2018 Demons

[AmericanAFL]

Really great info from all, it will be helpful, thanks.

Looking forward to round three vs North, probably tomorrow.

Haven't had as much time this week to watch as I expected. Have only made it to halftime of this one.

Good response to an awful start, and really should be up even more at the half after being a bit wasteful of good scoring chances. Gawn has been terrific, winning just about every single center tap (what an advantage to score and just go right back on the attack).

Could the Dees use a bit more height somewhere in their group of forwards??

Also, the small crowds are a downer. Beyond the games lacking an "electric" feel, for a new fan like me, an engaged/vocal crowd helps draw my attention to aspects of play that I may not recognize as noteworthy (bad referee call, great effort from a player, terrific play, etc).

 

[Topkent]

Haven't had as much time this week to watch as I expected. Have only made it to halftime of this one.

Good response to an awful start, and really should be up even more at the half after being a bit wasteful of good scoring chances. Gawn has been terrific, winning just about every single center tap (what an advantage to score and just go right back on the attack).

Could the Dees use a bit more height somewhere in their group of forwards??

Also, the small crowds are a downer. Beyond the games lacking an "electric" feel, for a new fan like me, an engaged/vocal crowd helps draw my attention to aspects of play that I may not recognize as noteworthy (bad referee call, great effort from a player, terrific play, etc).

We do have that tall option, Tom McDonald. Injured still in that game.

Unfortunately people who play the game at Mason Cox height have literally never happened before. Pretty much every other premiership has been won without blokes that tall although the new average for a key forward would be 195-200cms

The crowd wasn't that small, it was 35000, it's just that
1- The MCG holds 100,000 so it seems small.
2- The broadcasters turn the crowd noise down so that you can hear them commentate better. It's infuriating.
3- at the beginning of that game we hadn't beaten North for 12 years.

 

[AmericanAFL]

Yea I didn’t even mean a guy as tall as Cox. Was thinking more like in the 6’4” - 6’6” range. Seems like most (all?) of the forwards I see out there for the Dees are 6’ or smaller. Was thinking more like Brown or Buddy. Maybe Macdonald fills that role.

Also, Iknow cm is the preferred unit of measure- at some point I’m sure I’ll start thinking in those terms more readily.

 

[harry000]

Yea I didn’t even mean a guy as tall as Cox. Was thinking more like in the 6’4” - 6’6” range. Seems like most (all?) of the forwards I see out there for the Dees are 6’ or smaller. Was thinking more like Brown or Buddy. Maybe Macdonald fills that role.

Also, Iknow cm is the preferred unit of measure- at some point I’m sure I’ll start thinking in those terms more readily.

Yeah Tom McDonald is about 6 foot 4. Same with Sam Weideman who is younger and doesnt come into form until the end of the season.

 

[AmericanAFL]

On a separate note, I was watching quarter one of this game with Daw making some really big plays when I saw on twitter that he had jumped off the bridge, which was kind of surreal. Seems like a troubled kid- hope he pulls his life together.

 

[Topkent]

Yea I didn’t even mean a guy as tall as Cox. Was thinking more like in the 6’4” - 6’6” range. Seems like most (all?) of the forwards I see out there for the Dees are 6’ or smaller. Was thinking more like Brown or Buddy. Maybe Macdonald fills that role.

Also, Iknow cm is the preferred unit of measure- at some point I’m sure I’ll start thinking in those terms more readily.

Mate there aren't that many blokes who are 6'6 and who can play forward. Buddy is the freakiest athlete who has ever played our game. He doesn't even really use his height, he's far more dangerous with the ball on the ground. Every club would kill for a Ben Brown but you just don't find them.
Melbourne has a prospect on the list called Austin Bradtke who's 6'8 am 18 but guys that tall normally can't impact at the top level till they are ~24

Melksham 6'1
McDonald 6'4
Petracca 6'1
Hannan 6'2
Weideman 6'4
Plus Preuss and Gawn who are our rucks who will drift forward are

Gawn 6'8
Preuss 6'8

 

[AmericanAFL]

Mate there aren't that many blokes who are 6'6 and who can play forward.

Interesting. I guess I figured it was more common, but now that I think about it the only other one that springs to mind from the matches I have seen is Daniher.

 

[Topkent]

Interesting. I guess I figured it was more common, but now that I think about it the only other one that springs to mind from the matches I have seen is Daniher.

Daniher, Cox, Brown, Lynch, Dixon the only real established ones in the game. Few young types about but we don't have the athletic pool of America lol.

Teams are really looking for them now but you just don't find many blokes that tall that can kick it well

 

[AmericanAFL]

Daniher, Cox, Brown, Lynch, Dixon the only real established ones in the game. Few young types about but we don't have the athletic pool of America lol.

Teams are really looking for them now but you just don't find many blokes that tall that can kick it well

Maybe Ben Simmons someday haha.

 

[Topkent]

Maybe Ben Simmons someday haha.

Best mates with Christian Petracca who plays for Melbourne. Another time line he would be playing footy and dominating.

Did actually send out a tweet saying he would play AFL one day but it was probably alot more marketing gimmick than serious

 

[AmericanAFL]

Best mates with Christian Petracca who plays for Melbourne. Another time line he would be playing footy and dominating.

Did actually send out a tweet saying he would play AFL one day but it was probably alot more marketing gimmick than serious

Ben’s a freak. If he ever develops a jumper, watch out.

Heard that Ben proclaims himself a Dees fan now, although I’m skeptical after that tweet at the dons.

 

[AmericanAFL]

Great win vs North. Pretty dominant after being down 4 goals to start the match. Spent most of the game inside Norths 50.

Gawn was abusing his counter ruck all day. Hogan, Petraca and Jones all had terrific games to my eye.

So a 2-1 start, with only a bad Gawn miss at the final siren standing in the way of 3-0. Looking ahead to week 4 match against the Hawks (also 2-1) and I feel safe in assuming that Dees fans were buzzing with anticipation heading into this one.

 

[FootyGuy13]

Great win vs North. Pretty dominant after being down 4 goals to start the match. Spent most of the game inside Norths 50.

Gawn was abusing his counter ruck all day. Hogan, Petraca and Jones all had terrific games to me eye.

So a 2-1 start, with only a bad Gawn miss at the final siren standing in the way of 3-0. Looking ahead to week 4 match against the Hawks (also 2-1) and I feel safe in assuming that Dees fans were buzzing with anticipation heading into this one.

Gawn was the only reason why Melbourne wasn't 2nd on the ladder, leaving Port Adelaide the last undefeated team. Couple with the fact that this was the first victory against North since 2006 (or 17 games) and the fact that Melbourne's last 3 games against Hawthorn were either close losses or a 5-goal win, this was a big chance to show we weren't pretenders.

 

[AmericanAFL]

Gawn was the only reason why Melbourne wasn't 2nd on the ladder, leaving Port Adelaide the last undefeated team. Couple with the fact that this was the first victory against North since 2006 (or 17 games) and the fact that Melbourne's last 3 games against Hawthorn were either close losses or a 5-goal win, this was a big chance to show we weren't pretenders.

I’m hoping to watch the game in the next 4-5 hours, or I’ll likely have to wait a week or so.

I would love to be able to access any media that was available prior to the games I’m watching (newspapers, podcasts, etc). However I can’t just search the web for such items because I’m likely to spoil the result. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[FootyGuy13]

I’m hoping to watch the game in the next 4-5 hours, or I’ll likely have to wait a week or so.

I would love to be able to access any media that was available prior to the games I’m watching (newspapers, podcasts, etc). However I can’t just search the web for such items because I’m likely to spoil the result. Anyone have any ideas?

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-09/match-preview-hawthorn-v-melbourne
The AFL website does these sorts of articles a few days before the round starts

 

[AmericanAFL]

This is perfect thanks, mate. I’ve seen either Hawthorn’s first two or first three games, although that was a few months ago, so a quick refresher on them was helpful. Gawn will finally have a worthy adversary in “Big Boy” Mcevoy, I presume- should be an interesting battle between them.

I just woke up early to watch this. Go Dees.

 

[AmericanAFL]

This is perfect thanks, mate. I’ve seen either Hawthorn’s first two or first three games, although that was a few months ago, so a quick refresher on them was helpful. Gawn will finally have a worthy adversary in “Big Boy” Mcevoy, I presume- should be an interesting battle between them.

I just woke up early to watch this. Go Dees.

Will have to watch the second half later, but wow. So dominant in first quarter but didn’t really bury them like they could have and quarter two was a bit of disaster.

Announcers mentioned a few times that Dees weren’t playing anyone on the wings at center tap. Anyone able to offer a tactical explanation of what they were doing with this and whether it was working? Just a matter of bringing more bodies in closer to the tap to try and win possession, or something else?

 

[Topkent]

Will have to watch the second half later, but wow. So dominant in first quarter but didn’t really bury them like they could have and quarter two was a bit of disaster.

Announcers mentioned a few times that Dees weren’t playing anyone on the wings at center tap. Anyone able to offer a tactical explanation of what they were doing with this and whether it was working? Just a matter of bringing more bodies in closer to the tap to try and win possession, or something else?

No we had this tactic that worked well when we had momentum but horribly when we didn't. The wings would start on the defensive side of the centre square and then charge towards the ruck. It would create a kind of wave so if we won the clearance the guy had multiple options coming from behind to get the ball too. We did away with the tactic later in the season as it didn't work how we would have liked.

We were missing Viney/Vandenberg/Brayshaw early in the season and Harmes wasn't the player he was by the end of the season.

Quite a few of us hated the tactic. You could maybe compare it to a Blitz play in that we tried to overload the midfield with movement

 

[AmericanAFL]

Just finished the Richmond game on Anzac Eve (seems that matchup is a yearly one?). I didn’t bother posting after that awful round 4 game with Hawthorn.

This one had some positives you could take away from it, in spite of the final score. A few thoughts:

- The Dees really battled, especially in that third quarter, against a better, more established side. After the Hawks debacle that was good to see. Tigers were just a better, more composed team.

- Tigers really play great defense and don’t make it easy to advance the ball at any point on the ground- their are no easy marks to be had.

- Dusty is fun to watch. I found myself rooting for him to possess the ball to see who on the Dees might be able to tackle him.

- Dees were really sloppy with the ball, even in uncontested situations. My guess is it stemmed from the frantic effort they were giving.

- For whatever reason Melbourne wasn’t able to take advantage of Gawns terrific ruck work, especially early. He was winning every tap, but Richmond was winning nearly every possession it seemed.

Looking forward to the round 6 game with the Dons. If they can get a result on a short week, the following 5-6 games look favorable.

 

[harry000]

Just finished the Richmond game on Anzac Eve (seems that matchup is a yearly one?). I didn’t bother posting after that awful round 4 game with Hawthorn.

This one had some positives you could take away from it, in spite of the final score. A few thoughts:

- The Dees really battled, especially in that third quarter, against a better, more established side. After the Hawks debacle that was good to see. Tigers were just a better, more composed team.

- Tigers really play great defense and don’t make it easy to advance the ball at any point on the ground- their are no easy marks to be had.

- Dusty is fun to watch. I found myself rooting for him to possess the ball to see who on the Dees might be able to tackle him.

- Dees were really sloppy with the ball, even in uncontested situations. My guess is it stemmed from the frantic effort they were giving.

- For whatever reason Melbourne wasn’t able to take advantage of Gawns terrific ruck work, especially early. He was winning every tap, but Richmond was winning nearly every possession it seemed.

Looking forward to the round 6 game with the Dons. If they can get a result on a short week, the following 5-6 games look favorable.

I remember feeling hopeless after the Richmond game. My partner was sick during the Hawthorn game and I had to stay home and look after her and watch on tv while we got flogged. By the Richmond game I had caught her illness, dragged myself to the game to watch another loss. Felt like the season was in the balance heading into the Essendon game.

 

[AmericanAFL]

I remember feeling hopeless after the Richmond game. My partner was sick during the Hawthorn game and I had to stay home and look after her and watch on tv while we got flogged. By the Richmond game I had caught her illness, dragged myself to the game to watch another loss. Felt like the season was in the balance heading into the Essendon game.

Yea that makes a lot of sense. I had the benefit of knowing the direction the season ends up going. I also knew going in that Richmond lost very few games last season, so chances were the Dees didn’t win the game.

I’m looking forward to the Essendon game.

 

[TheCount]

I've got the North game on in the background while doing some work.

A couple of things that are standing out ...

I'd forgotten how good Salem was in the midfield early in the season, it's a shame that he was squeezed out of there later on.

Geez Petracca's confidence was shot after the dog bite, did some brilliant things in this game. He still a bit of an "almost" player (almost took an amazing mark, almost kicked an amazing goal etc) but hopefully he's setting himself up with a massive preseason, as I can see the breakout coming.

While being completely aware that I'm looking for things to criticise, Hogan had a great game in terms of disposals with 26, spending a lot of time up the ground, but with only 1 goal, which he kicked by himself in the goals square on the end of someone elses work, off this games output, I'm not particularly concerned about replacing him.

 

[TheCount]

Also ... I miss this Jeffy

 

[AmericanAFL]

Also ... I miss this Jeffy

I love Jeff- does his form take a nosedive?

 

[Dark Avenger]

I love Jeff- does his form take a nosedive?

Went from being part of the All Australian squad & our leading goalkicker in 2017 to being dropped 5 games into the season.