Lucifers Hero

My first reaction was who will GWS get as a replacement. We have a number of small forwards waiting in the wings: Bedford, Chandler, Laurie. All three have been medisub or emergencies but still on the cusp as depth. Will one be willing to go to GWS to get more games? I can't see them waiting in the wings for years and I can't see us giving up Pickett or Spargo.

From @Demonland's post above: "In other positive news for the Dees, defender Christian Salem, who has been sidelined since Round 1, will return to training this week and will look to be available for selection in the next fortnight". Great news! Trains this week and next. Has a run at Casey the next weekend when seniors play the Roos. Then cherry ripe for the run up to the bye: Freo, Swans, Pies. He could come straight back into the seniors but I don't think there is a need to rush so get him ready for the Freo game.

Elliot Yeo was due to play this week after being out with concussion. He has now gone into covid protocol so won't be available.

True but he was still a 'mature body' to help the kids and gave us some leadership before the other 3 arrived.

I'll add handsome with an impish grin to his qualities.☺️

Ooops! Spelling error. Should be Byrnes (Shannon). Played 23 games for us 2013-2014. Until this year our development coach then poached by Geelong.

Well, 2 of last year's top 4 are virtually out of the race. The 4th was the mighty dees. That 4 teams have fallen out of last year's top 8 has created a heap of anomalies in the draw. It has made ours harder, Geelong's easier and given the Blues a dream run. Tigers haven't done too badly either. Games they have for the rest of the season: Port x 2, Hawks x 2, Bombers, x 2, Eagles x1, North x 1, GCS x 1. On that they could easily sneak into top 4. But, it is what it is. The first few weeks of he finals will sort it out.

North could do with a the equivalent of Cross, Burns, Vince, Lewis to help Ziebell set standards off field, protect the kids on field, leadership on field and help with their development. Otherwise their kids will flounder and talent wasted like ours before the Jackson/Roos era. Cross, Vince, Burns and Lewis were a key, often underrated part of our road to the Holy Grail.

I don't like our players playing for frees. I don't like any player playing for frees. But when there are other teams who have made it an art form (Geelong/Bulldogs etc) and a player proclaims it to be a special 'skill' I am happy for our guys to try one on every now and then. Until umpires universally and consistently punish it then it won't go away.

Slim pickings this week: Bigfooty: Little hope, less enthusiasm Daunting proposition this game. If ever a mercy rule should be allowed it's this game. Very strong possibility we have our biggest loss of the year and kick our lowest score. Which is scary given we've had a 109 point loss to Richmond and scored only 30pts against the Lions. Still somewhat hopeful that we play a young & enthusiastic group who put the effort in, so we can look past the final score. Any chance we can kick more than 4 goals this week ?? …against Brisbane in the wet wasn't a record breaking lost but this week could be. Melbourne look scary good with fast run and carry. The opposite to what we have. Slow stop start style with no one to run with any sort of pace except Ryan and Jones. This will be very ugly. Dee's have around 10+ players that are very fast. Nothing we can do when we have Cripps Foley Gaff Darling Barrass and co chasing them all day. Any chance for some rain again to save us. If not I'm seeing 150+ margin Love how we are working hard to avoid any close losses in order to minimise the risk of being called out for tanking. We are going to be walloped… Gawn might be out so that's a positive We're still a chance! My favourite: There isn't one, all fairly unimaginative. Their Eagles fan forum hasn't started a thread yet. Will add to this when they do.

He got 5. Worthy recognition.

Scroll down on this page as there is a short interview video with Max. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl He says he woke up feeling fine this morning. General issues not PCL. He will be pushing to get ok to play WCE this week. A relief to hear all that even if he doesn't go to Perth.

I would think so. 3 months to go before the count stops and we only need 319 additional members.

Coaches split: 5/4 Oliver 5/3 Brayshaw 4/1 or 3/2 Petracca/Langdon 2/1 May Again coaches in broad agreement.

This sounds like what Port did to him in the first game of 2019. Do we need more of our players to protect Max more? Hopefully the club takes those issues to the AFL.

When that was tried earlier this year Sparrow, Brayshaw and iirc Bowey had a field day. Stop one and someone else steps up.

Last year it was why doesn't anyone tag Salem!! Recently it was a tag on May. Now it is tag Langdon as well as Petracca and Oliver. We could easily add Gus. Where do they stop tagging; they can't tag the whole team!! Its a defeatist game to tag these guys just as it is defeatist to play defensive against us from the get go. Defensiveness won't win a team the game. Given the idea is to win rather than minimise the loss, the most successful strategy so far is attack and attack through the corridor. But we know how to shut that down so it can't be sustained for 4 quarters. We need to have a bad day for another team to win.

Poor research and shallow thinking by commentators. Covid is a massive smoke screen for a multitude of problems of WCE's player and club own making. The very little bit of sympathy I had last week evaporated when a stack of their players went clubbing and at least one brought it back to the club. Don't care if they tank; they are in a world of pain.

Not sure about the last 35 games but it has been very obvious this year. Yeah, there's been a few posts lamenting that we aren't kicking big scores or by big margins against the weaker teams with the % boost other contenders get. The reality is if we keep ops to about 60 pts and we kick around 90pts we keep our % around 150 so no need to worry about big scores or big % games. We are consistent week to week with a steady %. Shutting down teams in the last quarter is part of that. As Goodwin said post GCS game about our defensive 4th quarter: we didn't need to score. High scores is not what we are about; strangling the opposition and putting the game to sleep, are!!

In his press conf Goodwin said he expected "...something will be done in the not to distant future...." I look forward to updating the 'Contracts' thread.🙃

Laughed and loved this comment in The Age game review: "The Demons then just played out time, always keeping the margin above 20 points after strangling their opposition like a python and putting the game to sleep".

Freo vs Lions happens once but your overall point is valid.

Draw is based on 2021 ladder so originally it looked quite difficult. Still to play twice from 2021 : GF Bulldgos. Bulldogs have crashed. PF Power - struggling to find form. mid table Eagles - now entrenched at the bottom of the ladder mid table Saints - going fairly well. So the Cats have been the big beneficiary of the 'upside down' ladder with lots of games vs those top and mid ladder teams who aren't so good this year but only 1 game vs the 2022 success stories like Freo and Carlton. Excluding the Saints if those teams were as good as last year the Cats could struggle to make the 8. Hopefully, those teams find their 2021 form and give Geelong a run for their money, so to speak. But their schedule is hardly good prep for the finals. Fine for their old bodies but not so great for hardened games going into September. Good luck to them. Even if they make top 2 I doubt they will get to the GF.

It looks like the top 8 is nearly set. Carlton could drop out and there is a small chance of Saints dropping out if they lose today. Leaving Port, Pies or Bulldogs to come in. I see the top 4 as Demons, Cats, Lions, Dockers. Tigers while likely to 5th to 8th could do some damage in the finals. Interesting times ahead.

Win today we will be 2/3 games and % ahead of 4th. Short of some major implosion we should finish the season top 4. We can keep our % up around the 150% if we continue to keep ops to our target of approx 60 points and we score 90 pts or there about. And keep any losses to small margins. Our big opportunity for top 2 to stay ahead of Freo and Lions is that we are to play both teams twice. Four 8pt games up for grabs. We should beat both at the G. Win one of their Home games and we are well on the way to top 2. Drop 3 or 4 of those games and we are staring at Away finals in week 1 and possibly week 3 (the Prelim). Btw, Geelong has such an easy draw that they could very easily finish top 2☹️ We play them in round 18 at their kitty patch, so hopefully we win and reduce their chances of a top 2 and enhance ours.