Lucifers Hero

imv it is the Geelong game which will come back to haunt us: We experimented with 1 tall fwd (TMc who was badly out of form) - I wrote at the time it was very risky as we had few wins in the bank. And it disrupted our ball movement. We deserted our i50 when Geelong kicked from a pt or a mark, allowing them to chip short kicks around until our wall broke down . At no time did we change the wall outside the 50 arc and try and man up. So much for our supposed fwd pressure!! We were ill prepared. Goodwin said they didn't play the way he thought the game should be played. May said we planned for them but they changed tactics. Tactics (possession and control) that have beaten us time and time again. 112 marks to 52 says it all!! Neither the coaches nor players adjusted for the changed Geelong tactics. It was another games where we win some key stats (H.O and Clearances) but were badly beaten all over the ground.and We lost by 3 points. If we just miss finals that is the game that cost us.

Here is an article about how we are changing our game style. One thing is to not play-on as much and slow down our response time. We saw the beginnings of vs Carlton in the second qtr but we weren't too good at it then back then. But have improved immensely in the last month or two melbourne-demons-stats-finals-chances-analysis Less chaos, more composue! I quote it here because there is an interesting stat about Jack. 15 of 17 players have reduced there play on %. Jack has increased his by 12%. For a while I've had a sense that Jack plays his own game, his way. It may be a long bow to draw but one wonders if he is playing to coaching instructions. Edit: Fritsch has also gone up but I suspect that has more to do with moving from defence to fwd.

How good is that! Quote from the article: "Geelong monster Tom Hawkins is clearly the best one-on-one mark inside 50m. From Rounds 6-11 who is the second best? Is it Charlie Dixon? Perhaps Dustin Martin? What about Josh Kennedy? Wrong. It is Melbourne’s Sam Weideman" This year Weideman is averaging an elite three marks inside 50m. Sam came back in round 6. If that doesn't prove Wallace wrong, well... Not marking was a big knock on him last year. Not only is he marking, he is using his body and position well.

Guessing that his foot injuries prevent him from jumping to any height.

Rubbish! And what has Petracca got to do with this thread. At the risk of diverting this thread I want to put the record straight for Petracca and the claim it has taken 6 years. It hasn't! Year 1 - 2015. Out injured with ACL Year 2 - 2016. Out injured (toe) and debuted in round 6. Played mainly fwd. Kicked 12.11 Year 3 - 2017. Had his first full pre-season.Played mainly fwd. Kicked 22.6 Year 4 - 2018. Played mainly fwd. Had poor goal kicking 19.23 Year 5 - 2019 Played fwd and mid. Leading club goal kicker 22.14. Came 5th in BnF. Year 6 - 2020 A stellar year. Many DL's have mercilessly criticised him prior to this year but the results show 2017 and 2019 were good years. 2020 is no surprise to those who have been paying attention. Progressive improvement over 80 games in 3 - 4 years (2016 to 2019) to reach 'elite' level is outstanding. Still relatively inexperienced in AFL terms. There is no need to to refer back to his first 2 or 3 years. I get the feeling you just don't like him.

Damn! Just when I was thought the party had only just begun... '...can't quite compute 'party is over' with 'pollyanna'...? You make a valid point about the wider ovals. Hopefully, Langford and AvB (or whoever is on the other wing) help cover and defend the wider grounds better.

Undoubtedly Clarry has turned a corner. A point the article misses is for part of rnd 10 and all of rnd 11 we had a different mid-field structure and roles which have helped him with the turnaround. At this rate he could become an inside and an outside mid, adding more flexibility to our stoppage structures/clearance strategies. I'm quite excited by how our midfield is developing.

I'm not one who wants to play TMac. I'm ok with his roles in the ruck at VFL and give Max a break as we had no one else and it helps him in his defensive fwd play. Just saying his comparison with Hipwood is poor. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, during Sam's tenure we had Watts, Pederson and Hogan then Hogan and TMac so there wasn't a lot of room for Sam. He did a great job when called up to replace Jesse in late 2018 but we still had a 2 talls fwd structure. In 2019 the whole team was crap, TMac failed miserably leaving Sam to take the 1st defender, until he himself lost confidence and became injured. Meanwhile, Hipwood played a support role in a strong team. Wallace is comparing apples and oranges. Wallace may make sense at times, I just think this isn't one of those times. He has chosen the Weideman vs Hipwood scenario to pot the club.

Firstly, thanks for quoting the key parts for those of us who can't get behind a paywall. Wallace should check the facts. Sam's development has been interrupted by surgeries and injuries. It has been stop/start development. As for this 'Captain Obvious' comment: I think their best option has been (Luke) Jackson and Weideman … let those two develop. That is exactly what the club is doing!! Jackson has been at the club for only 5 minutes. Couldn't have done it any earlier! Comparing Sam to Hipwood is silly. Totally different builds and have had different roles: haven't seen Hipwood in the ruck. Wallace is amazing at how he can put words together that make little sense. Click baiter extraodinaire!

With last nights results, spots 7 and 8 and finals are up for grabs. Will be decided between: Saints, Bulldogs, Ess, Pies, Suns (maybe) and Dees. We play the first 4 in coming weeks; all 8 point games for us. Finals are now in our control. This has a 2018 feel about it: Shaky start. Smashed then players publicly blow torched by the club. Started getting some good wins (albeit vs mediocre sides). Then had 'must win' games vs goodish sides to finish off the season. Its exciting to see how far we can go. At least we are still a very good chance and it makes the rest of the season interesting. Feeling good about where we sit.

Thanks for the tip DS. Another (fairly strong) rumour is we play Ess in Alice in rnd 14. So a Cairns hub looks very unfair on us as it means a trip to Alice then a trip to Cairns after a long series of short breaks (without the bye other clubs have) for another series of short breaks. A bunch of clubs have hubbed in Qld from the start, have not hubbed anywhere else and barely left Qld, if at all: Richmond, Saints, Ess, Suns, Lions, Bulldogs... Those are the clubs that should be going to Cairns.

Yes, a move as an FA gives us a compo pick. If Viney decides to go (it won't be the clubs decision) it will be as an FA and we must help him get to the club of his choice. He deserves that from us. I can't see any circumstance where we it would be a trade situation. It would feel like the Jr situation all over again. No one wins. Might I add I hope we solve the dilemma and not lose him. Its inconceivable to think of him in any other colours than the red and the blue, colours he has worn since the day he was born.

Doubt that will happen. Goodwin gave him big raps after the game along the lines of he is a very smart footballer and will be with the club for a long time to come.

Playing him fwd might look fine on paper but I don't think he is a fwd. We can keep the 4 in the mid-field roles if we clearly define the 1st possession, 2nd possession and spread roles and players follow the rules rather than their instinct: get ball. Viney and Oliver primarily take 1st possessions. Petracca and Brayshaw primarily take 2nd possessions to spread or clear the pack. So we can always have 2 inside and 1 outside mid at the stoppages, not just centre bounces. There are usually 60-80 stoppages a game so plenty of opportunity for each to play in their best role. They all take a turn on the bench and they all take a turn resting forward. I'm in the camp of re-training Viney to not compete with Oliver for first possession and teach him to give a team mate the 2nd possession for the clearance rather than trying to do it all himself. But can you 'teach an old dog new tricks', I don't know. Remember Jack is OOC on Oct 30 and even tho the freeze on contract renewals was only recently lifted it strikes me as odd that no new contract for our vice captain, has been announced. Not having his dad at the club. Losing the co-cap and people suggesting he should give up being part of the mids to roam far and wide, maybe more than the young man can take. Jack Viney, a cameo midfielder...don't think so! Wouldn't want to be in the same room when someone gives him that news! Careful what you wish for. He is an UFA. He might decide to walk and go somewhere where he can play the role he loves.

Eagles are planning to leave Perth after round 13 and not return for H&A games. So it won't be long after that Freo leave town. Its been mooted that we play Ess in Alice in rnd 14 so we could play Freo in Alice in round 15 or back in Qld. I'm also getting nervous about the Freo game. Only saw half last night's game but that was enough to see they are using the Eagles and Geelong 'possession/control tempo' style. The style was very visible for Freo vs Pies which they won. They used it to beat the Saints who have the same play-on, fast game we do. Each week Freo get better at it. Oddly enough last night they beat the Hawks at their own possession/control tempo, game, a game style that won them a few premierships. After the Geelong game Goodwin said 'we couldn't get the ball off them'. 'Controlled/tempo footy' is kryptonite to our fast play. Hope our opp analysts are putting a lot of time into countering that possession/control that Freo are becoming adept at. Too many teams beat us that way. I've now put Freo in with GWS as future losses. On that basis we need 4 or 5 wins from the other 6 remaining games to make finals. Not feeling as optimistic as I was yesterday...

And have a definite target for pick 3 given they traded away a few decent picks to go that far up the order.

I hope our coaches are watching the Cats vs Saints game. Cats spent the first 5+ minutes playing kick to kick as they did vs us. But the Saints were able to get the ball from them. 'Learnings' there for us.

A clean sweep of the coaches votes again: 10 Christian Petracca (MELB) 8 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 6 Angus Brayshaw (MELB) 4 Jake Lever (MELB) 1 Sam Weideman (MELB) 1 Ed Langdon (MELB) What a midfield! Petracca a long way second to Neale on the leader board with a game in hand. But round 11 not over yet so he could be overtaken.

Will be really disappointed if we don't beat Pies and Bulldogs. Pies have about 5-6 key players out with injury, 2 less days rest than us and returning from an intersate game. Bulldogs are struggling to win away from the closed stadium and the tightening of the HTB rule is not helping their game style. And their fwd line isn't functioning too well. Bont is spending a lot of time there so not sure what gives...is he playing injured perhaps... And if the Richo's appointment is to bear fruit we should beat the Saints! So the only definite L I have is vs GWS.

Yes, I noticed that also. Its made a huge difference to his game; gets the chance to find space and take a run. Similarly positioning for the second possession after the tap has made a big difference for Gus to get on the outside and spread from the contest. It will be huge for us if the midfielders get the 1st and 2nd possession plays sorted out. It will stop 2 or 3 going for the ball at once. It will make it harder for opp mids to scrag them, not knowing who will go for the 1st possession and not know who will take the 2nd possession and spread for a clearance. This 'role clarity' can easily be used in around the ground stoppages. We may finally be resolving the 'numbers' at the contest problem and do what other teams do and keep a player on the outside. I'm sure there is a midfield role for Viney its just a matter of coaches working out who is the best fit for each role.

"ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks has backed the Crows' move to target Melbourne's Max Gawn off the ball last week, declaring "we actually didn't know Gawn was injured". it-was-never-our-intention-crows-defend-gawn-tactics If he expects anyone to believe that it adds insult to injury. and 'confesses' "They'd [Demons] done a lot of blocking off ball for him and freeing him up...so we went in with the mindset of not allowing that 'throwing the first punch' (mentality), becoming a physical side off ball so that we weren't dictated to". I didn't see much evidence of us blocking off the ball for Max, in fact I felt we didn't do enough to help him. Crows should be find for deliberately flouting the rules.

Remaining Round 11 Games: Tonight: Cats vs Saints and Dockers vs Hawks Tuesday night: Crows vs Pies Wednesday night: Suns vs Ess We are 9th on the ladder. Have bolded the teams I would like to see lose to max our chances of overtaking them or be further ahead of them to make the 8. The next three weeks are critical as we play Pies, Bulldogs and probably Ess (in Alice, a real Home game). All are 8 - point games and all immensely winnable. Dare I dream that after round 14 we are 8/5 ?? With so many 8-point games and lack of consistency among many teams will 9 wins be enough to make finals? In rounds 15 to 18 we play: Freo, GWS, Saints and Swans. I reckon we can get 9 or 10 wins. Finals here we come?

Remaining Round 11 Games: Tonight: Cats vs Saints and Dockers vs Hawks Tuesday night: Crows vs Pies Wednesday night: Suns vs Ess We are 9th on the ladder. Have bolded the teams I would like to see lose to max our chances of overtaking them or be further ahead of them to make the 8. Then we play Pies, Bulldogs and probably Ess (in Alice, a real Home game). All immensely winnable games. Dare I dream that after round 14 we are 8/5 ??

North failed to kill off our scoring chains but for the most part we played well away from the boundaries limiting chances for throw-ins. And we were first to the ball and played on at all costs. The scoring chains were our coaching and players and less North's deficiencies. Goodwin takes the heat when things don't go well. I'm happy to give him due credit when things go well.

Maybe he doesn't want to play anywhere else. And being Captain/Vice captain has allowed him a 'right' to have a big say.