Demon Dynasty

Spoke to Kate this time yesterday. All she said was club was working towards getting as large as we can as quickly as we can. Not just for support factors for the boys on game day (which helps) but to ensure we had more clout with the AFL when negotiating more favourable draws etc. There was no mention of noise. Just growing the member base.

Paywall...does anyone have the full story?

Ran into Kate y'day before Pink's final concert. The positive take aways... 👉🏼 Clarry's on track take no notice of extreme media views to the contrary ✅️ 👉🏼 Caulfield's on track just a few hurdles to get over and all going well we're aiming for 2025 take off ✅️ 👉🏼 We pushed back against usual Cattery draw and won that battle. There was a trade off and blow back but i'll leave that given the nature of thread ✅️

3 years and a number of injury set backs.... that's a long time in footy LDC. 2021 was probably the peak of Salo's powers. I'm not saying he's slow either. I just think McVee (now) probably has him well covered in this area.

Simon's never played him in the middle for significant minutes so far LD. Minor only. Very much doubt he would play more than 10% or more. His pressure much needed up forward anyway so understandable. Personally i'd like to see 20%- 30% though in a shared role with Tracc. Fullarton a must in for Shack and Billings/Woe in for Spargo/Laurie if we're to have any chance this week. You cant carry players who contribute diddly squat for an entire match (injured or fully fit). Very bad for team morale... and so is losing! Can we pls not play under-done players when better options are obvious and sticking their hand up!

Salo made an appearance on SEN tonight and seemed to suggest Petty might make it back for the Hawks match (earliest).

Yes good point and true. Billings comes in? That frees up McVee & Salem to play a shared role between HB & into the middle. Regardless of how it's achieved (many ways to skin a cat) my point still stands. Im convinced we need to gradually get McVee spending more time further up the ground (through the middle) to improve the connection coming inside. No doubt our ball movement still has a huge question mark over it in 2024 as well. Ranked the 5th worst in the comp last year by Champion data.

Depends on how quickly and efficiently we move the ball. Get the ball into the hands of Windsor & Lingers accurately & quickly and this won't be a probem. The accuracy part is the potential killer though. Last time Marty played he was VG in the air, not bad at ground level but pretry ordinary with disposal. Hopefully he's cleaned that weakness up significantly now. How do we rate May & Lever here? Howes is pretty decent by foot and should be handy in this regard.

Salem & McVee share the Bowey role but also share a designated amount of mid minutes between them. Need to get mid experience into McVee pronto. Will also benefit our forwards with better delivery which in theory should result in a higher conversion rate and better chance of posting a winning score.

To a degree. The top teams are able to find this space more than we do at times. Certainly not suggesting they have open forward lines 90% of the time! Teams get back very quickly now as mentioned. If you are saying there is no more space available in forward lines (almost always?) then you are relying on forwards who can then, more often than not, win a 50/50 contest on their direct opponent and/or even win the odd contest where the quality of ball coming in (or lack thereof) suggests they are likely to lose the one v one to their opponent. Out of all of our present forwards i would probably only have Kozzy & Fritta as forwards who have the potential to do this and at times do exactly that. Melk & Petty are the others but Melk's a fair way off returning yet. At present that means we have 4 forward positions where we are not likely to win one v ones and where there's a good chance the oppo will rebound fairly quickly out of our forward 50. With one extra in Petty possibly coming back soon to make it 3 all going well? Of course you are never going to have all 6 positions with forwards capable of out smarting their opponent more often than not. But you would hope we would have at least 4 who have this ability most weeks (subject to luck with injuries of course). McAdam will hopefully make it 4 on returning but while we are sitting at total of two, our chances of posting a winning score against decent or better opposition isn't looking that rosey. Based on general play i'm tempted to throw Tracc in there as another who has this capability right now as a forward (when played there). But unfortunately his kicking is just too ordinary for inclusion.

While he's a decent kick over short distances Salem doesn't have the leg speed or agility (abiltiy to get out of gaol in congestion) of Mcvee. Both should be getting mid time with a view to slowly progressing McVee into reasonably significant mid minutes if we're serious about solving the mid-forward connection dilemma.

Defending yes that is no doubt the goal of every team. The better offensive teams manage to create more open forward lines more often, move the ball slickly in transition and use their last kick inside to exploit it. Matched up by designated leading mobile forwards who work their azzes off to get into the space and present to different areas of the ground vs all going to the one spot and trying to outmark each other. Dragging extra defenders to the drop, making it very difficult to mark or take advantage of any spillage and score. These designated KFs are helped by other non designated or dekoy forwards who often clear the area, dragging their opponent with them. They appear to have a forward system/method, the players know their roles and everyone works in unison. Then we have 'the Melbourne way' which is far often the antithesis of that (till now).

Agree with the mongrel part and protecting Max. The other way of protecting is to bring Fullarton in to play chop out for a hefty % of time if he's ready to roll. This allows Max to rest more time forward and if infringed there he just might get the odd free which in theory should mean less targeting as the oppo won't want to see scores resulting from their off ball snipes or other rubbish. Max can share that role with Fullarton and hopefully have a few more tickets in the tank to smash the oppo back if theyre coming at him further up the ground. Maxy also needs to start throwing his weight around and going after those that are doing the hitting. He's the Cap and needs to set the tone!

Yet the rated teams often find free options laterally or behind the ball maintaining possession for a bit longer on occasions. They have patience and maintain momentum (the ball), waiting for an oportunistic lead or a free to present. Whereas we seem to be in an almighty rush to mostly play on in straight lines and when we can't see an option, just lob it to the hot spots. You're allowed to stop, prop or ring around and hit targets on angles other than what's immediately ahead of you if nothing obvious presents. Even a long backwards handball might be enough to give the receiving team mate the extra time/space needed (and a forward the same) to put a nicely timed pass in to a nicely timed lead. The Cats have been doing that for eons with Hawkins and to a lessor degree the Crows with Tex. Having said that, they also make sure the leading lanes arent overly clogged (much of the time not always... no one is perfect) by having mediums and any non crumbing smalls leading out wide or up at the ball (early).

McVee comes into the middle/CBs (not huge moments) for mine with Salom off HB to cover the Bowsa role. They can share the role a little but i'd be slowly moving McVee into the bulk of the mid/CB minutes of this shared role. They're both good by foot but McVee has the leg speed and agility to break the lines and find more space/time to finish off his work coming inside 50 and be slightly more damaging imv.

Sestan must be getting close Kev. What position are they potentially grooming him for do you think? He played most of last season as a mid/HF with Casey but i think you're suggesting he's now being pushed back (at training) for a potential defensive role? Thanks for today's report as well. Much appreciated.

I would back that in as being quite close to how his recovery is being managed early post op DJ. In theory, if he's pulling up ok post any matches, then we should start to see him spending increased time in the main group as each week passes. The reverse if he isn't pulling up so good. The next step down would obviously not be so positive.

To some degree yes Von. There's no doubt we put time into the oppo. Including strategy, possibly targeted training and of course at the selection table. But the bulk of what we do, according to the Coach anyway, is targeted at playing the way we want to play and to our strengths. That's my understanding anyway.

I had a good chat with Melk late last season at a Casey match (he was an observer). While we chatted about many things, i did manage to sneak in a question specifically about "loading". His response... "What's loading?" lol So i tried to explain the theory as exposed on here re ramping up training eg; through extra track work / sprints / gym work outside of the usual training program. His response.... "We just train and hit the gym. Yes there are weeks where we do some extra work ie; on a long break between matches, but it's not something i notice or am aware of. You may be referring to training 'loads' which is just another term for the amount of training we are asked to complete on the track each week. Aside from that there's specific programmes for individuals coming back from injury etc but that's about it"

Gadzooks! Will we ever fix this!?? Simon should allocate at least one entire training session every week to ensure we are NOT doing this. Even if it means moving Stafford aside and taking over the whole session.

This is now plausible with Marty's return. Tomo's a big solid boy, a VG overhead mark and he's a decent kick of the air conveyance. The only trouble is, in general you can't just swing such a dramatic move and expect player X (whoever that is) to suddnenly gel as a forward after having played his entre career as a winger or 3rd stringer tall backman. Would need a decent stint on the training track imho if this were to have any chance of working. You would also get some idea as to its feasibility as a coach by trialling on the track first. I'm not adverse to the idea though, subject to the above. And neither should Simon. He needs to start considering trialling these sort of options assuming we have a back up player sitting in the wings. Which we have with Marty. I reckon you would know within 2 to 3 sessions as to whether Tomo is capable here prior to even attempting it in a live game.

Fullerton pls but still not expecting a massive uplift. How far off, if at all, is BB? Has the surgeon worked a miracle? Yes to the rest. Laurie & Spargo were woeful and SHOULD be having a VERY difficult time getting back into this squad instead of being gifted games. Same with Chandler. Hasn't hit any form to suggest he is worthy since early 23. I would start blooding Moniz & Woe (once fully fit & in form) ahead of Chandler & Laurie. Give them a decent block of games to try and find there feet. I seriously don't see how Spargo gets back into this team IF Billings & / or Woe step up and start showing something.

Disagree we fluked a flag. That was years in the making. All credit to SG, the boys and the club here. They aren't easy to get into let alone win one. But selection integrity severly dented on Thurs night with Spargo getting the nod over Billings. Guy plays and trains his arzz off and plays in both praccys only to be usurped by someone who barely hit the training track the week leading into round zero and coming back from inury. Not the way to build solid player & team morale imv.