Demon Dynasty

The bottom line IMO is the 100 plus gamesters. Yet again we have less than half vs the Dockers. Similar to the Swans game. I don't rate the Dockers however, but at the same time we are just leaving too much to too few every week. I dream of one day seeing this imbalance reversed in our favour...hopefully I'm still alive to see that. Dockers by 3 to 5

I hope you aren't including Frost and Omac as part of the "bunch of kids" Stuie, they are the future and they can do no wrong. They will lead us to the promised land eventually. Just keep playing them no matter what happens or how badly they perform. Even If they can't hit our targets, who cares. They look fast and impressive when the run, they take the game on and hit plenty of the opposition up. We are getting games into them and they will eventually learn not to pick out the opposition or kick it into dangerous vacant areas in the middle of the ground after running the ball out of defence so impressively ... A little like Tmac in diapers

Kick 6? So you're saying you don't want him playing for the demons again Poita? Tim Smith will kick 6 before Dawes and would probably give a more decent return for us on about half the coin

Thought he was Ok rjay. Didn't particularly stand out from any of 3 or 4 other defenders as mentioned. Grimes is too small made to play or impact through mid at AFL level for more than a few short stints. Tends to drift to HB a fair bit where he mostly tends to hug the boundary. Need players who can also pull trigger inside running off HB. Unfortunately Grimes and most of our other defenders aren't capable here with the exception of Wags & Hunt. Grimes work rate is second to none however, and I expect he will outperform/impact a little more than Bugg this week. And Vanders... Lucky! Another game just by tackling and being desperate and hitting the contest? Not sure that's enough but who am I to question. Roos still loves him obviously. Would have gone Vanders before Bugg based on last few weeks.

ANB for Bugg and Spencer for Dawes makes more sense. 2 extra defenders for a mid and a forward?

Frost and Dawes were the 2 worst IMO OD. Apart from Frost's first quarter which was solid (except for overrunning a ball at one stage which gave the Crows their first) he was barely sighted after about half way through the 2nd and easily pushed off it once he lost his initial strength. No tank / strength for the contest over more than a few quarters right now. Dunny would be a better option this week if he did the meters required.

Oliver was solid against the Tigers fading a little in the last but not many others stood up either outside of Grimes, White, ANB, Keilty, Michie and Smith. Kid is class and knows where to run, gets there often and gets the ball out accurately for first use more often than any other mid fielder. Sells players into space also, not into trouble a fair bit eg; Bugg/Tyson/Jones boy. Tackles pretty well in close also. Play the future champ where he'll learn and make the most of it upstairs for the remaining junk games. Not downstairs with the junk game style that Casey are playing (vs AFL). Too good for Casey and we go for 2 defenders In place of a mid and a forward. Makes no sense. We become more defensive and much slower across the ground and in ball movement with Grimes playing an old Melb down the line style hugging the boundaries. If you said IN: Grimes, White Out: Bugg, Frost it might make more sense as Grimes can spend a bit of time through the mid to make up for the lost rotation and lock down options with Bugg out. White covers a too raw with no tank (but some potential) Frost.....easily. Frost is unable to play to a reasonable standard for much longer than a quarter or 2. Might end up a solid player but not ready for AFL yet. Hulett for Dawes surely. Not ready either but if you need the 3rd forward option plus a goer who can also play tall through the mid. Worth a look for a few matches at least. Although I would prefer Tim Smith. Bloke's a gun. Get him! Hardly misses and clunks almost everything. Can defend also when needed. Bewildering selections

Good luck to him and hope he has a stellar intro. Haven't seen that many Casey matches must have good form. Personallly I didn't rate him any higher than our other key defenders in Dunn, Garland, Grimes against the Tiges though and thought Grimes & Keilty were the best defenders (yeh I know he isn't listed ?) Not sure why we are selecting 2 defenders and dropping a Mid/Forward. strange.

P.S. I noticed everyone doing a stack of short passing drills today. Had we hit more short targets or kicked to our advantage coming i50 on Sunday we may have won. We burn so many on the lead I reckon they sometimes figure they'll probably have a better chance playing from behind. There was an occasional strike but not enough to build much confidence. Hulk a classic example where he was missed on a number of leads early. Reverted back to playing from behind me thinks. Then ppl say he plays from behind too often

Thanks for the updates WW. Perplexing selections vs the outs considering the form guide from the Crows/ Tigers matches and the style of player going out/coming in.

U got it half right dazzle! He does a lot of running but that's pretty much a pre requisite for any hard working forward now WW. Unfortunately much of his running is at snails pace. He can't really lead and haven't seen him do so in the four games this year as his opponent matches/and or gets in front of him pretty easily. Our forward entries are stymied with him in the team as he generally doesn't get into a lead option nor is he able to clunk contested marks over the back or in a pack. This. Hulett should have been in this week for Dawes just for a brief look and try for 2 to 3 matches.

Thought his game was pretty scratchy and ineffective myself WW

Forgot to get mine in....don't know if it counts but anyway 6. Watts - Easily our best. Is this his first undisputed BOG for the Demons? Arguably now the best utility in the AFL. Never thought i would see him playing at this level. Ben Ken get out of his road bro, that was probably another goal coming up! Biggest yardage gained for us for the match. 5. Hunt - Gave us the spark and space as well as some fantastic pressure acts and intercepts. Also saw him at and under the contest a number of times. The desperation is there, the run is amazing, the read is improving and he is now starting to finish off his good early work a little better. Quick learner! 4. N Jones - Jonesy still needs to work on his passes i50 as he missed a few easy and obvious ones, but overall that was a solid game from our Captain. He was in everything and had to compete against Thompson most of the day which is no mean feat. Had the better of him IMO. 3. Harmes - A four quarter effort. Lacks a little polish at times but cleaned up alot of ugly fumbles and solid work rate saw him on the receiving end of much of the good work inside from the likes of Jones and Viney. 2nd biggest yardage gained for us. Nice. 2. Kent - what a fantastic 3 quarters providing the outside link man and also some fantastic pressure acts in the first half. Went missing in the last for all but the last 5 minutes and tried to take a few too many on on one or two occasions. If only he had a right side! 1. Garlett - Welcome back mate! Jeffy at his best. apologies to the Hulk (those handballs wow!), Tyson (sloppy at times), Nev and Viney (who got better as the game went on after a forgettable first quarter).

But he doesn't Jumbo. A significant part of his role surely has to be as resting ruckman instead of Watts? Watts is not going to win many of those (even though he does use a few clever tricks to do so at times) and is easily muscled out of the ruck contest most of the time. Expending valuable energy also when he should be either a kick behind play at the stoppages or on the outside offering a receive option and giving us valuable ball use/delivery inside 50 or creative link up assistance or playing forward. He is our best ball user and decision maker with ball in hand and our most accurate shot at goal. Whereas Dawes may be one of our worst ball users and rarely kicks goals. We also risk Watts getting a severe (unnecessary) injury like a corkie. Why would any coach want this set up/option? If Dawes can't play this role then he should not be in the team. The sooner Pedo returns the better IMO. I would rather see Spencil in until then TBO. At least he can fill the ruck role and offer a decoy for Hogan at times and take a tall defender. Couldn't be any worse than the current set up assuming 'Watts in the Ruck' continues. If Dawes played much more often as resting ruck then i might be more conducive to him staying until Pedo is available/ready. Spencil is certainly not a match winner vs Dawes on his own but by bringing him in as resting ruck/occasional forward it allows Watts to do more of what he does best and have more energy doing so, which in my books would more than make up for the loss of Dawes up forward.

You cant afford to be one man down In defence (or anywhere really) In today's game. Frost would have to be the luckiest bloke In the AFL atm on recent efforts. If they pick him again this week I will run naked around Goschs with a pair of red socks on In protest!

Having double the amount of players with over 100+ games under their belt Is going to take Its toll at some point Praha. Was keeping It to only 12 min or so not a bad effort given this? I wonder. We also went one tall defender too many for the 2nd week In a row and paid the price. We also chose the wrong defender as that 3rd tall again... very poor form on behalf of the brains trust last 2 matches.

P.S. pretty sure the FD wouldnt be throwing a player back to Casey unless he is suffering poor form over a certain period rather than in isolation, depending on how poor the last performance was of course.

If we had the depth/quality and batted a bit deeper like the Hawks/Swans etc OD I would say a few more of our freshmen would be at Casey earning and learning their stripes. Unfortunately we dont at this point. Another reason we need to bring In some experienced quality for next season. Sometimes the young blokes need to catch their breath before returning but the experience needs to be there to do the job upstairs while they learn/earn/return.

I know how Its determined thx Stu and agree In ISolation and without watching the game/s, knowing who played where, the style of player, the role being asked of them and keeping It all In context (after watching the match), as well as not comparing like with like (eg, Inside mids with Inside mids, Key tall defenders with KTDs with each playing the bulk of the game In those roles...did he play a lock down role, was he often double teamed etc) then any publicly available stat In Isolation Is fairly useless. I dont use them like that and only after watching a game to confirm as a very rough guide where similar Ilk players are fairing playing In a similar position and roles (for most of the match). This post from BF expands on this also.... Sep 24, 2014 #38 The Old Dark Navy'sModerator Iron said: ↑ I'd rather have a player go in and get the ball 30 times and **** up 10 of those, than only go in 15 times and **** up 3 of them. Percentages are too neat a measure. (Response To the above post)..... Again, depends on where these **** ups occur and the result. If they result in 10 turnover goals, then maybe not. If the guy getting it 15 times is playing a defensive role where he limits a gun opposition player, then maybe he is doing better. If one has better 1% stats where he is blocking for, or tapping the ball to a teammate, he's not getting the disposal stats but he is very much in the game. It is nearly impossible to formulate opinions based on our stats. They are a guide but they are all flawed. If there was a measure of the scale of pressure on a kick, how far each went, whether you had to spot up a teammate between two opponents, that would be getting close. I use efficiency stats combined with contested stats, and then look for workrate ... tackles, I50s v R50s for midfielders. They paint a credible picture but are not absolute. We are so underserved by our AFL stats. The NFL and MLB stats are awesome and huge talking points. It would be nice if we had some real access to the deeper statistical analysis they do.

Correct. Some of his errors and turnovers were pretty ordinary but IMO his overall output tended to make up for the blunders and would probably see him in the top 5 - 8 players today (roughly). Stats should only be used as a rough guide (after the event ie.,witnessing/watching the game). Having said that he still had a pretty off day skill wise compared to usual. Wasn't alone. He only had 2 shots so not sure that's a good guide but i hear ya.

AFL average DE% is approx 73% (% probably slightly less for those playing more in mid field & slightly higher down back etc). Our bottom 5 today .... 1. Frost 40% (Season Ave 58.46% / Team Ranking 33rd out of 33) 2. Dawes 44.4% (59.98% / 32nd) 3. N Jones 48.5% (68.54% / 24th) 4. Vince 52.9% (68.4% / 25th) 5. Omac 53.3% (69.13% / 22nd) We had five players with 4 clangers a piece at the top.... Vanders, Tracc, Hoges, Vince & Dawes Stats: courtesy of Footywire

This is correct Males. I asked Macca how far away Weids was at training a few weeks back. Said he is a bag of bones at the moment so a fair way off being ready for the big league but he will be a jet once he gets going.

And anyone in for Frost....he is off AFL by a long way at the moment. We are one man down in defence when he plays and one man down with Dawes in as well. Dawes looks ok when playing against ordinary sides like the Pies (at the moment) which lulls some (including me at times) into thinking he offers us something. Who do we bring in for Frost down back? When is H back? Grimes for Ben Ken? BK mostly an outside player but pretty bad disposal so isn't giving us much when he does get it. Some might say Grimes is as bad but he gets more contested stuff and more versatile.

If we don't import more experienced players (who can play) we will be at least 2 more pre-seasons away from matching teams like the Crows Nasher. Maybe longer if we don't hang on to Hulk/Injuries/Free Agency/Jones getting near to retirement by then etc. Need to move on this now in order to take things to another level next year. Otherwise we will be saying similar things at this stage next year as well.

Take Dawes out of that (who is probably Gawn after today) and its 9 vs 4 players who have played 100 or more games. That's more than double. Time to blood Hulett?