examples from a medium (but not a genuine forward!) he kicks a goal off the pack. ORGANISATION Why did we run with 4 to 5 different opponents on Ablett, arguably the best player in the AFL or one of, during the first 12 minutes of the first quarter? At one stage with 8 minutes to go we had Hulk on him!! Seriously coaches what were you thinking! Guess what....surprise surprise Ablett takes Hulk to the drop, turns him on a dime, paddles the ball on to the advantage of a few other Cats forward, who then work it out to Selwood. By this stage Hulk has given up the chase (like he had a chance!) and is about 50 meters behind Ablett who has run further deep forward flank for the next receive (after Selwood gets free and tumble punts a PASS to someone who then handballs over the top to guess who!). He of course finishes, being the superstar he is, and bob's your uncle. Cats in front again. He ran ahead of the ball freely, knowing his direct opponent had absolutely ZERO chance of shutting him down and kicked for goal under little pressure. While the above may have been a one off accident (with Clarry manning him in the next centre bounce) we just cant allow that sort of match up to occur against a player of that calibre. But it wasn't a one off! We then see Hulk on Selwood in that next bounce! I'm sorry but we are talking chalk and cheese here in terms of ability, agility and experience in reading the play/drop of the ball and getting the cheese out of the middle in congestion. Guess what, who gets that next clearance! No, I'm sorry not Hulk. His direct opponent Selwood. Luckily the forward entry from the Cats from that Selwood clearance was repelled by Lever and Hulk then benefited from Geelong's cockiness with Selwood not manning up Hulk. Hulk gets on the end of it and ultimately wins this time by kicking a beautiful running goal from 45. But....the Cats have no problem rolling this dice as they know they are going to win with either of those match ups, more often than not. They are more than happy to play those odds and would do so for the entire match if allowed! In the next centre bounce, thankfully there is no Hulk matched against Danger or Ablett. We see Maynard on Selwood. Who does well, getting front position. Selwood manhandles him without the pill (which should have been a free against Selwood (one of at least two that weren't given against him in that first quarter). Selwood also kicks in danger across Maynard's body towards the approaching ball which THEN finally results in a free kick to Maynard. Maynard does what you would expect of a good mid and goes back quickly, bangs a long bomb straight to the hot zone. Gives Pedo a chance and he takes a lovely pack mark and goals. SIMPLE STUFF GUYS! And well done to Maynard there. On his next foray he admittedly didn't do so well, bombing a loopy drop punt to no one except Geelong defenders inside 50. A lot to learn but only his 2nd game. Speaking of organisation, the Cats were willing to switch in order to maintain possession and seek an alternative avenue to goal. To do so meant they needed loose options working hard to present. They were able to do so on numerous occasions racking up uncontested marks along the way. Something we did very little of throughout the match nor in the first. To watch this in the first quarter in particular was disappointing given we should have had plenty in the tank (no excuses). For our part we seemed content to just bomb forward or direct it down the line most of the time without assessing. Their two new debutants also impacted the play and Kelly in particular got away from his direct opponent on a number of occasions and lead him to the ball. While one quarter, especially the first of what is to be a very long season, should not be looked at in isolation, it is a worrying sign that we appear to be so one dimensional in general game play and allowed someone like Hulk to match up on two of the AFL's great mid fielders after having the whole summer to plan and train for it. We need to get better organised, more professional, more composed and add a few more options to our game other than constant ""straight ahead" bombing/handpassing of the pill when other options might be on offer or the options ahead look well covered. Lowering our eyes. Presenting on the lead. Working hard to prevent our opponent from doing this against us so easily. Not having passengers, especially smaller ones up forward who aren't willing to work hard to get front and square/free around the drop of the ball but instead just star gaze lazily adjacent the pack in hope or crashing the pack when they should be waiting down. Hard working but clever please! There is much hope and potential talent, especially when we don't make match up blunders in the middle like we did above, but still so much more that needs doing in so many other aspects. Game time and experience will no doubt help the young stars like Tracc & Clarry to improve even more. BUT we also must recruit at least one (or two) super quick clever ball users who can beat their opponent to the drop of the ball and get the ball out to runners (or run the ball away themselves). Having some foot speed amongst those one or two recruits will also allow us to get an extra man or two around the ball at many contests, like the Cats did on Sunday through Kelly and to a lessor degree Ratugolea. They won many contests on the inside (and outside) by gaining this advantage through foot speed (and/or hard work/design...coaching!?). Go the Mighty Demons!

Sorry LDC....thought u were Steve lol. Response is pasted on top of yours (see above).... couldnt paste here for some silly reason

Fair points Steve. I also hear you re Frost up forward but sometimes players also need to be flexible if they are to be of value to the team structure, especially when called on to cover a key out like T-Mac. Im not saying he needs to play the whole match there if its not working and shldnt be swung down back at some stages but wldnt mind seeing him start the match there.

Would consider only one change: Frost for Fritsch or Hannan. Lack an extra tall and can play a high HF role on the lead, allowing Hulk to stay around i30. Just putting it out there. Would need convincing myself Hibberd & Melk with no tackles and little impact would want to step up big time this week. Garlett & ANB one more chance for redemption. Nev also had a mare (by his standards) but has a few credits. I get the critics on Maynard but has only had a handful of games and his replacements aren't any quicker across the ground and should be sent one more message that they aren't automatic shoe-ins. We have depth (kind of !). Might help free up Maynard's mental state and performance also knowing that the coach is backing him. Confidence is an amazing tonic and one more look couldn't hurt. His second half on Ablett wasn't too shabby either. Not great but played his role when asked. A chance for redemption from a last minute shanked kick FTW and send a small message to those in waiting that they will need to bust the door down (depending on this week's performance!)

Have we ever had a quicker mid field (fleet of foot) Steve? Apart from Clarry who has evasive skills and Viney who can steamroll occasionaly, we are not exactly very quick across the ground even with Viney in for Maynard. Are you saying the Maynard over Tyson selection resulted in us being slower? Playing Hulk through the mid-field also makes us even shorter up forward unless Max is dropping back....and huge win for the Cats in the air, and a double win given the way we bomb it in most of the time! I actually thought Hulk did ok offensively through the mid (ie., when he had it) but yes we got exposed when the Cats were running it up the ground off HB.

Any football player from all other clubs LDC. We need at least a 150% reassurance to avoid NMCS ty!

Excuse me i drive one of those for business purposes! .....actually crappy is a compliment

One of my favourite albums

Chanel 7....going in for scans on elbow

Hogan injured now.... Wth

Probably partly explains why we are playing T-Mac as a forward and Frosty isnt getting much game time

And the Cats kicked to the advantage of their team mates beautifully on many occasions on Sunday Fork. There were one or two beauties to Menzel against Nev that gave Menzel every opportunity to out mark Nev....which he did to aplomb. Our game has yet to go to this next level in general field kicking. Imagine if we were giving this sort of feed to Tracc and Hulk up forward with Jeffy at the drop! Clear out the forward 50 as much as possible with this set up. We would rule most opponents!

You have to be able to make space on your opponent to get a lot of uncontested marks also DV. I womder if we lack break away speed in general in order to spread and provide those options. Are we hand balling in close too often because players just don't have those options on the outer in congestion? Or do we just have too many at the contest? Is it our set up? Other teams making sure they have one or two outliers always, so they have options once the ball escapes congestion. I think Geelong in particular do this forward of play as they are so confident in their ability to gain possession on the outside and overlap forward of congestion. Having a free man (or two) forward is risky as you can get caught out badly on the turnover but if it works the ball moves very quickly into your 50 giving the op less time to get numbers back and/or man up. Going out the back / laterally generally is a steadier/slower (somewhat safer?) alternative but may not reap as many rewards. Can we learn from the Cats here?

WB our fade outs aren't an accident. They are a result of a good opponent taking advantage of our weaknesses and capitalising. Although we need to be careful reading too much from one match, they didn't change from last year on Sunday. The main ones being...... ?? We lack consistent / decent forward 50 pressure on our opponents when we get it inside 50 and once our opponents get hold of the ball inside there. Garlett (last year) and Bugg / ANB to a lessor degree about the only real threat to opponents here. Hope they can bring this again (if playing) but we need to find at least one more mosquito option to bring this IMO, especially if Bugg isn't a regular. ?? As has been repeated in here So many times, most of the time our forwards play a dumb brand with too many leaping at the contest, even Garlett much of the time!!? No one at the drop of the ball front and square. At one stage in the last quarter I saw a long bomb to our 50 (approx) and the Cats had someone front and square who ran it out and away quickly. Our guys in the vicinity hit the pack....no one to be seen when ball hit the deck! Dumb dumb dumb! Line coaches must be licking their chops when showing this to their defensive players during the week. Also happens with kicks down the line too often also. This should have changed from last year. Surely Garlett needs to stay down and get front and square or attempt to read ball off pack!? Again we need that additional mosquito to add another option here, take the heat off Jeffy and make their match ups up forward even trickier. Fix the above or continue to see many missed opportunities go a begging with opponents picking up the crumbs and running it out with relative ease. ?? The constant bombing to HF and if we get it close enough the hot spot at the top of the square. Same old same old from last year. Have we learned nothing? One game doesn't make a swallow but if we can all see this along with the opposition who set up for it, why can't the FD / Coaching panel? What were we training over the whole summer?? I'm not saying it should never go there, but the balance just looks off and has been for too long now. I haven't watched the replay but I would love to see the break down of how many long bombs went inside 50 versus lowering of the eye and attempting to hit a target or at least trying to. Fix it or continue to see opponents read us like a book and just get numbers plus a few outliers to the drop at the hot spot. Too easy folks. ?? ZERO tackles between Melk, Piggy & Oscar (Oscar did his job however and probably wasn't instructed to zone off and tackle/spoil) didn't help either. Have the two imports not been trained to pressure defensively in their former roles and just can't be fixed in this area? Surely not!? The above issues need Fixing. It might mean a change or injection of personnel and/or the skills/method/organisation of forward entries /structure ....or both. If we don't fix the forward entry issue especially (including crumbing options, bombing to hot spot/HF far to often, forward 50 pressure and most flying for the long bomb) I fear we will miss finals (again). The next 3 to 4 matches are going to be very telling for this club and its coaching panel.

I would have to agree on this one ned. He has a way of getting under people's skin also and would have done same to Ablett across 4 quarters with a few cameos up forward to mix it up when resting also. While Maynard did OK on Ablett in the second half, the damage was done by half time with a lot of it involving link up play to/from Ablett.

I definitely agree this is all up top Gawn and a good point. Everyone choked or rushed their shots. No one stood up. The players must stop thinking about a win (if they are) and just play their best. Any set shot just go through the routine and shoot. Don't think about scoreboard when shooting at any stage unless it's last 2/3 minutes and we need to ice the match and change up to a keeping off style, then obviously possession and time is key. Might need some hypnotherapy here. We have been a club that's been down for so long....the weight is heavy no matter what anyone says. Not easy playing for the red & blue given the history. Mental Demons are a factor for sure. All the more reason to make sure we ice games well before we get towards the final siren.

Anyone but Max (or Bugg if playing). We do not play smart very often . Handball it off to someone for a snap shot fcs. Chances still slim under pressure and in congestion but better than set shot from Big M.