Lucifers Hero

I now can't attend Monday's game so would like to offer the ticket to a D'lander. It is in a demon bay M4 Row K. Demon Army is right next door in bay M3. I think it cost $65. I do not want payment but would appreciate a donation to a charity which I will suggest when I forward the ticket. PM me if interested.

Re your first point. It seems Goodwin is one of those coaches that didn't know. In his press conf today he said 'he assumed' this was the case, several times. Fair to read into that he didn't know.

The HTB discussion is a different thread. My point was about the seemingly 'secret' instructions the AFL is giving umpires which they fess up to only when they become public, as per the 3 examples I gave.

That is exactly why they will do nothing. They have a monopoly !!!

I wonder how many more secret changes to umpiring are festering at HQ. In the last month: Revealed they had told goal umpires to score review just about everything, until they were exposed and the media started complaining ... fans had been doing so for a fair while. Admitted they coached umpires to extend 'reasonable time' and treat DTB as 'falling out in a contest' etc until coaches started complaining. This 'whispering' in umpires ear and lord knows how many decisions were influenced. I just can't see any reason to do so in game. The 'positive encouragement' is just bs. (btw very fitting that 'Whispering Jack' started this thread). HQ has walked back on those but the scary thing is they didn't tell anyone, not even the clubs. I wonder what umpiring gem will be revealed next ... ? Frustration at umpires is part of the sport but the above just hangs them out to dry.

What a bunch of softies we are !!! But isn't it good to be humble fans in victory. Their plight must have touched a deep sore spot circa 2012 for us demons. They were trying but nothing was working for them and you could feel the player's despair. LOL! Had it been Coll, Carl, Ess or Geelong I would have said: No mercy allowed😇

I wasn't looking for replays of the frees so not sure why Max got so many. They were mainly in ruck contests so I assume they were holding which is difficult to see from the stands with so many players around the ball. And as you say some hiigh ones. Marshall nor team mates complained at all so the frees were there. I thought Clarrie played an OK game. Fierce as always. He improved as the game went on. He isn't a goal kicking mid so we need more value (meters gained) from his excellent ground level work. imv 'meters gained' (181) is a key stat for non-goal kicking mids). It was very low yesterday suggesting he isn't using his legs so disposals are very short distance albeit @ 91.7% eff. He had three i50's placing him 10th yesterday. So for a mid, his output ie after taking possession (distance (mtrs gained), goals, GA, i50's,) was on the low side especially as only 8 of the 24 were contested. So yeah, for mine it was an ok game. He will get back to his best soon enough and if we keep winning in the meantime all is good.

I agree with Salem comment. He had no CBA's yesterday so not really part of the midfield rotations. I saw his role a bit different to that of ANB and Kozzie. Once the ball was in play I saw Salem's role as a key connection in our goal to goal ball movement and key distributor from the middle to a free player. He has the smarts and finds time and space to pick a good option be it fwd, or sideways/back to switch to the other side.

Free kicks: 21 to 10 Aside from my delight at that I thought the game was well umpired. At the ground there didn't seem to be too many 'clangers' and rarely was there an uproar from the crowd over a free paid or not paid. I actually felt a bit sorry for the Saints - that moment of weakness vanished when they put on three junk time goals ...

Stand outs for me: Max's EIGHT frees. Yes, 8 !!! Marshall is a very good ruckman but clearly didn't know how to play Max right from the get go. Salem's game: FOURTEEN Marks. Yes, 14 !!!. At the ground it looked like once the ball was in play he placed himself near the centre square and was pivotal in ball movement (32 possessions, 24 kicks/8 HB, @ 75% eff). At times he went inside d50 to take the kick in. His role was similar to Gus's in parts of 2020/2021: in the middle of the ground and directed play. He looks very fit. Salem is the perfect person for that role. Smart, aggressive and accurate. Much less kicking long from kick ins, to Max in this game. No passengers yesterday. On the not so good: Chandler (off balance), Rivers (50m line) and Langdon (v tight angle) took difficult 'hero' shots for goal and burnt multiple free players front and square within 20 - 30 mtrs of goal. Except Langdon they had plenty of time to see the free players. While intent was admirable it wasn't good teamwork. Not a pretty win but great to get it. A beautiful day for watching a day game at the G.

Wright wasn't speculative. He was poorly developed and mismanaged at GCS along with others that have left. BTW, $500k pa was a bargain for Ess not so great for Wright.

The underlying assumption of our 2022/23 game plan is by sheer quantity of i50 we will kick a winning score while our defence keeps the opps to around 60-70 pts. Only problem is the first part of that assumption hasn't held because we can't convert the chances and kick points instead. imv that is a direct result of not having a tall genuine KPF. I doubt we can win a priership without one, regardless of our game plan.

It doesn't need to be from one Vic club to another. In 2020 Peter Wright was traded back to Vic (Ess) from GCS for a future 4th round pick on $500k a year. Out of favour with Dew. JT was reportedly keen on him in his draft year. I don't think we or anyone else chased him otherwise GCS would have got a better deal from Ess. Wright has starred since. We missed a trick there.

Never fear, DeeZ they numbers should bounce back. In May last year (and I think 2022) the club had 3-game specials at a discounted price. Last year it was to celebrate Kozzie re-signing and membership iirc was $36, his playing number. I bought a few and they came in handy when buying extra finals tickets. I assume the club will soon have another special to boost numbers. Well, I hope they do. 🤞

imv we will struggle to consistently be near the top until we get/develop a tall forward. JvR will get there but we really need one soonish. Petty maybe. Jefferson maybe. Not sure if it will all come together this year. But as we know KPF don't grow on trees. Sadly we missed our chance when Peter Wright was traded from GCS to Ess in 2020 for Ess future 4th round pick and just $500k pa for 3 year contract. In 2020 we traded in BBB which undoubtedly helped us get our flag. So no probs there. But, could we have had both? I don't recall if there was competition for Wright in 2020 - seemed to be on the outer at GCS. Going on the trade value it seems unlikely. JT was reportedly keen on him in his draft year (described as Fwd/Ruck). Maybe we didn't go after him as we had BBB and TMc but their fragile bodies were well known at the time and aging. Prior to BBB's short lived best years with us Jesse was our true forward and we haven't replaced him. BBB is a different type of forward and recent recruits are still raw. The rest have been defenders/ruckman turned forwards. TMc, Turner, Petty, Smith, Grundy, Jackson etc. I guess we pinned our hopes on Jackson staying. I don't think we can win a premiership without a true KPF.

If they don't make finals it will be even more fun than them not winning one. 🤣 ... I would resurrect my 'Special Edition, What they are saying thread...' !!!

The round 24 games vs my other most hated team would be a good time to wear the 'Gus helmet'. @WalkingCivilWar I assume no problems with the cheer squad donning such helmets this time?

So Ess bblessed with no 5-day break between games for the whole season🙄. Hope they crash and burn. It would be fun if they lost their first final! 🤣

We don't need a big score to improve our %, knock their % down and boot them out of the 8 !!! 85 to 60 will do all those.

Re umpires: Not a lot of change (see post above for the changes). Stevic is a very good umpire. Had a quick look at Bigfooty and they share our feelings about Williamson: Who are we going to tag #22 Williamson with, he is brutal in our games #22. Gives us grief every game. They made me chuckle!!

Not sure of the mood in this thread but if anyone needs convincing that we will win and win well lets compare the teams from the 2023 Semi and this week: The major reasons we will win: Our fwd line of Turner, Petty, van Rooyen is far superior to 2023: Smith, McDonald, Schache (who was the unused sub). Our overall line up is far better than theirs. Their best defender Weitering suffered a corked thigh then played the next week on a 6 day break and he could barely run ... very slow. This week he is on a 5 day break. McGovern is a lazy footballer. There defence struggled to contain our depleted line in 2023, they will do no better this year. Superior tactics and what was learnt from the Geelong game. Their field defence is poor. TMc to follow McKay up field as he did Cameron, May to take Curnow as he did Hawkins, leaving Lever to do his thing. I could go on but you get my drift. Dees by 3 goals, 5-6 if we decide to inflict some pain rather than close the game down.

Its at the bottom of the AFL website 'Match Report' page for each game. eg Port vs Crows round 8 https://www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/5958#match-report Dees vs Geelong round 8 https://www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/5959#match-report

I have a different view for us kicking the ball around the f50m arc. Usually the positioning of our zone defence in the formation in the diagram (thanks @Chook ) below is to lock the ball inside our f50. Geelong have started using the old 'flooding' opps fwd line trick then running it out thru the opp weak defensive structures. Note there are about 16 Geelong players flooding our f50. I reckon kicking the ball around the arc was to let Geelong flood in our f50, set up our 7 player defensive formation around the arc thereby trapping Geelong players in our F50 and stopping them running anywhere toward their goal, rather than a strategy to run them ragged. They had nowhere to run! We didn't need to outrun them as we were on their goal side. tbh I didn't particularly notice times when they ran aggressively or where we out ran them. What I saw was them having to stop if they escaped the trap as there was hardly anyone forward for them. If any of their players ran out of the trap one of our players picked them up allowing Lever and May to go back closer to goal. I reckon few stoppages was simply a by product of us centering the ball, our good marking i50 and poor kicking by both sides. To me it looked like both sides ran the game out well so not sure we had a noticeable fitness advantage. ps. I haven't heard the podcast. Just my thoughts on what I saw.

Thanks. Much more stylish than the AFL example. But still a bit of a 'knuckleduster' Out of interest, how many men on here would wear a 'knuckleduster' type ring?

My calendar says today is 8th May ... 😉