Autopsy Mid-season Review/Preview

[demondavey]

If we somehow manage to finish in the top 4, it’ll be another straight sets exit. The rubbish that we produce isn’t going to fly in finals.

FWIW;

1. Max Gawn

11

Max Gawn

Age

32

Ht

209cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.1

4star

K

7.4

3star

HB

6.7

4star

CL

2.8

4star

HO

35.3

5star

D

18.5

4star

K

11.5

4star

HB

7.0

4star

CL

3.5

4star

HO

29.2

5star

D

8.4

3star

K

3.6

2star

HB

4.8

4star

CL

1.0

3star

HO

15.6

5star

doesn’t set a good enough standard as captain. Give it to May or Viney. Or even Lever.

2. Goodwin is too close to the players, how much criticism and heat are they actually receiving?

3. The same tried and tested strategy of F50 entry is dysfunctional and unsustainable. Our key forwards are a HFF and a kid playing 20 odd games.

4. Gawn isn’t a forward.

5. Grundy isn’t a forward.

6. We don’t offer anywhere near the pressure we did in 2021.

7. Why wouldn’t we put Petty forward and keep Tomlinson back? We got him for a reason, he would play third tall which would be fine.

8. Improvement is minimal in our young playing group.

9. The Grundy is looking an absolute bust given we were supposed to be playing Gawn forward and vice versa.

 

[Johnny Karate]

The guys who help us win games of football/look a flag threat would be: Fritsch, Gawn, Lever, May, Oliver, Petracca and Pickett. Apart from Oliver and Petracca none of them would be in the extended AA squad on current form. So if that continues we’re pretty much mid table without significant improvement from that group or the tiers underneath.

 

[mrmonkey]

Fritsch has done remarkably well considering how dog s**t our ball movement is. A lot of people saying we should play pickett midfield because he's out of form but also he's out of form because we don't give him a chance forward with slow ball movement. Almost wish he signed with port just to see what he could actually do in a team that would give him a decent chance. Could say the same about chandler he is out of form but we don't give him much help either, he looked much better earlier in the season when we did move the ball quicker. Smith has come in at the wrong time but as also done well in the circumstances. Not sure which team is winning wasted talent competition us or Carlton.

 

[Johnny Karate]

The games
R1 vs Dogs: a solid win after a typically seesawing first half of the match. Gawn and Pickett were the standouts.

R2 vs Lions: a poor follow up performance as we were smashed around the ball. A last quarter power outage gave us a chance to nick the game but the scoreboard was very flattering given the first 3 and a half quarters of the game.

R3 vs Swans: a really exciting performance with some positive tactical moves. Oliver was outstanding in his 150th and JVR franked a solid debut with a couple of goals in the last.

R4 vs Weagles: a ho hum flogging. Tom McDonald

25

Tom Mcdonald

Age

31

Ht

195cm

Wt

101kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.4

4star

K

9.7

4star

HB

6.7

4star

M

5.6

5star

T

1.9

4star

MG

261.8

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.0

2star

M

3.4

3star

T

0.6

1star

MG

135.6

2star

D

13.8

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

7.0

5star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.4

4star

kicked 4 against the worst side in the league but it was hard to read much into the performance given the lowly opposition.

R5 vs Essendon: killed in the middle again as Draper and Phillips kicked 5 between them in the ruck. Oliver was heavily tagged but still managed 40 odd touches, however, his impact was minimal.

R6 vs Richmond: a nervous start as the Tigers got out to a 5 goal lead near half time. Slowly but surely reeled them in in the 3rd before breaking away in the last thanks to a JVR burst. But not a thoroughly convincing performance.

R7 vs North: utterly destroyed North by 90 points in what looked like a glorified training run. Petracca was BOG. However, a slightly disappointing finish as Melbourne let a rare 100 point victory slips as the Roos slotted the last 3 goals of the game.

R8 vs Gold Coast: hung on to defeat Gold Coast narrowly in a game where the Suns looked to be on top in most facets bar the scoreboard. Could prove a valuable result but the performance wasn’t much to write home about.

R9 vs Hawks: bar a 5 goal burst at the start of the 3rd, pretty much dominated the game in a 50 point win against a very young opposition.

R10 vs Port: sucked for about 3 quarters but a dominant display from Petracca and Oliver in the 3rd was nearly enough to pinch the game as we went down by 4 points to a genuine contender.

R11 vs Freo: extremely bad result against a mid table side on our own dung heap. Luke Jackson

9

Luke Jackson

Age

22

Ht

199cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.3

2star

K

3.3

1star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

0.3

3star

D

8.3

2star

K

3.3

1star

HB

5.0

3star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

2star

G

0.3

3star

D

8.3

3star

K

3.3

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

0.3

3star

was impactful in the second half as we blew chance after chance in front of goal to win the game.

R12 vs Carlton: a really turgid game in which a confidence sapped never really threatened.

R13 vs Collingwood: best result of the season. Pressure was excellent, defence fantastic but goal kicking was dismal and kept the Pies in it. Viney went into beast mode and was bog. Collingwood typically made a late charge to pinch it but the siren just won out.

R15 vs Geelong: a shambolic last quarter blew our chances for a rare victory at Geelong. Ability to score continued to be an issue as the undermanned Cats ran all over us in the last.

Overall, we’re 9-5 which isn’t a terrible W/L analysis. However, there are many nagging issues which remain of concern. Our general inability to lift against quality opposition has been evident in a lot of games bar KB. Scoring has dried up in recent weeks and use of the ball forward of centre is still poor. Moreover, a number of our prime movers are seriously down on form and we haven’t had enough improvement from underneath to offset that. It is seemingly an even season but the side needs to lift several gears pretty if we’re to be a genuine shot at a flag in 2023.

 

[Dory_77]

Agree with most of what's been said in here; stars are off, role players are up and down, forward line and entries a mess.

Some positives I will take is the improvement in Rivers; Salem looking decent from a long layoff; Hunter been a great value pickup; and Viney has really found some form. Also found a right foot! Trust him more off either side than ******* Gus.

 

[demondavey]

We are just a mid table side and nobody at Melbourne really gives a * to change that. We won a flag but that seems to have sated the group. Whatever Goodwin is doing isn’t working. Ladder position is flattering us the last two seasons. We just aren’t much chop.

 

[jhong]

ATM the team is giving off the " We turn up when we feel like it " vibe . We have a group who play like they won't get dropped no matter how they are going . When Stewart knocked over a clearly hurt Viney , did any one go and "Fly the flag" ? I didn't see anything . Right now it feels like we are in the 2nd tier of teams that might make finals but that's it .

 

[melbun]

If we somehow manage to finish in the top 4, it’ll be another straight sets exit. The rubbish that we produce isn’t going to fly in finals.

FWIW;

1. Max Gawn doesn’t set a good enough standard as captain. Give it to May or Viney. Or even Lever.

2. Goodwin is too close to the players, how much criticism and heat are they actually receiving?

3. The same tried and tested strategy of F50 entry is dysfunctional and unsustainable. Our key forwards are a HFF and a kid playing 20 odd games.

4. Gawn isn’t a forward.

5. Grundy isn’t a forward.

6. We don’t offer anywhere near the pressure we did in 2021.

7. Why wouldn’t we put Petty forward and keep Tomlinson back? We got him for a reason, he would play third tall which would be fine.

8. Improvement is minimal in our young playing group.

9. The Grundy is looking an absolute bust given we were supposed to be playing Gawn forward and vice versa.

Here is my sell list so that we can afford to buy some talent. (and I would have Lever in the VFL rather than Tomlinson)

Sell (or retire them or leave them in the VFL side) -
Grundy, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Jordon, Chandler, Brown, Melksham, ANB, Spargo, Fritsch.

Fritsch because usually his screw ups out weigh his good stuff.

 

[booshboy]

Here is my sell list so that we can afford to buy some talent. (and I would have Lever in the VFL rather than Tomlinson)

Sell (or retire them or leave them in the VFL side) -
Grundy, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Jordon, Chandler, Brown, Melksham, ANB, Spargo, Fritsch.

Fritsch because usually his screw ups out weigh his good stuff.

wtf

 

[Young Redleg]

Here is my sell list so that we can afford to buy some talent. (and I would have Lever in the VFL rather than Tomlinson)

Sell (or retire them or leave them in the VFL side) -
Grundy, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Jordon, Chandler, Brown, Melksham, ANB, Spargo, Fritsch.

Fritsch because usually his screw ups out weigh his good stuff.

Lol we probably wouldn't have even made the top 6 without Fritsch last year. And we definitely wouldn't have beaten Collingwood two weeks ago without him either.

 

[Toump Ass]

Some "go dees!" fluff:

• Trent Rivers keepin' it real
• Best ever person with a name Judd
• Vintage Jack Viney
  7

  Jack Viney

  Age

  30

  Ht

  179cm

  Wt

  93kg

  Pos.

  Mid

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  22.1

  5star

  K

  9.4

  4star

  HB

  12.6

  5star

  M

  2.8

  3star

  T

  5.7

  5star

  CL

  5.0

  5star

  D

  21.8

  5star

  K

  10.3

  4star

  HB

  11.5

  5star

  M

  2.5

  3star

  T

  4.5

  5star

  CL

  5.0

  5star

  D

  13.4

  4star

  K

  8.6

  4star

  HB

  4.8

  4star

  M

  2.6

  3star

  T

  3.4

  5star

  CL

  3.6

  5star

  games
• Pig Hibberd
• Finally got a win for Neale. Was brilliant, really fn lovely to smash Pie at the G
• Hunter aka Human Highlight Reel. Incredible first Demon year. Highlights: bumping shithead collingwood guy, being a total smartarse at his tribunal appearance, getting fined for trolling some Hawks guy, and insisting the Carlton game was s**t on Roving Brian TV segment.
• JVR showin' a bit
• #demonspirit
• Chandler inability to miss goals in his first few games
• Signed Kozzie Pickett & I suppose Chandler too.
• Occasional nice selection surprises like Melksham being dropped...

Bit of "* off you bunch of weak pricks"

• ... but Melksham shouldn't have been picked anyway.
• Hamish Blake
• Media team
• Losing quite a bit
• Brayshaw finding a nice paddock.
• Not even losing, just rolling and over and saying "here do whatever you want to us, we love it, play with our corpse!!" not once but a couple of times
• Can handle losing to OK teams, losing to s**t teams sucks.
• Even when we're not losing we're occasionally getting molested, even Hawthorn spanked us. Not enough spanking to win but a big fat chunk of time they turned us around and pulled our pants down and laughed us with our pants down so we won in the end up but it was still a bit humiliating.
• Following up nice, little bit of heart-pumping wins with lazy "she'll be right" crap. Since last year.
• The Fremantle loss was the worst, * off.
• Watching legends fade. May, Gawn, Benny Brown. Not much fun.
• Oliver having a bad time with injuries.
• Fn slow-arse coach moves, why even bother putting Petty forward for 5 minutes once the game long gone.
• Some questionable Goodwin decisions, like why you no give more river and kozzie in the middle, is he doing it because he hates us?

I could go on forever I'll leave it there.

 

[Toump Ass]

(Actually no I won't) Also we look bored and unhappy and lazy.

I'm not getting good loved up how nice is it being a Dee type vibes, more just getting "yup it's a football season and we're ok we get paid pretty good I suppose and we win a bit" type of vibes. Not good enough. I want hunger, passion, saw a little of that and it seems like that was a lifetime ago now (was actually only really a few weeks).

 

[Johnny Karate]

The final 9 matches:

v GWS (11th) @ Alice
v St Kilda (6th) @ Docklands
v Brisbane (3rd) @ MCG
v Adelaide (8th) @ MCG
v Richmond (10th) @ MCG
v North (17th) @ Hobart
v Carlton (14th) @ MCG
v Hawthorn (16th) @ MCG
v Sydney (15th) @ SCG

The run home is quite favourable but the way we’re playing doesn’t suggest that we are about to go on a 9 game tear.

 

[melbun]

The final 9 matches:

v GWS (11th) @ Alice
v St Kilda (6th) @ Docklands
v Brisbane (3rd) @ MCG
v Adelaide (8th) @ MCG
v Richmond (10th) @ MCG
v North (17th) @ Hobart
v Carlton (14th) @ MCG
v Hawthorn (16th) @ MCG
v Sydney (15th) @ SCG

The run home is quite favourable but the way we’re playing doesn’t suggest that we are about to go on a 9 game tear.

I reckon we have a chance of beating North and Carlton.

 

[schmuttt]

Here is my sell list so that we can afford to buy some talent. (and I would have Lever in the VFL rather than Tomlinson)

Sell (or retire them or leave them in the VFL side) -
Grundy, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Jordon, Chandler, Brown, Melksham, ANB, Spargo, Fritsch.

Fritsch because usually his screw ups out weigh his good stuff.

 

[melbun]

Jober as a sudge.

 

[jhong]

 

[Tulip]

Looking back on ladders since 2012, before which the AFL site doesn't record them, seven losses has only been good enough to make the top 4 in three seasons. Now obviously there's an extra game this year, so we'll see how that plays out, but a double chance usually requires going 16-6.

We are 9-5 and still have games against Brisbane, Adelaide, St Kilda and a rejuvenated Richmond to come. We also have GWS in Alice, North in Tassie, Sydney at the SCG, Carlton and Hawthorn.

You'd imagine we'd win the easier five, though Sydney might have some players back by then and we don't play the SCG particularly well.

Given the extra game, I'm guessing 16-7 will be enough for top 4. I don't see a world where this group finds the bollocks to mount a genuine run without patting themselves on the back after a big win/handful of easy kills, so I see us losing at least two, probably three, maybe four. Essendon breathing down our necks with a game in hand, a functional gameplan, and the easiest draw in the league.

5th place beckons.

 

[Topkent]

Gonna hit the finals with 5 wins in a row against crap teams then get smashed week 1.

 

[Toump Ass]

Annoying fixture. Would love a few tough games leading into the finals.

We were off at the mid-point of 2021 but post-bye we clicked and hammered a few teams, not sure we’ll have lightening strike twice.

 

[Daemon]

Some "go dees!" fluff:

• Trent Rivers keepin' it real
• Best ever person with a name Judd
• Vintage Jack Viney games
• Pig Hibberd
• Finally got a win for Neale. Was brilliant, really fn lovely to smash Pie at the G
• Hunter aka Human Highlight Reel. Incredible first Demon year. Highlights: bumping shithead collingwood guy, being a total smartarse at his tribunal appearance, getting fined for trolling some Hawks guy, and insisting the Carlton game was s**t on Roving Brian TV segment.
• JVR showin' a bit
• #demonspirit
• Chandler inability to miss goals in his first few games
• Signed Kozzie Pickett & I suppose Chandler too.
• Occasional nice selection surprises like Melksham being dropped...

Bit of "* off you bunch of weak pricks"

• ... but Melksham shouldn't have been picked anyway.
• Hamish Blake
• Media team
• Losing quite a bit
• Brayshaw finding a nice paddock.
• Not even losing, just rolling and over and saying "here do whatever you want to us, we love it, play with our corpse!!" not once but a couple of times
• Can handle losing to OK teams, losing to s**t teams sucks.
• Even when we're not losing we're occasionally getting molested, even Hawthorn spanked us. Not enough spanking to win but a big fat chunk of time they turned us around and pulled our pants down and laughed us with our pants down so we won in the end up but it was still a bit humiliating.
• Following up nice, little bit of heart-pumping wins with lazy "she'll be right" crap. Since last year.
• The Fremantle loss was the worst, * off.
• Watching legends fade. May, Gawn, Benny Brown. Not much fun.
• Oliver having a bad time with injuries.
• Fn slow-arse coach moves, why even bother putting Petty forward for 5 minutes once the game long gone.
• Some questionable Goodwin decisions, like why you no give more river and kozzie in the middle, is he doing it because he hates us?

I could go on forever I'll leave it there.

Toump I think you are a top fella.

 

[Daemon]

I reckon we have a chance of beating North and Carlton.

You lost all credibility with that above post.

Obviously going to lose both games.

 

[Simon_Says]

Good analysis, I agree with most of it.

I probably should take this to the JVR thread but just wanted to elaborate on your point - I really like the guy but I'm starting to question is he going to be a star? He is barely sighted most games and seems to be in the wrong spots all the time. Now I assume most of this is because he is still learning, has no other big bodies around him to take the heat, and has the most atrocious delivery. I dunno, jury is still out for me.

I love him, probably my favorite player this year.
Im only thinking that maybe the year has taken its toll on a first year player into senior A Grade football.
He'll slow down naturally due to wear on a long campaign. Hope im wrong and he hits it hard in either the last few weeks of the year or next season.

 

[Bluelegs]

Gonna hit the finals with 5 wins in a row against crap teams then get smashed week 1.

We're gonna give Essendon their first finals win in a hundred years or whatever it is lol

 

[Johnny Karate]

We're gonna give Essendon their first finals win in a hundred years or whatever it is lol

In fairness, we did give them their last. Only seems fair that we’d be the alpha and omega of someone else’s disappointment.