Jump to content

Match Report - Round 20

Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

Featured Replies

Posted

GOLD COAST SUNBURN by George on the Outer

If you go out into the heat without protection, it doesn’t take long to get sunburnt.

For the Gold Coast Suns with a whole raft of players missing for one reason or another, it took not more than 15 minutes exposure to Melbourne’s sunshine for the Demons to absolutely and completely burn them!

By quarter time, with the margin already 51 points, Melbourne had set another record for season 2018 with the highest first quarter score of any side.  It was also the MFC’s 4th highest first quarter ever!  It was not that long ago when Demon fans were crossing off long established undesirable records from past years.  Now their team is setting new more positive records.

The unfortunate thing for the fans was that by the 15 minute mark, with the game result already a foregone conclusion, it was only a matter of by “how much” which sort of took away the crowd noise and excitement, because what they were witnessing was an unadulterated demolition of an opponent.

At the end, the margin was 96 points, with Bayley Fritsch having the opportunity to put the result over the 100 point mark after the siren, but the kick went astray.  It was not unlike a lot of the shots at goal during the match in the swirling windy conditions.  Even the ever reliable Tom McDonald failed to score a major for the match - he managed only three behinds from set shots. 

In the middle, Max Gawn notched up another 30 hit outs to Jarrod WItts’ 40 but Max provided much more than just the touches as he had 8 contested possessions 2 clearances and 5 inside 50’s.  Also the coach gave him long periods on the bench, no doubt to conserve him for the coming weeks. 

While the big man may not have been as dominant as previous weeks, the now usual pair of Brayshaw and Oliver didn’t let up as they burnt the Suns mids seriously. Oliver 31 touches, 14 contested and 2 goals.  Brayshaw 27, 11 and 1 goal. 

This week they had the “old stager” Nathan Jones returning to some of his best with 24, 10 and 2 goals as well.  This from playing mainly off the wing, as Goodwin continues to develop the younger brigade in the middle.  James Harmes now has made himself a permanent starter at the bounce to take care of opposition players and he produced a performance close to the others with 25, 10 and 3 goals. 

The backs had little to do in all honesty as the ball simply didn’t get down the Suns way all that much.  Their situation wasn’t helped when Two Metre Peter went down in the opening minutes, which left no tall targets for them and Frost and Oscar had a field day picking off their attacks.

Unfortunately, Bernie Vince, in his 100th game for the club was well below standard, and appears to be relying on his wiles to keep in the contest.  It failed too often as he played off his man and gave them too much space.  The older legs can’t make up the difference any more, and with Melksham and Hibberd to return in coming weeks, he may be the one to make way, even though Joel Smith’s broken collarbone looks to have finished his season.

Normally the third quarter is owned by Melbourne, but today it managed a paltry 2 goals 6 while the Suns scored 1.2.  For a team so in control of the game, it wasn’t at the standard that finals football demands.  The Demons simply cannot give others the opportunity to get back in the game, although that wasn’t a realistic scenario for the Suns.  We have seen it happen in past weeks and is why we all suffer from the stress of being Demon fans. 

The reality is that we still have a number of NQR players who struggle under pressure or consistently turn the ball over without pressure.  This will kill the team in finals, but we don’t have anyone else putting their hand up at Casey.  Despite a 91 point victory yesterday, the 2 best players were Casey listed, so there remain few options for us in the weeks ahead. 

Finally the last quarter saw a return to something better as the Demons piled on another five goals to improve their percentage even further, and put themselves in the best possible situation with the remaining three games against teams who are also challenging for finals spots. 

With Tommy failing to register a major, it was up to Jesse Hogan to get himself back in the Coleman race with four goals.  He is still looking sore and struggles to run at times, but on the day had plenty of helpers around him. 

Now to Sydney next week.  This becomes the make or break game for the side.  Win this and we see September action, lose it and the task is much, much harder.  The Swans are very beatable as evidenced by a seriously understrength Collingwood nearly beating them with a first gamer forced to play on Franklin at times.  Without Buddy’s output, the Swans would now be out of the eight and probably staying there. 

Can we turn on the afterburners again next week, and burn off Sydney as well?  

Once again it is all in our hands …

Melbourne 9.3.57 14.6.90 16.12.108 21.17.143 

Gold Coast Suns 1.0.6 4.2.26 5.4.34 7.5.47 

Goals  

Melbourne Hogan 4 Harmes 3 Garlett Jones Neal-Bullen Oliver Petracca Spargo 2 Brayshaw Salem 

Gold Coast Suns Sexton 5 Holman, Rischitelli 

Best  

Melbourne Oliver Brayshaw Hogan Salem Garlett Harmes 

Gold Coast Suns Sexton Bowes Harbrow Weller Fiorini 

Injuries

Melbourne J Smith (broken collarbone) 

Gold Coast Suns Wright (knee) 

Reports 

Melbourne Nil 

Gold Coast Suns Nil 

Umpires Foot, Schmitt, Hay 

Official crowd 23,072 at the MCG

  • Quote
    • Thanks 1
     

    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

    Guest
    Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
    Reply to this topic...
    Go to topic listing

    Featured Content

    • PREVIEW: Gold Coast

      The Gold Coast Suns find themselves outside of the top eight for the first time since Round 1 with pressure is mounting on the entire organisation. Their coach Damien Hardwick expressed his frustration at his team’s condition last week by making a middle-finger gesture on television that earned him a fine for his troubles. He showed his desperation by claiming that Fox should pick up the tab.  There’s little doubt the Suns have shown improvement in 2025, and their position on the ladder is influenced to some extent by having played fewer games than their rivals for a playoff role at the end of the season, courtesy of the disruption caused by Cyclone Alfred in March.  However, they are following the same trajectory that hindered the club in past years whenever they appeared to be nearing their potential. As a consequence, that Hardwick gesture should be considered as more than a mere behavioral lapse. It’s a distress signal that does not bode well for the Queenslanders. While the Suns are eager to remain in contention with the top eight, Melbourne faces its own crisis, which is similarly deep-seated but in a much different way. After recovering from a disappointing start to the season and nearing a return to respectability among its peer clubs, the Demons have experienced a decline in status, driven by the fact that while their form has been reasonable (see their performance against the ladder leader in the Kings Birthday match), their conversion in front of goal is poor enough to rank last in the competition. Furthermore, their opponents find them exceptionally easy to score against. As a result, they have effectively eliminated themselves from the finals race and are again positioned to finish in the bottom half of the ladder.

        • Thanks
        • Like
      • 4 replies
      Demonland

    • NON-MFC: Round 15

      As the Demons head into their Bye Round, it's time to turn our attention to the other matches being played. Which teams are you tipping this week? And which results would be most favourable for the Demons if we can manage to turn our season around? Follow all the non-Melbourne games here and join the conversation as the ladder continues to take shape.

        • Like
      • 287 replies
      Demonland

    • REPORT: Port Adelaide

      Of course, it’s not the backline, you might argue and you would probably be right. It’s the boot studder (do they still have them?), the midfield, the recruiting staff, the forward line, the kicking coach, the Board, the interchange bench, the supporters, the folk at Casey, the head coach and the club psychologist  It’s all of them and all of us for having expectations that were sufficiently high to have believed three weeks ago that a restoration of the Melbourne team to a position where we might still be in contention for a finals berth when the time for the midseason bye arrived. Now let’s look at what happened over the period of time since Melbourne overwhelmed the Sydney Swans at the MCG in late May when it kicked 8.2 to 5.3 in the final quarter (and that was after scoring 3.8 to two straight goals in the second term). 

        • Clap
        • Thanks
        • Like
      • 3 replies
      Demonland

    • CASEY: Essendon

      Casey’s unbeaten run was extended for at least another fortnight after the Demons overran a persistent Essendon line up by 29 points at ETU Stadium in Port Melbourne last night. After conceding the first goal of the evening, Casey went on a scoring spree from about ten minutes in, with five unanswered majors with its fleet of midsized runners headed by the much improved Paddy Cross who kicked two in quick succession and livewire Ricky Mentha who also kicked an early goal. Leading the charge was recruit of the year, Riley Bonner while Bailey Laurie continued his impressive vein of form. With Tom Campbell missing from the lineup, Will Verrall stepped up to the plate demonstrating his improvement under the veteran ruckman’s tutelage. The Demons were looking comfortable for much of the second quarter and held a 25-point lead until the Bombers struck back with two goals in the shadows of half time. On the other side of the main break their revival continued with first three goals of the half. Harry Sharp, who had been quiet scrambled in the Demons’ first score of the third term to bring the margin back to a single point at the 17 minute mark and the game became an arm-wrestle for the remainder of the quarter and into the final moments of the last.

        • Clap
      • 0 replies
      Demonland

    • PREGAME: Gold Coast

      The Demons have the Bye next week but then are on the road once again when they come up against the Gold Coast Suns on the Gold Coast in what could be a last ditch effort to salvage their season. Who comes in and who comes out?

        • Thanks
      • 363 replies
      Demonland

    • PODCAST: Port Adelaide

      The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 16th June @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect the Dees disappointing loss to the Power.
      Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.
      Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/

        • Thanks
      • 33 replies
      Demonland
    View All