Lucifers Hero

He has but imv he is not their most dangerous midfielder. We can't run with them all.

Not sure about dropping Harmes. We may need a 'run with' player in the middle for Warner, Parker or Heeny. Warner is really dangerous and went under the radar a bit last year. The only swan to really stand up in the GF so potentially their most dangerous. Not sure what happened vs Hawks this week but he was very ineffective. Reckon Mitchell may have put a hard tag on him. It is really hard to tell how good Sydney are as their two big wins have been vs GCS and Hawks. And their end to 2022 wasn't super brilliant: an ok win vs an injury depleted Dees, a one point win vs Pies and thrashed in the GF. My lack of confidence for a win is driven more by our inability to beat Sydney in the past than belief that they really good...

I posted in another thread that Max being out might be a blessing as it will enable us to play an extra small/medium player. They have Reid and Hickey out so they will go in relatively 'short'. Sydney beat us the same way year in and year out. They let us get first possession at stoppages, put on the pressure and we rush a disposal and turn it over. Meanwhile our players have started spreading or moving goalward and are out of position to defend the turnover. An 'extra' small/medium player to replace Max should go some way to countering that aspect of Sydney's game. I will be really disappointed if we fall for that trick again, this week.

Agreed, hence why I think Max out might be a blessing. We can replace him with an extra small/mid sized player while our remaining talls take care of theirs which will be less of a threat with Reid and Hickey out.

As odd as this may sound, Max being out could be a blessing. They have one player over 200m (Ladhams) available who has played any AFL games and then only 45. A key tall fwd, Reid is also out. Hickey is out. With Hickey and Reid out they have no player 195+ cm who has played more than 80 games. So by necessity they will go in relatively 'short'. Without Max we still have an abundance of tall players. Surely their lack of experienced talls is something we can exploit around the ground. Grundy will take care of Ladhams in the ruck. Feeling a bit more optimistic🙃

That article is virtually saying there is no position for Jackson. Lord knows where Freo will hide him or where to play him. As an aside, wasn't it well known he didn't like and didn't want to be a forward? He is used to being protected and lauded at the dees. Over there he is exposed and hunted. The kid must be wondering what has hit him. This trade could be the worst 'own goal' in a very long time: Bell gets the feather in his cap but messes up his team. I wish Jackson well but would love to see Bell squirm!!

True. Hence why I want us to win to get the monkey off our back. It is their arrogance and complete lack of respect for us that annoys me. Hope we show them up.

From Bigfooty. They don't think much of the Dees and their thread title 'Roasting Demons' sums it up. They should be concerned about the work rate intensity and efficiency of our midfield group. the AFL paid Paul Roos to instill some Bloods culture. It's got them to a Flag but they still seem relatively easy to rattle and too rigid in structure, won't be able to deal with the True Bloods chaos and multi-faceted attack. First hands on the ball in the centre. Make lever accountable. Melbourne are rubbish Melbourne are the Los Del Rio of the AFL Can someone tell me which week Melbourne won the clearances this year or contested possession. They lost both in the 2 games I saw, so not sure why we would s**t ourselves about it Rowbottom has been very off at the beginning of the season. Imo, he's one of our most important players vs Melbourne Pretty confident going into the game without Gawn. He killed us in last year's regular season game. …He played the best game i have ever seen a ruck play but guess what it still wasnt enough for them. May will be close to goal. If we play Buddy on the arcs, May will be inconsequential. …Well I hope so, but I thought Buddy was running all over the ground last time and May was hugging him the whole time. That 50 metre penalty May gave to Buddy for example was in the center square. …Franklin got into May head last time and effected his game allowed others to hit the scoreboard. Well yeah, so we beat their full strength team twice with and without Buddy last year, so I'm actually extremely confident going into this week (Demon lurkers, sorry if I forgot some random jerk who was left out of your team. I just meant generally speaking). Wonder if the players will be a bit nervous returning to the MCG after the GF shellacking. Good to get it out of the way early in the season. Really excited for this week's game. As we did last year, think we match up really against them and i'm backing Ladhams in to hold his own. The two best sides at scoring from defensive 50 will be going at it this week. Somewhat takes away our advantage we usually have over most teams, and further increases the need for the midfield to start generating more scoring opportunities themselves. Grand final week we were shuffling deck chairs regarding Amartey, McDonald and McLean, who would be less useless As a casual F1 viewer in Melb, why does this match have to be scheduled at the same time as the race?!? :triumph: My Favourite: Noting witty or insightful enough to capture my interest. Wood love us to win this just to shut up their fans and to get the monkey off our back. Not confident.

Then why start a thread you believe will degenerate into bashing of fellow dee fans!!

We don't have a new chat each week about tickets. There is a ticket thread. And legit questions about ticketing has nothing to do with crowd size. Bemoaning reserved seat members not going to games is an invitation to bash demon fans who deserve better than being maligned by their own. And why pick on reserved seat members. If you want Caro bashing and demon fan bashing just re-post last year's thread. If you weren't a regular poster and one who provides excellent info I would suggest the op is an attempt to troll ie a 'dog whistle' to all who want to winge about Caro, AFL, Dees fans etc. Give it a rest.

Not sure the purpose of thread? Repeat of last year's negativity around our fans attendance? An invitation for 'Caro bashing', perhaps? (Btw the pejorative name is not appropriate!). We have a thread to exchange information on ticket/ticket sales. Isn't that enough.😟

I agree totally! But sometimes it is easy to forget the obvious, revert to old habits or need reminding especially when the pressure is on.

Some valuable lessons: Midfield need to relearn how to shark opp ruckmen. For mine that is the biggest lesson from this game. Viney and Grundy need to work on their leadership: When Gawn went down a re-grouping pow-wow was required and I didn't see this happening (on the tv broadcast). Very disappointing that no one else stepped up. Too much left for Lever to do. May is our last line of defence 'general' marshaling the defenders while Lever positions the mids. If May was there I very much doubt the Lions would have had a 4/5 goal head start in the first quarter. No Gawn and no May left too much for Lever (and to some extent Petty) to do. Train the expected conditions: Other teams in the past have trained with a greasy ball in Melb for a game in humid Qld. Stay focused: When Gawn went down it was like the air went out of a balloon. It looked like their minds were not on the job. Brisbane weren't as good as they looked and we weren't as bad as we looked. I'm really ok with this game. Very valuable lessons learnt and it is great we learnt them this early in the season. While I'd rather Max not be out we will see how mature our team really is.

A new day has barely improved their mood. GAME DAY! Their BFCSS much trepidation about this one, low bar for me 100% effort and beaten by less than 3 goals. Zero expectations going in. Don't think we've ever been this low since 2019… Hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Hope we win, just don't see it happening today without a massive attitude adjustment. I remember when we used to go into each game hoping for an honourable loss (that being an upgrade of the standard shellacking), we were looking for signs and potential and each win was a lovely surprise. Win or lose, I just want an effort we can be proud of. Zero expectations going in. Don't think we've ever been this low since 2019. 10 goal loss coming up… I miss being at least a lil bit confident going into games... Before i'd change the players - i think a complete overhaul (keeing the same players) of the coaches would be my go And the draft talk starts! Helps to have your own first and second round picks in such a scenario. We should get the Dockers or Eagles first this year for Deven Robertson (Poster doesn't know we have Freos's first and second) Currently, this first pick we hold is Geelong’s second round pick. (All aboard the Geelong death ride). I wish it didn't feel like that today :( Some Optimism: This is our Tigers 2016 season, Demons 2019 season. The season they had to have before winning the Grand Final, albeit the Demons had to wait two years. I look at our team and think we have enough good players to get the job done at The Gabba. Am i confident after last week no, but that will make a win all the better. Geez, one rough week and everyone wants to tear it all down. I'd save the doomsday predictions for the middle of the year after the team has had time to settle into the year.. trust this playing group to respond after the disaster last week. Work rate and commitment are non-negotiable's, that's all I want to see from them. Was so bullish before last week, lucky we have 22 rounds to go.. If we end up doing well this season, I expect this season to be similar to 2021, where we don't get a win until round 5 (North). My Favourite: Mitch Robinson is free to say whatever he likes of course, but I do wish he’d not said anything about the Dees Mitch must have read Langdon’s: all duck no dinner Collingwood comment!! Hope we respond as they did!! NB. I'll follow up tomorrow with their Post Mortem!!

Good premonition! I'm keeping an eye on their 'Game Day' thread. Not a lot there right now but thought I would post a 'Game Day' section this afternoon. From what is there so far, it is all gloom and doom sounding very much like us a few years ago. They seem to have their own BFCSS, a replica of our MFCSS!! Of course, they won't be as bad as last week. Even if they come out with fire and brimstone it won't last and we will win.

I wonder if Blicavs plays next week. De Koning deliberately put his knee into the bottom of Blicavs' rib cage a fraction of a second before leaping for the ball. Blicavs was down for a while and if he plays will be mighty sore and bruised. De K should have been penalised.

Thought it might be interesting to see how their view changes as the week goes on. After Team Selections: look at the competition's best defences and they do not have two unaccountable backmen like we do Wow Fagan had zero tolerance in todays press conference. Panic stations in the backline. Haha guess the experiment with a shorter backline worked for about 1 week. Ingenious and arrogant by the coaching staff We dropped two “wingers”, for two talls, and brought in a mid forward for a small defender. So a team that has a problem running, losses two running players, and adds two non runners. We look suspiciously like the Dogs this week. The only difference to our regular/preferred line up is a second ruck. And against Melbourne I do t think that is a bad thing. I was a tad worried about tomorrow night, now even more so, we better come with our running shoes on or it could become embarrassing for us, Melbourne are a seriously elite running side. No surprise as Fort comes in for their twin towers. We spend an entire pre-season deciding we need more run and pick a side accordingly for round 1. Side is smashed because essentially it doesn’t try. Now we put not 1 but 2 talls back in?! Seems like panic stations.We now have 8 talls… My favourite: The response to a prior comment: Don't play Geelong until round 18. They'll either A) be back healthy(ish) or B) their season will have gone to hell… I vote for option B

Just had a look at the Cats fixture: four more games at the G: Bombers, Hawks, Tigers and Pies. So far it seems the wide open space of the G is challenging them. The Ess twin may get them firing for an upset win. a dream KP fixture playing 4 of last years finalist there: Swans, Demons, Bulldogs Freo and this year's apparent up and coming team: Port. How they get such a huge advantage over finalist is beyond me!! play these teams twice: Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Port Adelaide, Sydney, Western Bulldogs Certainly a much harder fixture than 2021. They would want to bank quite a few wins early in the season or they won't be resting their tired players in the second half. Early prediction is they will come back to the pack and maybe bottom half of the 8. Wouldn't that be nice!!!

Something is up with Dangerfield. Last week he played just 62% game time. Last night he had played just 54% to half time then finished with 70%. It is too early in the season to be managing his game time, unless they want to [censored] him in the last half like they did last night. Midfielders usually play around 80-85%. Dangerfield's numbers are exceptionally low. Reckon he is injured or extremely unfit. While an excellent player he isn't showing much in the way of footy IQ or leadership. Selwood was such a dominant leader they may have forgotten to groom a successor, altho for a long while it was touted to be Stewart. With Stewart out and Dangerfield ineffective someone needs to step up and fill the footy IQ and leadership void. but those traits can't really be taught. Good for the other 17 teams 😀 Cats won't miss the 8 because of the KP advantage but right now it is hard to see them going deep into Sept especially as their losses have been at the G. Edit: the censored word is f-l-o-g. Last time I looked it is a legitimate verb...

Just repeating what their fans say - not my view.

Their problem is those guys are the only ones (except maybe Raynor) who gets a bit physical and ruffles feathers. We have Viney, Harmes, May and when playing Salem, Kozzie and maybe others. As we know a bit of aggro can lift teammates and influence a game. I think their fans are saying the team is a bit soft without them!!

Start looking at the history books to see the odds of making the 8 after a 0-2 start...😀

Yes, in a similar role to Salem. I reckon he is a better mid/fwd; a bit wasted in the back line as they could do with his aggression around the ball.

Not a lot of optimism which isn't surprising after last week's game. Overall their focus was on underdone players, lack of speed, poor attitude and little aggression. Lamented the absence of their tough guys: Robinson (retired), Zorko (injured), Matheson (not selected). From Big Footy Dees bring this pressure it’ll be round rd 23 2022 in rd 2 2023. Team balance is wrong at the moment t. We had a speed problem, now we’ve overcompensated and have a grit problem. Friday night against another fast moving side will be enlightening, the Demons will be fired up after us beating them last meeting. We lack fierceness and need to do something to shock these gentlemen players into desperation effort levels. i just want the players to care and reverse that putrid attitude and effort from yesterday. Maybe I'm getting too pessimistic but if we plan on losing the ruck contest, which is going to happen anyway , how do we expect our guys to shark it with Oliver, Petracca , Brayshaw, Viney ,Harmes etc getting service. Demons mids hit the ball hard. Based on what Horne-Francis did to us, Petracca will be unstoppable. IF Zorko was playing yesterday he would not have changed the result, but I reckon he would have become more aggressive in that 3rd Q and the team might have responded. Another concern I have had the last few months is the lack of defensive players in the forward line. Whether we win or not against Melbourne is not as consequential as to whether we turn up with intent and keep it going for the 4 quarters whatever the state of the game. If we just fold and poonce around again I'll be genuinely worried. There is something fundamentally wrong with our team all down hill skiers. Of our last 5 games we have been belted 3 times that’s not a team that should be contesting for a flag. I watched the Dogs v Dee's last night, and even though the Dogs lost by 50, still looked light-years better than we did this weekend. The big worry for me is how hobbled Gawn and Petracca were and won't be this time... Payne and Andrews don’t get close enough to their opponents to tackle them. These are two defenders who seem to have a major deficiency in defensive skills. Yep the old “are we pretenders?” conundrum starts again for another year. Melbourne look deadly dangerous already and last couple of years have had the measure of our midfield. Bailey is not an inside mid and neither is Berry. If Berry played for the Dees or the cats he wouldn’t get a game. Fritchs is about to rip Rayner a new one… …Fritsch will run Rayner into the ground in the first quarter, if Rayner tries to run with him. Even in our best games there are quarters we sleep in, let alone whole games we just don't wake up. My favourite – for its reality and light hearted humour Right, you go whack Petracca in the tibia with mallet, and I'll ride a mini scooter in Max Gawns' back. That oughta help Melbourne replicate their team from that semi final win. Coleman was excellent against us in the final so his unavailabilty this week will help. Dees by 4 goals!

That they are both bulky is what makes me think that is how Freo want them. But that build is of an old fashioned style ruckman. Today's ruckman are much leaner, faster and more agile. I can't think of many other ruckmen today, with that build/bulk. I was pretty confident Freo would be found out this year for the lack of cohesion/synergy from their list and position changes. Reckon I can add lumbering ruckmen to their vulnerabilities.