Demon Dynasty

Biff please show OD more respect. He is a stalwart of D'land and should be given all the freedoms he wants on here!

Dee last time I saw Gawn play forward he couldn't hit the side of a barn door other than within about 15 out directly in front. If he has to be in the team as a swap for Fitz then has to be as back up for Spence only when he is rested for short stints surely? Im not sure why people want players who cant kick straight to rest or play a forward role. I thought the days of resting ruckman in the forward line was from a bygone era anyway. The exception might be Sandilands & Nic Nat but they are both exceptional in these alternate roles.

On a serious note I am going to 2nd this. My only change would be the Toump starting or playing through the mid at this point in his career (maybe at any point!). Viney has to start in the middle to bolster and avoid any early blow out. The Pies will be looking to wipe us off the map out of the middle early and have the game wrapped up at half time with an unassailable lead (like last year...the year before that etc) so we need to at least be within cooee of them at half time to avoid a massacre and give ourselves an inkling of a sniff & hope. If I see any sign of Bail, Fitz or Watts in this line up then I will know for sure that Roosey has caught the same bug as many Demon coaches before him and....gone completely nutz!

Gold!

Lol OD I'm not sure how I would handle us winning more than the odd game every month or 2. Its become so ingrained in the Demon culture. Im starting to think even the players themselves cant get over the mental hurdle of more than one win at a time. Roos might be well advised to employ the services of a hypnotist!

As u know P, a journalist never reveals his sources! Let me just say that there were others at the ground that night other than the crowd and they weren't there playing tiddly winks. That Goodes went along with the "Ape" line surely Is a sign that he has a heart and was willing to assist those involved in order to take the spotlight and redicule/heat off the 13yo as much as possible. More forgiveness and understanding of.the situation than many have judged and given him credit for. Albeit I realise most are none the wiser as this is what the press were lead to believe and reported. Unfortunately the attemp to protect her has now apparently back fired with many judging Goodes as over reacting to what "appears" to most as a girl just calling him a name that reflects her view of his "appearance" rather than race.

Ever heard of google?

The word ape/monkey was never used Pman. Was much worse than that to the degree to that the "words" used are unrepeatable on here. Goodes was obviously so shocked at what WAS said at the time that he made a spur of the moment instinctive reaction to point her out in the crowd. What happened after they (and Goodes) realised how young she was resulted in a different version of said rant being touted to the media. Anyone putting forward an argument against Goodes using the Ape/Monkey line needs to think again as this wasn't what he reacted to!

If you don't understand the link between an Ape/Monkey or the related "accusation" of same word mis reported as part of the deemed words that were used as a racist slur against Goodes by the young girl some time back (which started the Goodes/racist rant controversy) then you are dumber than I originally thought. And I thought dumb & dumber was about as dumb as it gets!

He wasn't called an ape mate. Need to get your facts right before mouthing off like a bird brain. That's what Goodes/The Swans/Eddie everywhere agreed to tell the press in order to protect the young girl. What she ranted was not even close and would be considered racist in anyone's language.

Yes they actually hit in harder than I've seen this year. Looks like they weren't behind Mick for quite a while. Not comparing MM to MN but the lack of fight this year reminded me of 2012/2013 under him. MM has really left them in a pickle though. I got the impression he wanted to replicate another mini Collingwood with their heavy combative style and up the line play with the aim to extract and move up the field from each consecutive stoppage. In the process he seemed happy to let go of many of their outside runners and playmakers up forward. I would hate to be a new coach taking this list over as he didnt manage to create an effective MM style mid field and now they dont have their outside/forward playmakers/runners either. Having said that, I'm sure they will eventually resurrect themselves from the mire within a decade or so. Im not as confident that we will unless we replace our NQRs with real AFL footballers.

94 was certainly an anti climax to what was, until then, a great season Gonzo. But it paled into comparison to the pain of the 87 prelim so in some ways you got lucky! The AFL had a large part to play that year in the sense it was the 2nd home finals game for the Weagles. Until then no interstate club had hosted a prelim final as none of the interstate clubs had a ground capable of handling a prelim crowd. And this was still the case in 94 with a max capacity of only 30 odd thousand at the WACA (excluding standing room) Of course the AFL went against all of that logic and previous history and gave them their 2nd final of the 94 series. In many ways a result of our lack of success over many decades prior. Can you imagine them hosting the Pies/Bombers/Blues back then with a capacity of only 30,000ish !!?

And there's the rub hogan. You can't afford to have even 1 player in the team who "chooses" when it's his time to go or not to go HH, let alone more than one. Each player has to look each other in the eye in the change rooms before a match and commit to the oath of giving everything to the contest on the day. I can only imagine what it would be like to know even one of you is probably not going to commit when it's his turn at this level and will likely let the team down in a clutch 50/50 contest by hanging back. And once you have one who is sitting back waiting for others to do the grunt work when it's required.....guess what happens? It's like a severe strain of the flu but with a massive incubation period. It might not catch on at first....but eventually everyone is catching it! Recipe for disaster if left to fester! I can only hope Roos applies an antidote before it turns septic. If not i fear we will also lose the next lot of Roos anointed recruits to this ugly strain as well! And if that's the case you can forget about any Roos (or Goodwin) lead turnaround. We will be in the wilderness for decades to come. In my opinion this is Roos biggest challenge this year. If he lets it spread we are gawn as a club.

6. Cross 5. Hogan 4. Dunn 3. Brayshaw 2. Vince 1. Grimes

Some have highlighted Watts on here having zero tackles. He wasn't alone. Jetta, Bail and T-Mac also. You would expect most players in this day and age to at least stick one tackle a quarter if serious about defending. That's around 80 tackles for the match if everyone does this and it's not out of question either as we had 88 against the doggies and look at the result. That's 31 more tackles than we laid against Port (57). We only had 7 players who laid 4 or more tackles for the match.... Brayshaw (8) Vince (7) Garland (6) Spencil (6) H (5) N Jones (5) Vanders (4) Contrast this to last week where we had 11 who laid 4 or more and where every player had at least 1 tackle or more for the match!! One word that sums up the huge turnaround from last week....... EFFORT!!!

Guys i have it on good authority that Goodes actually went along with a "playing down" of that young Girl's racism rant/incident to assist her in not being on the receiving end of OTT retribution from all and sundry at such a young age were the real truth of what was said to come out. The "official" line from those involved, including Goodes in response to alot of press questioning, was that she called him a big ape. According to what i heard from someone involved at the ground It was much worse than that! The Hawks boo him for no obvious reason, which might possibly be racism but might also be their mis guided view of his reaction to the "offocial" ape line that was trolled to the media. I wonder if the booing that goes on would be so wide spread if they new what was really said. Whatever the reason, some people then expect him to lay low in the indigenous round and not give a yelp! As far as i'm concerned the indigenous community had a big role in developing this game to where it is, they live and breathe it in many areas of Australia and are amazing to watch at the highest level. I admire their courage at being able to bridge the massive cultural divide between the western way of life and their's in an everyday sense, let alone play footy in front of so many at the highest level and cop the crap that they must cop (and have been for decades....Winmar!). If Goodes wants to do a tribal dance in honor of his indigenous mates then bring it on! The game can do with a bit of cultural injection and dance anyways! The all blacks do this before every game and as part of ceremony. I hold Adam Goodes in the highest regard and admire him as a great footballer of our day who gives 100% effort pretty much every time. I only wish we had of had this great player in our team for the duration of his career. The culture and value he would add to any club is invaluable, not to mention his ability to turn/win matches off his own boot, gut running and inspirational 2nd & 3rd efforts. Love or loathe him he will be seen as one of the greats of the game when he finally hangs up his boots.

That's exactly what it was used for. We sent our opponents a very strong message by leaving one of our 2 strongest mid fielders on the bench until they got their mojo back while leaving a giraffe on the park to run around looking like a lost Giraffe! Well done Roos & Co!

1. No champions in the team (A graders wateva u wanna call em) to take a game by scruff of the neck and turn things around off their own effort/boot when the going gets tough and things aren't going our way (some players do step up occasionally and lead but it's usually against other bottom 6 clubs only). We only have 1 B grader in Jones and the rest are either up and coming Cs who occasionally put in a B grade standard or just NQR Cs & Ds. 2. Continuously playing (or in our case...having to play) around 6 to 8 NQR D grade players who aren't up to AFL standard but are given regular guernseys throughout the season. Most of these would not get a look in, even in the other bottom 6 clubs. For as long as we are playing them we will continue to get smashed by anyone outside the bottom 6. We might catch the odd team in the top 12 on a low while we are on a longer break or something and cause an upset at home (or get closer than anyone figured) ..but I wouldn't be putting any hard earned on these upsets. 3. Outside of a young rising star in the Hulk and occasional cameo from Garlett, we don't have a forward line that really worries the opposition on the scoreboard nor is it able to pressure the opponents defence effectively inside our own 50. Last time I looked We were ranked either last or 17th on pressure acts/tackles/opposition turnovers i50. 4. Our midfield is presently bottom 2 or 3 material but not necessarily the worst on any given day IF they all put in and play their ass off AND we have a fully fit mid field rotational line up eg, a fully match fit Viney. We need at least 2 more fully fledged B grade mids (preferably A but I'm trying to keep things realistic) to assist Jones while Vince, Tyson, Brayshaw and Vanders develop their game.

I think most reasonable supporters recognise there will be inconsistencies and a few ups and downs during a season in a relatively inexperienced line up (relative to the opposition) like we saw today. However, it's the way in which we lose that bothers me Gonzo. It's all or nothing. No shade of grey in between. For a team to only kick a few goals from late in the 2nd and allow its opponent to kick 16 is beyond reason even for a somewhat inexperienced list. If it was up against one of the top 3 in form power houses I would be in agreement. If it was only every 3rd or 4th week I would understand. But it wasn't and isn't. The fact we can rarely string more than 1 win together, especially on the road, is a huge sign that many within the present list are psychologically beyond repair or not capable of playing the game at AFL standard (or both!). We have to sort them out ASAP and move them on smartly or we will continue to wallow at the bottom of the ladder for decades to come.

You only DONT send the extra man to their loose man IF u don't back your defensive capabilities to defend when they get it Akum (ie, man to man defensive skills). Roos would be one of the few of the so called "rated" coaches who doesn't seem to counter this move with extras up forward. Seems to work well for the clubs who follow this rule. Not sure why we aren't following their lead here. It's not like its a new strategy either. Been around for many moons now.

I suspect no one really wants Dank to be called before a statutory authority and "spill the beans" Chris. Especially the AFL & the EFC. Quite happy for him to move on and brush the dirt under the carpet. Easier to avoid an AFL lead investigation where he couldn't be called upon or forced to give evidence than be caught up in a civil prosecution if he aired any dirty laundry against the AFL/EFC to the press. No doubt he was made well aware of the possible financial implications if he did (spill) by those with the most to lose.

And we will stay there for as long as we have so many spuds running around for this club....which i fear will be a mighty long time yet.

Ease up. Still practicing the cable tie tackle drill from last week