Demon Dynasty

...grrrr update

Yes Kolt for Hendo sorry Fullo for JVR (1st stringers) Turner for Fritta (2nd stringers). Effectively that's a 2nd stringer (but not really a 2nd stringer) in for a one of two third stringers (Melk & Fritta) Is there also a chance Simon throws Turner down back to allow Petty to go forward? It does give him that option later in the game also if he doesn't start that way.

Desperate times call for desperate measures QD I can sniff a win but beer o'clock also started about 2 hours ago!

It has been a mostly a forward problem prior to this season and a large part of 2024 though Titan. Needed to sort all this over the last few seasons including systems / method. We have all seen the fall out of a dysfunctional under-performing forward line. Maybe that fallout also (finally) got to the rest of the playing group as well and has killed off moral / incentive / hope a fair bit. Change is a good thing especially when same old same old has proven to be a complete failure.

Turner shouldn't have been dropped Fullo for JVR a week late but anyways. We at least get to see if he can bring something alhough the bye at Casey came at a shiiite time for Fullo who had some form prior to that. Dunno what to make of Kolt for Fritta. Thought he might need a week or two at Casey to find his match fitness and i saw him as coming in (potentially) for Vines. Fritta actually showed a bit in the last two matches and looking like he might have turned the corner. Brown dog for Spargo? Does this at least send a bit of a signal to the senior regulars that no one is safe? Something that should've been happening from mid 2024 onwards imv.

A small sample size for comparison purposes for sure but Player Rating / Stats back that up. Coming off a very poor base but a big up tick. Hopefully he's turned the corner and on the up...

Agree with all that except Sesto for Melk Sesto's been training / playing as a small medium intercept link up defender (similar to Salo a little?) and played similar role at Casey so far as you would no doubt know SN Melk never hits top form early either via Casey or seniors. He at least gave us something for a quarter and a bit last week. I'd keep the faith here in the medium term but also be prepared to pull the trigger if he doesn't come good soon. Having said that, Sesto has also played plenty of time as a HF at Casey so your argument could also hold. But do we consider replacing Hendo with Sesto instead of Melk? Brown dog for Spargo is the obvious in in terms of recent form at Casey. He's quicker by foot and capable of getting to / impacting more contests / linking up more (but won't happen) Fullo for JVR (won't happen either) Turner should not have been dropped last week. I'd have him in ahead of Hendo at this point and go taller plus he is probably our best contested mark outside of Maxy. He can play link / intercept up the line and / or behind the ball and reads the ball nicely. Great hands in the air which we don't have alot of beside Max & T-Mac at times (also won't happen!)

We have lost 9,794 members vs 2024 (so far). Let's conservatively say each membership brings in roughly $120 on average Leaving us roughly $1.17 million down on 2024

Aside from Kozzy (a natural) and Melk (experienced but not at the level he was in 2018 - 2020 ish and coming back from a niggle) we have no leaders / major experience down there BN. Someone who has the craft down pat and can lead the way when the less experienced are waning / wondering and finding their feet. Certainly not in a genuine power forward / key forward sense anyway. We put all our eggs into Rooh but to date he hasn't come on and looks like he is badly in need of major forward craft coaching from a reputable ex top line forward. At this point in his career Rooh should only be a 2nd stringer behind the main go to key forward surely. And that's IF he can hold that down. Maybe he can, maybe he can't. In that sense the cupboard is bare. Rooh is also being asked to ruck a fair bit. The only other option is T-Mac (unlikely as he is well past his best in this part of the ground, from the horses mouth) and Petty. Petty already under the pump and struggling down back. Goodwin could give the Petty forward experiment another few chances. But may need to bring Adams to cover off down back. Petty forward smacks of desperation though. Big bodied (decent) KFs don't seem to find their way to the MFC either. We had one in the making in Hogan but alas.

Re Jjrogan's post (too scared to try and plonk my response up there after the new update)... I can't be sure without checking but it would be interesting to know.... What part of the ground the majority of our turnovers are coming from Our transition efficiency in terms of say a turnover off HB being chained successfully to an inside 50. Same with turnovers from defensive mid, from the center & wings Our scoring % and goal % from each of those turnover sectors Why are we bottom three in terms of scores from turnover? Doesn't take Einstein to realise we are terrible in pretty much all aspects of the game in a forward sense. Both in terms of skills / spread in transition, forward connection, forward craft, actual shots at goal from our forwards and mids / rucks pushing up and lastly conversion. I will say it again and again, had we fixed this aspect of our play and replaced the likes of BB & T-Mac then i doubt we'd be having these discussions and nashing of teeth about our present conundrum. There would have been no conundrum / slump and we'd be kicking healthy / competitive scores most weeks that would see us in the winning mix a bit more often. Jnr that is a great summary. But unfortunately it would seem one team values skills and precision by foot and hand while the other just seems happy to fluff it's way through with bash / crash at the coal face (i think that's what we are still doing, one can no longer be certain about anything we are trialing anymore) and dump kick / bomb the ball forward most of the time in the hope to lock it inside 50 or the forward half and hope that the weight of entries will overwhelm the oppo in a shot at goal / scoring sense. Unfortunately we are also presently devoid of smaller or medium forwards who can take advantage of the (still) significant number of inside 50s we appear to be garnering. With Kozzy back one would hope this will start to improve. The other aspect is the actual locking of the ball inside 50, repeat entries and scoring off turnover inside 50 or the forward half. Are we up there with our turnovers inside 50 / forward half or are we bog ordinary i wonder. I assume we are either not so good at it or.... if we are pretty decent at forcing turnover in forward half, we still suck at converting from it. My gut feel is, with the likes of Fritta, Rooh & Melk's form in the first three weeks, our pressure / turnover game inside our own 50 or forward half has been relatively shizen vs the AFL average up until Rnd 4. We may have seen a bit of an uptick since Rnd 4 with the return of Kozzy and a bit of extra pressure coming from the likes of Chandler and to a lessor extent marginal improvements from Fritta and Melk. If we are trying to transition to something more akin to the Geelong style, and i have no idea as to whether we are or not, you require players with a skill set to do that. And you also require a forward line that runs like a well oiled machine with a number of dangerous targets who know where the goals are. We do have a few good users of the ball a la Windsor (still trying to get match fit after his return) and Salo. With Windsor no longer (till now?) playing on his usual wing, that side of his game is stifled somewhat. I'd move him back to his wing pronto (assuming foot is ok). Salo is another matter. Vs 2021 his uncontested possessions (-18%) score involvements (-31%), Rebound 50s (-31%) inside 50s (-16%) and meters gained (-11%) were all substantially ahead of where they are now for whatever reason/s. He isn't alone of course in terms of a number of our top liners being well below their recent (2023 - 2024) levels. Two key players in particular have fallen away badly. Viney down approx 31% on his 2024 Player Rating (to date) & Tracc down 28% You can't cover those last two with newbies. Add to that no Lever & McVee (so far). What a shizen fest. In the next 3 to 4 weeks we just might see a resurgence IF....

1000% this. Killing Rooh's confidence. He has zero form at present. All he does is ensure a complete team deflator for mids / wingers etc with no genuine dangerous key TALL target that presents, gets ball to ground, takes a few grabs and snags a few sausage rolls. More shots & more goals also = more recovery time for mids & defenders, organising the press better, fresh players rotating off the bench and / or preferrably getting the man v man match ups (where / when needed) right✅️ With more goals also comes more CBs, a rare aspect of the game that we've actually improved in over recent weeks (ie; CB clearances!)✅️ This was last week's story which should've seen Fullo in for Rooh. The Petty forward move confirming this failure at selection ❌️ Brown Dog should've been in last week ahead of Spargo. It would seem Simon obviously doesn't rate either (Browny & Fullo) 👎🏻 Windsor back to his wing pls 👍🏻 Praying for Mcvee back this week. Allows Rivers to up his mid minutes even more = less minutes for Vines👍🏻 STILL WAITING FOR 'RUTHLESS' Simon!!

Neither is Rooh at the moment though Mr Fence. I'd rather have AJ at CHF than a picket, Spargo, Chandler or Tracc. We need a big bodied second tall in that position, even if it's just to crash packs get the ball to ground and compete / hold up until the small brigade arrives. At the moment we are a non event in terms of presenting anything that threatens to damage the oppo back 6. They're having a picnic pretty much every time now in the air and at ground level. Koz playing serious mid minutes is great but then we also lose his impact i50. Major conundrum there. Roll the dice and bring in Brown dog and at least trial him through the middle for Vines over the next three to four weeks. If that works we might free up Koz to play a bit more forward and impact the scoreboard. Can't be any worse than the recent tripe we've been dishing up surely? We probably still lose but look a tad more respectable and start providing the ever elusive tonic for the playing group.... Hope! And who knows, maybe a tiny bit of confidence begins to creep in.

You must be a fair bit younger than me LDV

Yep they just showed the drop away vs what was projected by Pert just after the flag and put up his quote saying we were aiming to become a big club with 75k members and big crowds etc

All good points. The defence and lack of pressure hasn't been there (consistently to AFL averages) since about Rnd 8 2024. That last para i'm not totally convinced. The playing group in general (not always and some players not as proficient as others at executing of course. Exceptions to the rule, out of form / not match fit or capable etc) plays as it is trained. I see that as a 50/50 shared task. And if they can't execute after being given plenty of opportunity to do so, it's the coach/es job to find alternatives that can.

There is some truth with the stubborn side for sure. Great example is Noughton. Imagine the reaction here to him getting constantly selected by Simon.

According to Chris from Camberwell.... there will be no CEO appointed until Smith is appointed as President. Which i think he said won't happen till end of this year... Take it to the bank

My favourite candidate (gut feel), if he were to ever consider coaching which he apparently isn't, is Hodge. Yes i realise he hasn't done the apprentice of say Mitchel but of all the players to have recently left the game i feel he is as switched on and knowledgeable as anyone. He is also tough as old boots both as a player and in his view of what's required to compete and win at this level.

The last time i thought the same and we were this bad was 2012. It took 9 more years for a flag. You might wanna consider a cryogenic option TD

No haha. But ended up becoming a teacher & eventually a principal himself

I took that as Buckley inferring that if players are ignoring / burning outside receivers / runners with an extra handball or two, and instead just banging it in there, that they might be doing because they were under instruction. And if my memory is correct, that's when Lewis jumped in and mentioned that under Yze they were def instructed to look to get it to outside runners / receivers (if free) by hand.

They were highlighting 666 center work and exit / clearance from stoppage. Buckley did say this but also wasn't in agreement with it being the most effective. He and Lewis saw it as more of the same old from us. A continuation of long bombs deep into 50, while ignoring / burning your exits on the spread in better positions either out the front or lateral. By hitting up those players with an extra HB or two you would be changing angles / lanes and giving space / time to those who have spread away from stoppage, allowing them to be (potentially) more effective at hitting up free or leading players inside 50 or around the arch. Or potentially a shot at goal if doing that (linking) when exiting out the front. Similar to bang bang bang bang or what we saw with Clarry in the third quarter on Saturday night. Which unfortunately he missed. Forwards also then have more ability to work their craft. Timing leads, running their patterns, working off their player into space to present etc. By ignoring / burning those exits out of stoppage and just bombing it in long so often, you are making it super easy for defenders to just stay back shoulder or run with the forward toward the ball drop and spoil with others peeling off to assist at times and / or gather the resulting crumb and then sling shot out. The others (Reiwoldt, Lewis and Johno Brown) all agreed and said we are too easy to defend playing that way. They also couldn't believe that this is still happening and hadn't been corrected under Simon to date after being a problem for so long now. Speculating that this could be instructional from the coaches (to elimnate / bypass and just bomb). If watching be prepared for a visit to Advance Hair (yeah yeah) afterwards.

I'm thinking you might know my brother DR....him and a few mates did that to one of their not so nice high school teachers back in the day 😄

Or.... maybe there is a fracture within the playing group between those that aren't happy with their current lot under Simon. Let's call that side 'the Christians' (no inference to Salo intended).... And the loyalists who are rusted on... 'The Blighs' In addition to that, let's say the past culture at Demonland under some previous coach/es was player driven. And it was mostly eradicated in the Roos years and Simon flew in on his coat tails and managed to keep things on track to break the drought. However, for whatever reason, getting too close to too many players or just plain complacency from a few leaders or a coach or two, we've reverted again to the tail wagging the dog?? I friggen hope it isn't the latter or we are about to head into many more years of inobscurity and being irrelevant once more.

Getting all cheech and chongged for the remainder of the games this season is not a bad idea Sold! Pink / purple lighting, some shag pile throw cushions on the benches and burning of incense in the rooms pre-game. Cryogeniclly frozen flower petals stored in readiness for our next sing song after a win.