Lucifers Hero

I'm thinking that other clubs might pick up Hunt, Omac or Hannan. For whatever reason their careers at the dees seem limited and they could fulfill a need at other clubs so I would like to see their careers continue.

Congratulations for the 100th game on Monday. You have worked hard to improve yourself and your game every year from debut in 2016. In every way you do yourself and the red and blue proud. Would love it to be at the 'G'. One of the sad parts of this season has been to not be able to watch your talents live. Hoping the team brings the win home for you.

Anyone think Charlie Curnow is worth chasing. iirc we were very keen on him until the last minute at draft time.

After round 15: Table is still based on 9 wins to make finals but more likely 10. Collingwood's loss makes our loss to the Swans even more disappointng. With Giants and Saints playing in the last round, a win vs the Swans would have almost guaranteed us spot in the 8. Now we are a game and %'age behind those teams and needing to win all 3 games which I feel is unlikely. Giants showed vs Carlton they can do what it takes to get a win, we haven't so I don't count that as a win. Ess will be out to finish on a high note with nothing to lose so I don't count that as a win. And Freo are playing like they want to win every game, so I don't count that as a win. We will (I hope) win some of those but doubt it will be all three. If all the cards fall our way we could get in on 9 wins depending on the Giants vs Saints game in the last round. Nail biting time, ala 2017.

Some points re various posts above: On any given day there isn't much difference in humidity and temperatures in Alice, Maroochydore and Carins. We played in Alice at night. We couldn't fly with Sydney as they were flying from Adelaide. Before Adelaide, Sydney had flown to and from Perth so they had to get used to the Cairns hot and humid conditions. We should have been used to them. We did influence the schedule by wanting to play in Alice. It had to be sometime in this block of games. We could have played the Saints in SE Qld instead but we would forfeit the $700k that came with the Alice game. We are playing in Cairns because that is the hub for Syd and Freo and we were about the only team that had not played them at this stage of the season. There is no AFL conspiracy against us and the club isn't being 'weak' by not complaing; it is simply how the cards fell. Rather than look for 'outs', I ask the question: why have our best players not been rested at times, especially our midfielders and our less 'match hardened' players? We knew this tough bloc was coming up on the back of a recent tough bloc. Pert said in 'Talking Points' that players were tired. Yet we kept selecting the same core players. So much for our depth if we can't rest them! Players that should have had a rest: Weideman, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, Melksham (form as much as rest) etc etc. How different might last night have been if they had all had a break at some stage. Now all games are 'must win' with less chance of resting which only exacerbates possible fatigue.

Yesterday we virtually had a double chance of making the 8 as 7th and 8th spots were up for grabs. Now we will most likely be 9th. Had we won we would now be 7th ahead of the Saints on %. By losing we have virtually handed one of those spots to the Saints or the Giants who are a game and % ahead of us. Now there is one spot available, probably 8th. We can still get there but I expect Saints and Giants to take 7th and 8th. That loss did untold damage to our finals hope and how far we might go in the finals. Make it to 8th and we meet Eagles or Tigers in the first Elim. A win would have probably got us to 7th thereby playing Pies in the first final. Yes, this is all conjecture but we coughed up a double chance of making the 8 and winning a final. Heartbreaking.

I apologise to Max in advance because I love him. But I am frustrated with some parts of his game. The 'misdirected' taps I've mentioned earlier. The other part is lack of handball when he takes a mark or gets a free kick. 9.5 time of 10 he takes the kick. He almost never hand passes to a runner along side (usually there is no runner alongside) nor does he look for a runner. The very best ruckman have this in their tool kit. Not necessarily to be used all the time but it would make Max less predictable if he had it or used it more often. Our best ball movement is when we have overlap players running forward. Max hand balling from a mark/free kick would greatly facilitate that. Kicking it just allows time for the op to set up their defence. Now Max isn't the best kick going round and often the ball ends up marked by the op. I'm not raising this because we lost. It is the way he and the team play. When we played more of the play-on-at-all-costs football Max would just take his kick faster. He didn't handball. I can only assume it is a coaching direction to go back an kick rather than handball. Goldstein nearly always handballs. Nic Nat and Grundy probably 50/50. Has anyone else noticed Max's lack of handball vs kicking?

A 4.5 day break and the cumulative impact of short breaks might be an issue but I don't see the travel as a big deal. They were in the same time zone. Most working people are up by 7.00 am. Players have everything done for them. We shouldn't be letting everyone off the hook with travel and stuff. Coaches and players had their chances tonight; they stuffed it.

Max tried hard and took a lot of marks but he missed a captain's goal at a critical time. And his tap work was poor. His kicking into the fwd line was poor. No way he was our best.

I know. That is what makes his performance worse. That he can't correct his technique from one game to the next. It highlights there is no talk between him and the midfielders. They have no idea where he is going to tap the ball. We continually lose the clearance count with the best ruckman and a top 3 midfield which include our cap and vice cap. Completely baffling. Max and Jack need to fix that. And someone needs to tell Jack play his role and just his role.

Max didn't help our centre clearances/stoppages by putting the ball in front of Sydney's mids or no where near the path of our mids so they were always scrambling/chasing. Not blaming Max for the loss but it was a poor game both playing his role and as a leader.

Yes and the more players a club has OOC (like us) the harder it will be to accommodate their expectations and the more vulnerable we are to losing some we would otherwise keep.

Yeah, that occurred to me too. They are clearing the decks of older, highly paid players so lots of sal cap space to help them poach. We would have close to the most senior players to re-contract. Throw in the likes of Viney, Hibberd, Hannan, OMac and others we may want to keep makes contract renewals are challenging. Its a shame we weren't able to lock in those I've mentioned above that we really wanted before covid struck. At least we locked in Petracca in time! Hooray!!

We have 16 senior players and 6 rookies OOC that we need to accommodate in the reduced sal cap or let go. With player contracts expiring at the end of Oct and Trade Week starting almost immediately after the GF (Oct 24) the club needs to get a move on to re-contract those of the 22 OOC it wants to keep. It seems the lower sal cap will be phased in but clubs like Brisbane/GCS etc who have only a handful of uncontracted senior players are better placed to keep those they want. I fear some or our OOC rising talent: Petty, Jordan, Sparrow, Spargo, Lockhart (still a rookie), Fritsch etc might be cherry picked out. As a semi related note, I read that Jeremy Cameron wants to recoup this year's lost covid income in the next contract. There could be many players in clubs with the same idea. Lots of pressures on clubs to balance the lower sal cap with player expectations.

Quite right! Went back and checked the article in late July: "The Demons were well down the track for a contract extension for Fritsch before the COVID-19 contract freeze hit in March. However with the AFL lifting that pause on new deals last week, talks for an extension for Fritsch have recommenced, with a two-year contract expected for Fritsch". With the mooted lower sal cap one wonders if in the 'recommenced talks' our contract is as attractive as before the covid freeze. Or maybe another club has entered the picture which the earlier post suggests. It could be that the 16 senior players and 6 rookies OOC, we need to accommodate in the reduced sal cap or let go, is holding up announcements.

Well who else in the team can do better?

It would be sickening to see Papley get 6. He celebrates each goal as if they had won the premiership. So hope he doesn't get any.

It has to be Harmes. He is our best shut down player. Even if he gets no stats of his own if he shuts down Papley he will have done his job for the team.

Even 40 - 45,000 may have got him the gig, especially if he let players and officials (from Qld or SA) come in on the pre covid basis: fly in the day before the game and fly out game day/next day. They all live in 'bubbles' so the covid risks to WA are virtually zip. Its worked fine with SA.

The Premier has confirmed GF Eve will be a public holiday. No GF, no GF parade, no fan fare so what do we need a public holiday for (not that we needed one when it was first introduced). Given current circumstances I'm shocked. As if there hasn't been enough business (large and small) lockdowns, school lockdowns etc etc. As if there hasn't been enough damage to the economy. As if we haven't all had enough of our homes and 'leisure' time. Maybe he thinks there won't be many people back at work anyway so he may as well make himself popular. For mine it is irresponsible.

iirc we recruited Petty as a tall defender. He had a few good games as a fwd last year but for mine it wasn't a big enough sample to suggest he plays as a permanent fwd. So he could be our other tall or a very good swingman.

Hawthorn must be hurting financially. Their finances have been underpinned by revenue from Tas government and tens of millions in pokie revenue. Both sources have dried up. They won't be getting much from pokies in the first few months of the next AFL financial year. And who knows if the Tas gov't will continue with their agreement when it expires. A new day of reckoning has arrived for the Hawks on and off the field. Back to join the cellar dwellers for a while.

In tonight's game can't see the Bombers beating Eagles even without Kennedy. That will slam the door shut on any hope Ess have of making finals.

Crows have a good lead over Hawks. Should be further ahead. Lots of points and missed a few easy shots completely.

There seems to be a push to have all finals return to the traditional full quarters ie 20 min+ time on. There doesn't seem to be a good reason not to as their won't be a condensed schedule and minimal travel. I'm certainly for it and think it works in our favour (if we make it) as we are quite fit. I haven't seen any of our players put hands on knees or crouch down looking tired at the end of a game this year.