What are the areas that need improving in 2008?

[MicksterD]

After decades of following the Dees I have noticed that the majority of comments in response to the Dees loss on this thread contain the same excuses that Daniher and co have been making for the last decade. Instead of re-stating the same excuses we should be looking at what needs to be improved.

IMO historically the Dees have had four major issues that need to be addressed if we are to be successful in the future:

1. A lack of skills;
2. A lack of toughness;
3. Persisting with average players; and
4. A lack of a game plan or the inability to follow the team game plan.

I concede that the Dees had a very inexperienced side on the paddock on Saturday and therefore it is obviously unreasonable to write this season off based on that effort but I think all Demon supporters will be looking for a significant increase in the above areas come round 1 this year.

 

[master bate]

Skills will increase with more matches and better players, toughness is hopefully being addressed and we definitely have more of the tougher players than we used to, hopefully Bailey continues to adress the persistance with average players (only Holland, Warnock, Jamar and a few others left now!) and the game plan should improve.

I'm hoping they make little improvements like better plans at kick-ins (whether forward or back) and better centre square plays. Things that Daniher couldn't fix in 10 years.

 

[MicksterD]

A few seasons ago when we had our backs to the wall the leadership group introduced the theme of playing for each other and never leaving your mate without an option when he has the ball in his hands. I thought that this thinking gave us immediate results but after a hand full of games the "theme" seem to fall away and we returned to our usual game. I think this theme should be a permanently entrenched theme at the Dees and I think it should be drummed into each player every day and if someone doesn't back their team mate up then they should be dropped for the next game - no excuses - if they don't have the tank then they shouldn't be on the ground.

Any thoughts?

 

[Flowerpower]

A few seasons ago when we had our backs to the wall the leadership group introduced the theme of playing for each other and never leaving your mate without an option when he has the ball in his hands. I thought that this thinking gave us immediate results but after a hand full of games the "theme" seem to fall away and we returned to our usual game. I think this theme should be a permanently entrenched theme at the Dees and I think it should be drummed into each player every day and if someone doesn't back their team mate up then they should be dropped for the next game - no excuses - if they don't have the tank then they shouldn't be on the ground.

Any thoughts?

We are not "big" enough. Geelong pushed us around like rag dolls, and that was their rookies........because of their size and strength, we couldn't lay a tackle.

At least we move the ball marginally better than Richond - they are pathetic. Sheeds to be coach of the Tiggers by round 6.

 

[demonfan9]

After decades of following the Dees I have noticed that the majority of comments in response to the Dees loss on this thread contain the same excuses that Daniher and co have been making for the last decade. Instead of re-stating the same excuses we should be looking at what needs to be improved.

IMO historically the Dees have had four major issues that need to be addressed if we are to be successful in the future:

1. A lack of skills;
2. A lack of toughness;
3. Persisting with average players; and
4. A lack of a game plan or the inability to follow the team game plan.

I concede that the Dees had a very inexperienced side on the paddock on Saturday and therefore it is obviously unreasonable to write this season off based on that effort but I think all Demon supporters will be looking for a significant increase in the above areas come round 1 this year.

In my opinion, these things are periodical. In the late 80's and early 90's, we had a team full of hard nuts. In the late 90's and early 00's we had a team full of skillful players. Now, within the last few years, we've recruited some more tough players like McLean, Sylvia, Moloney, Jones, Bell, Rivers, etc...

I'm not expecting us to be the most skillful side this year, but hopefully we can improve in the physical area. Yze and Bruce's foot skills seem to be diminishing by the year, even Green to an extent. They have long been our best ball users, and with Johnstone gone, it means that we are lacking a bit in that area now. While McLean is a clean user of the ball (no pun intended), he gets a lot of his possessions under pressure. McDonald and Jones also get their possessions in the thick of the action.

Davey is one player who needs to step up in this area, and make sure that he hurts teams every time he has the ball. He doesn't need to get 25 possessions a game, but if he can get it 15 times, and have about 5 of those as goals and scoring assists, then it will be a major help.

It's always why most fans on here were excited about the performance of Buckley on the weekend. He gets the ball, tucks it under his arm and runs hard, plus he has good skills. We've now got the blokes who can feed it out (we never had them during Danihers earlier years) but now we need blokes who can finish it off.

Petterd is another one who looks quite composed and has a good set of hands, while Dunn and Bate also have good skills.

 

[MicksterD]

In my opinion, these things are periodical. In the late 80's and early 90's, we had a team full of hard nuts. In the late 90's and early 00's we had a team full of skillful players. Now, within the last few years, we've recruited some more tough players like McLean, Sylvia, Moloney, Jones, Bell, Rivers, etc...

I'm not expecting us to be the most skillful side this year, but hopefully we can improve in the physical area. Yze and Bruce's foot skills seem to be diminishing by the year, even Green to an extent. They have long been our best ball users, and with Johnstone gone, it means that we are lacking a bit in that area now. While McLean is a clean user of the ball (no pun intended), he gets a lot of his possessions under pressure. McDonald and Jones also get their possessions in the thick of the action.

Davey is one player who needs to step up in this area, and make sure that he hurts teams every time he has the ball. He doesn't need to get 25 possessions a game, but if he can get it 15 times, and have about 5 of those as goals and scoring assists, then it will be a major help.

It's always why most fans on here were excited about the performance of Buckley on the weekend. He gets the ball, tucks it under his arm and runs hard, plus he has good skills. We've now got the blokes who can feed it out (we never had them during Danihers earlier years) but now we need blokes who can finish it off.

Petterd is another one who looks quite composed and has a good set of hands, while Dunn and Bate also have good skills.

Sincerely good post - the only problem with the era's you mentioned is that we have never won a flag in any of them. We need to put it all together in one year like Geelong have done and after 40 plus years its time to get it right and forget about the excuses

 

[Super-Chief]

In my opinion, one of our main problems last year and at times in the previous 3 years was lack of midfield pressure.

The result is that opposition teams are able to frequently rebound from half-back, play through the middle and get it inside 50 very quickly. With no pressure, the ball carrier can easily find and hit a target.

We might have some hard at it mids like Jones, McLean, Jmac and Green (sometimes) but they are usually nowhere to be seen when the opposition is streaming forward. The same goes for our half-forwards who also do not apply enough pressure. The exception to this was Davey (pre injury) whose pressure prevented many easy inside 50s and resulted in many turnovers in our favour.

At the start of 2005 (I think), after Troy's tragic loss, we did this really well (rememeber the Essendon and Geelong games). We need to do this ALL THE TIME.

If we can, our defence won't be under so much pressure and will look a lot better.

 

[Dez!]

I'd say win more games than we lose.

 

[Sman-21]

Not trolling Perth demons is my team in WAFL always had a soft spot for melbourne becasuse of that

Game plan with danniher wasnt bad, hard running down back to help out then running hard forward meaning forwards had space to move into an be dangerous.
trouble was it was too taxing on the players so they couldnt produce it week in an week out.
But when they did they were hard to beat.

melbourne has had the important areas covered eg full back,chb,ruck,ff an chf so u had a good spine in place trouble was players around them have never done enough.

midfield is a bit of a problem an forward line caould do with some stronger marking players to make it more dangerous.

Not sure if danniher was hard on the players or abit of a softy seemed hard from what i saw of him in coaches box.

Get more effort/passion out of the second tier players and melbourne have the goods to finish anywhere from 6th to 13th
Although i get the feeling melb may be looking at winning less than 5 games again for picks.

need a coach who can extract maximum effort out of every player who steps onto the ground.

I see melbourne having the exact same problem freo has suffered with for last few years.
Got the players to do quite well just not enough put in the effort required they left it for the stars to do it all.

 

[demonfan9]

melbourne has had the important areas covered eg full back,chb,ruck,ff an chf so u had a good spine in place trouble was players around them have never done enough.

Our last three full backs have been Alastair Nicholson, Ben Holland and Nathan Carroll. Brad Miller was our centre half forward for about three years.

Certainly wouldn't say that we have had a strong spine.

 

[Supermercado]

Chris Lamb might not have been great, but I still reckon he was robbed not to have played more given who he was against.