Demon Dynasty

Structure and game plan yes DD. But when are these players going to start "thinking" on their feet as the play evolves?? And i'm not talking about the Suns match. Take the game against the Saints last week. On a number of occasions in the 2nd, we were so focused on enforcing some kind of forward press, that we forgot there was a decent breeze. All the Saints did was adjust to that. Kick a quick short pass into the pockets knowing that they could then quickly bomb it over the back, where "unmarked" players were waiting just behind the press. That loose player or 2 were then able to run amok and link up through the middle/wings, freeing up others to take shots at goal. Where were their opponents on those occasions? Minds were still enforcing the press, and so were their bodies. Floating higher up the ground, not quite a full kick away from the outlet receiver for the Saints. Some players were still trying to maintain/play some kind of press instead of recognising the need to pick up a man (preferrably a designated one) once the Saints had gained that first outlet kick. This wasn't the only reason the Saints kicked so many unanswered goals last week in the 2nd quarter, but it sure didn't help matters. I'm just not sure this kind of "on the run" mind set (ie., footy smarts) is coachable with some of our players. It will need to happen soon though if we're to win a hand full of games against opposition other than the 2 new AFL franchises and only Richmond/Essendon from the Victorian based clubs as we've seen in the past 5 years or so.

Ablett obviously. Not sure you can put the other 2 in the Rolls Royce category just yet. But i hear what you're saying. Ablett on his own could probably take on our mid field atm and break even or possibly beat it. The thing is though, we have no idea what went down up there coaching wise or cattle wise. We might have even trialed another "experiment'! You know, players being played out of position etc.

And a whitewash it shall be. Vlad also seems at pains to push the fact that the outcome won't be forthcoming until well into the season proper ...... "Our expectation will be that this will go on for months." "No, I don't think you're going to see a result for months" "ASADA are going to be very thorough and very diligent. These things don't happen quickly" This plays into the AFL's hands beautifully, insuring the Bombers (and the whole Comp) is off to a nice "steady as she goes" start, regardless of the "AFL determined" punishment. No wonder David Evans is confident everyone at a senior level within the Essendon FD will more than likely retain their place, even prior to their own review being conducted. This confidence, seemingly against all odds, is quite evident amongst the Bomber's coaching staff as well. And while we're on the topic, shouldn't this so called 'independant review' have been called for and run by the AFL itself, once they were made aware of so called "irregular practices"?? Doesn't anyone else think it's a little strange that they (the AFL) should leave it to the club to conduct its own review, considering the weight of the allegations? Evans also said that Essendon members deserved to know the truth about what led to the ASADA investigation. Saying at one point, "We just want to get to the heart of what happened - we think the members are owed that. I want to ensure we give answers to our members about what happened and why, and put in place practices to ensure it doesn't happen again." What about the greater overall interest of the AFL and the game itself? Isn't this part of why the AFL exists? To govern and oversee the game and clubs as a whole in the best interest of all involved and to ensure the future success/growth of the game/brand? Then again maybe it (the AFL) has been flying by the seat of its pants on this, hence the announcement a few weeks back by McLachlan to try and piece together an AFL charter. Would love to know what NFL management think about an AFL led punishment!

You mean literally take our ground WYL? As in the G!!! And we end up at $#%tihad!!!???

Me too!!!

I think we should always expect improvement in whatever player enters the hallowed halls of the MFC, each and every year RR. Otherwise why are we in the comp. So i agree with the nature of your post here, just maybe not the method and some of the inclusions/exclusions. However i think 50 games is too little to be able to say "had enough time in the system and needs to be showing something substantially more than what's being delivered". Personally i think at least 60 games (approximately 3 full seasons of games played and 3 pre seasons) under the belt is needed before you can say, this player's not living up to expectations and needs to lift big time. From there, yes, i would have higher expectations, but i would want to see how they perform on the big stage for bulk of their 4th season (in terms of games played i mean....regardless of which season it might be), and then review versus expectations. Even sticking with your original theory RR (ie. 50+ games) i wouldn't be including Tappy in the mix, having only effectively played approx 1.5 seasons with only 29 senior games. Not sure why he's included and the likes of Bail, who has more games under his belt (36), gets overlooked. Yes he had an injury filled 2012 but Tappy missed about 6 or so last year with a pretty severe hammy. So effectively neither of these two should have been included under your original scenario. A bit harsh on the Tapster IMO. And why no Joel MacDonald and Grimes? I think Mac improved last year, but the disposal effectiveness and willingess to follow up (2nd efforts) after his first contest are a fair way from AFL standard IMO, especially seeing he has nearly 125 games under his belt. Grimes works hard and gets quite alot of ball, but his disposal decision making is often flawed IMO (ie., options/choices when coming off HB or the wing are too often "safety first". This might be ok if he was more accurate spotting up our players, but delivery in terms of accuracy/spraying the ball wide to the boundary where he usually goes are often sub standard. As a result we end up in a bad turnover situation and the opponents having loose players unmarked as a result = easy score for them. Needs to look downfield and/or inside to SEE if there's a better placed/more open player, instead of hitting the boundary or towards a player near the boundary so often. These are the 2 areas i'd be wanting to see him improve on using your expectations mantra) Apart from the above 4 player inclusions/exclusions, i actually think you're pretty spot on with the rest who should be under the spotlight and have some reasonably high expectations placed on them this year. Not that anything we say on here will make a skerrick of difference to what happens at any AFL club lol.

Rodan: Decent "short term" bolstering for a very inexperienced/young mid field. Byrnes: Likely to play bulk of time up forward, hopefully crumbing off talls when they return. Rotating through the middle at times (not sure the exact percentage but say 60/40 time spent as forward/mid respectively, give or take 15% or so lol. Jones: Has matured into an all round top B grade player for the club. With all his hard work/effort in and around the ball i'd just love to see him release the ball a little earlier/quicker and hopefully hit a few more targets by hand/foot this year. Not alone on this wish list however. Our inability to string 3 to 4 quick posessions together in and around congestion/stoppages and release the ball to our player's general advantage up the field was a hugely frustrating downfall of our play last season. McKenzie: Mainly a negating/stoppage specialist. Hopefully he handballs more often than he kicks this year lol. The above is the core IMO, until Viney, Toumpas, Kent et al put some real size on over 2 or 3 pre seasons and mature (hopefully). Don't underestimate the inclusion of Byrnes. He looks very hungry to me and if he stays injury free (touch wood) he might add some decent disposal skills and grunt in and around the stoppages through the middle and up forward. Leads by example and will provide great leadership. Something sadly lacking for the last 5 seasons (Jones the 1 recent exception). Rodan adds break away speed, agility and some fairly silky skills. He also has a super boot off only a few steps, can find space and releases very quickly (rare amongst Demon players through the mid). Being able to clear the congestion quickly from the middle should assist our 2 main tall forwards get one on one more often on their opponents (once they return). In theory the addition of Rodan/Byrnes should go some way towards improving our "conversion rate" i50 once Dawes & Clarke are both on the park and fit. Jones is now a pretty valuable leader for the younger boys obviously, and we can now add Rodan/Byrnes to the leadership list through the middle. However, as many others have mentioned here, we need to poach a top line A grader (or 2!!) from another club with at least 3 to 5 good years left. I can't see it happening due to salary cap constraints and existing contracts but Swan and/or Ablett would be a super injection for us. We just don't have any genuine super stars in this club to show the young blokes "how". Unless we develop one out of the existing group such as Watts, Toumpas, Kent, Viney then we are pushing it up hill from here. There are a number of 2nd tier players that will need to step up and improve their games substantially from last year if they're to play their part through the midfield and cover the depth, class and mature bodies from the opposition when the 3 core players are resting/rotating or injured. This Includes.... Sylvia. Who i'd rather see used as a medium size lead up forward i30. Is an instinctive player that loves shooting for goal from wherever and could provide a decent 3rd option up forward along with Howe. Then there's Magner, Jetta, Tapscott, Couch (mature age been in the system for some time, wont get many chances IMO so will need to make the most of them) and Bail . One player i think will surprise this year is Jetta. I think he looks in superb condition and ready to turn things up a notch. Not sure if he's up for a regular role in the mid field just yet but may grow into this as the year progresses. Having said all that if 2 or 3 of the second tier step up from last year's efforts, i could see us winning maybe 6 to 8 games. If they don't, and we have to rely solely on the core 4 above, then we might be lucky to win 3 or 4 matches IMO.

Seems to me the Bombers (backed by the AFL behind the scenes) believe this is a storm in a tea cup. The Bombers obviously feel they have so many "out of jail" cards that they're quite happy to stonewall this and see it through. Possibly that the outcome will result in, at worst, a minor strike against them. But more than likely not even a strike, just a slap on the wrist or some stern words from Vlad/AFL hierarchy once the outcome is known and the wrist slapping starts. There's just too much $ at stake here for everyone involved. The AFL are therefore happy to play the onlooking neutral observer role and say all the right things as per media management 101. I personally don't think ASADA have anything hard or fast on anyone at Bomber land (apart from a few loose lipped ex bombers) and if there is an "EX bomber employee/contractor" found to be up to no good re PEDs, then the Bombers believe they (and their players) can simply plead ignorance due to all their "outs". I'll be very surprised to see anything severley damaging a la the imploding Sharks. If it was an AFL "B League" club such as us, the Doggies or North, things might be different. But this is an AFL "A League" club. And "A League" clubs are a very protected species indeed.

Sorry Soidee, are you referring to Chip or Sylvia?

Apparantly the Tigers beat the Hawks by a kick after the siren, is this officially an early tank by the Dorks?

Lol OD A tad early isn't it. Don't pinch me just yet mate...i want to dream a little longer. At least till round 6 or so anyway It's a pitty we can't go and snatch Ablett to bolster our mids (& the whole team!) and teach (mentor) the likes of Viney/Magner/Kent, and even the Jones boy over the next few years. I realise it's like the pot-O'-gold rainbow stuff for us and will never happen given his contract, but to me he's the ideal fit right now given where we are at. Mind you he's probably the ideal fit almost anywhere!!

Easy Tat.... 3+ quarters to go lol

Not worth the $$ required to collect the data. The rep from Champion stated on SEN this week that to qualify for the rankings, a player had to have played only 5 matches over a period of 2 seasons of football. That's approximately only 10% game time over 2 seasons for some players' (data), included as part of the overall sample date. As Sheldon from BBT would be happy to espouse, using such a small amount of data on any one player (or more) within the sample (or in this case sample data ie., as a percentage of the overall possible sample) is a very risky strategy IMO. In general, the larger the sample size N (of the included player's data, in this case the number of games of data used for the statistical analyes/rankings), the smaller the sampling error should (in theory) be. In short, poor form from Champion data and any outcomes/rankings derived from said data should be taken with a severe amount of skepticism At best, this is something you might wish to wrap your fish & chips in and quickly move on

Lol tatu. A fair degree of skeptisicm never went astray. I agree, 1 match doesn't make a season or a champion. One thing i would like to comment on about Sellar though, old fashioned as he seems. He knows how to position himself well against his opponent, in many cases out bodying them. He also reads the flight of the ball extremely well. All that hard work and effort won't amount to much though if you can't take a grab and/or win your fair share of the one on ones if the ball hits the deck. I'm not sure he's that good when the ball goes to ground, but in many ways he doesn't have to cover this side all that often. This bloke sure knows how to hang on to the Sherrin once he gets his body/hands near it. Maybe a pinch hitting forward? Especially early in the season as we await the return of Clarke and to provide much needed support/decoy work/rest time for Dawes (assuming he's good to go ). Maybe a permanent forward depending on how he performs. Possibly a similar role as last year down back as soon as Clarke returns i would think. It will be interesting to see how he goes and where he goes that's for sure.

I was under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that he was picked up mainly as a utility to be used as a stop gap forward or back. Only to be used as a pinch hitting ruckman when things turned ugly with our main rucking options or to rest them if we only had one main ruckman in the team etc. Pretty sure this is how North used him. Also, with the new "no contact" rule coming into effect this season, his lack of height will be easily exploited by other taller/higher leaping opponents IMO, taking away one of his weapons in the strength dept (eg., prior to the bounce being able to out jostle/ out position his opponent). I also don't think he'll be alone here and that the big Russian and players in his style/ilk might also suffer at the centre bounce against certain opponents as a result of this rule change. There was some evidence of this on Sunday (albeit very minor in terms of time spent in this position i realise) when we started losing the ruck duals and centre contests once he came on to replace Spence. I'm not saying Spence was totally dominating or winning most of them either, maybe 50/50 or so, but we went from being about 25 points up to almost losing the match in the space of about 10 minutes after he was brought on. I wont put this down to being solely as a result of this move alone, but i think it was a major contributing factor and a poor move by the FD at the time. Ok to experiment when in a definite winning position but not sure why you would want to kill momentum that we had with a change like that at this point in the match. With 5 minutes to go and 25 up maybe. But not with 15 minutes to go and only 25 up. The FD obviously has its reasons though. I'm just an armchair amatuer.

Tappy's a young man on a learning curve. I believe he'll take it to another level this year that will surprise. He's the sort of player i would count on to go over the top in the trenches on the big day. On GF day you don't need the whole team to be full of fancy pants running players with silky skills. Given it doesn't hurt to have a few of these, preferrably with class A skills, but i'd also want to take plenty of big bodied heavy hitting, long racking kickers who will give you an honest, no holds barred, return on your investment on the biggest day and biggest stage when it matters. This to me is Tappy. No nonsense and you know exactly what your going to get as a base minimum output on almost any game he's involved in. I love the Tap! I believe he'll prove he has what it takes in the next few years. GO YOU DEMONS!!! TIME TO HIT EM HARD AND KICK ARSE!!!

You mean cold shower?

First time we've beaten a "genuine" AFL side in any form of the game since Round 10 last year against Thompson's Bombres. It's only the NAB but a win is better than the alternative, especially for the players' confidence. If we can back it up next week then we might take a little momentum into the real deal.

Turn that Grand Old Flag up fellas!! Sorry Tim....can you hear that mate!!! YA HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

HAHA I just wish i could see the face of Tim Sim right now!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

That commentator is the most biased i've ever heard in any form of calling. How do these guys get a guernsey? Only up when the Dork Power are up. Crapping on them when things aren't going well. Telling them how to play, when not to hand ball. "I called it in my commentary earlier!" after an errand handball. How many errand handballs are there in any game lol. "He's a nuisance" when referring to a Demon player getting a possesssion. "Deliberate!!" hoping for a free! If this is the best Adelaide can offer i think i'm a chance at calling for one of the teams over here! What a dick

Ready made doesn't mean he IS or WILL be an A grader. Only time will tell after a few pre seasons as mentioned. But on the surface, yep....i'm putting my gonads on the line here. Hammer me in 2 to 3 seasons time if i'm wrong. And yes i've only seen the highlights real.....that was enough. I've seen enough footballers in my time to know when i see someone with serious talent, a good turn of speed but most importantly.....football smarts. He appears to know where to go and when to go. It's instinctive. And he can pin point a pass by foot and/or place it to the advantage of a team mate. A trait thats been sadly missing in most of our senior list the past few years. I'm sure he has a low lights real as well that we haven't seen. And i hear what your saying. As demonoids we should always tread with a good deal of caution when speculating on recruits. Especially given our injury list over the years! But provided he stays injury free, and condition 1 is met, i'm putting him up there as a "why didn't we look at him in that draft ....should have been in the top 5" recruit in a few years time looking back. Definitely ahead of Toumpas anyway (wishing him all the best though!). Cheers

HELLO DEMONOIDS! An absolute crackerjack here. I would rank him alongside Viney in the top 5 picks in the draft. I'm going out on a limb here. I feel we've got ourselves 2 ready made A graders (with a few pre seasons of course) and a potential top 4 finals quality duo here in Kent and Viney (subject to major injury issues....touch wood). With Toumpas as a running outside link with class delivery inside to the mids (off half back) and delivering decent i50s (a la Burgoyne) when pushing forward, i think we'll be playing bottom 8 finals by 2014. Top 4 Finals birth by 2015 and a shot at the flag....on 2 conditions...... 1. Neild can actually teach a base line minimum standard of decent AFL standard disposal skills 2. We find a class small forward who can feed off the tall forwards hard work and who can kick multiple goals and pressure/tackle well going the other way.

Like the optimism DZ. Just a couple of points and not directed at you...just saying in general... Byrnes:: An unknown quantity in terms of impact on the game and the team at this point as he hasn't been a regular contributor to Geelong's team for some time. Hogan: A nice potential clunker but we have no idea till we see him in action and that's at least 2014 Jones/McKenzie/Trengove (and i would add Magner/Grimes as occasional mids): are all reasonable ball getters/contest cloggers but not necessarily great at distributing the ball around to our advantage very effectively and often enough at this point. Viney is the unknown here but looks exciting at least. So for me the mid field is still looking very shakey. Jamar,Gawny, Fitzpatrick and Spencer: I'm not sure any of these, in particular Fitzpatrick, are capable of impacting a game in our favour at this point. Possibly Jamar when on song. I would happily trade/delist Fitzy (if required) in order to hold/develop Martin for one more year just to see what he has to offer (on ball ruckwork/following only) prior to making a decision to hold or trade next year. Adding Clark, Dawes and eventually even Hogan into the mix and our list is starting to look much too top heavy in the tall dept i think. I agree we need a quality outside runner with delivery skills a la Burgoyne or Jetta to run the lines and offer some quality delivery to our twin tower forward line. This might be Barry once he's settled in and built himself up a litte over the next pre season or 2, but until then Blease and Nicho (to a lesser degree) look like the main quality line breakers at this point (from HB and Mid, occasionaly drifting forward), so we have to hope they all have solid pre seasons and that they can step up. By the way, if i had anything to do with the FD (and i don't i realise) i wouldn't have Barry anywhere near Davey at this point given the mind set Davey had during this season, which IMO was far from professional and certainly not acceptable at this level.