Jump to content

  • IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

    The Demonland Terms of Service, which you have all recently agreed to, strictly prohibit discussions of ongoing legal matters, whether criminal or civil. Please ensure that all discussions on this forum remain focused solely on on-field & football related topics.


Recommended Posts

Posted

Melbourne’s nine game winning streak  came to an end in Adelaide with a one point loss to the Crows. Losing to a team that had only won three games for the season, having lost five in a row was certainly nothing to crow about. 

All around the ground players collectively put in their poorest performance for the year. 

The loss of Christian Salem before the match was critical, as his replacement Nev Jetta is a mere shadow the player he once was. The mind is still willing, but the body no longer reacts to the instructions, and he spent the whole game behind and conceding to his opposition. 

He wasn’t alone, as Sam Weideman, with a must perform asterisk next to his name did nothing of the sort, and has once again put his position in the side in jeopardy.  The rest of the forward line weren’t much better, with Tom McDonald well down on his performances, while Bayley Fritsch and Jake Melksham yet again failing to record a single tackle each for the whole game.  Others managed 14 tackles inside 50m, but not them. Small wonder there was little defensive pressure save for Charlie Spargo and Kozzie Pickett.

Even Max Gawn in the ruck was well below his best, for despite multiple marks and outscoring on the hitout stat, his dropped marks cost the side multiple goals.  To top it off, his attempt to take the ball out of the ruck contest in the dying seconds was not so smart. The team only needed a point with the goal-mouth 10m away, so a hit forward surely would have resulted in at worst, a scrambled point and a drawn game. 

When Luke Jackson was rucking in the middle of the final quarter, the side hit the front, because he not only got the ball to our mids, but provided an extra mid with his athleticism.  When he moved the momentum swung Adelaide’s way again. 

Clayton Oliver nearly single-handedly brought the side back from their malaise with 27 contested possessions, and 12 disposals in the third quarter and 38 overall.  Sadly he was let down by others around him not stepping up to the plate. 

James Harmes opened his account with 5 critical errors and didn’t improve.  His opponent had 21 touches to ½ time.  He is not the tagger of 2018 any more.

Christian Petracca performed at his best again, with 32 touches, but we cannot expect a miracle effort every week.  And we can’t expect he and Oliver to do all the work. This week we won clearances thanks to that pair, but lost the game. 

Still with Oliver working his heart out and the side leading by up to 16 points deep in the final quarter, the errors just kept coming from the Demons and with more passengers than the No.59 tram on a Friday night, they couldn’t muster the will to get over the line. 

It wasn’t helped by some flaky umpiring decisions, particularly in the dying minute with an obvious deliberate out of bounds by Adelaide not paid (compare the one paid against Jake Lever earlier in the game that resulted in a goal to the Crows), but the Demons should not have been in that situation in the first place.

This week the coaches had problems about which players to select. Next week against the Bulldogs, it will be who to drop. The forward line did not work, and not working was their hallmark in this game. 

Ben Brown will likely be an easy inclusion, but he won’t be the only one. 

The backs failed to gel, and the critical nature of structure and roles was broken when only one player can’t perform that role. There will be changes there as well. 

Salem when available will slot back in easily.

This game was nothing to Crow about.  We were beaten comprehensively, even though only losing by a solitary point.  Surely these players and the Club should know the difference between winning and losing can come down to just a couple of single efforts.  It can be the difference between finals or not.  It can be the difference between top 4 or not.  But when too many don’t make that effort, the result goes the other way

MELBOURNE 5.1.31 8.4.52 11.8.74 14.11.95

ADELAIDE 4.2.26 8.4.52 11.5.71 15.6.96

GOALS

Melbourne Oliver 3 Langdon 2 Fritsch Gawn Harmes McDonald Petracca Pickett Rivers Spargo Weideman

Adelaide Walker 3 Fogarty Keays Rowe Thilthorpe 2 Berry McAdam Mackay Seedsman

BEST

Melbourne Oliver Petracca Langdon Gawn Lever

Adelaide Keays Seedsman Laird Walker Mackay

INJURIES

Melbourne Salem (soreness) replaced in selected side by Jetta

Adelaide Nil

REPORTS

Melbourne Nil

Adelaide Walker (reported for dangerous tackle on Oliver), Fogarty (reported for striking Lever)

SUBSTITUTES

Melbourne Tom Sparrow (unused)

Adelaide Ronin O’Connor (unused)      

Umpires Curtis Deboy Hayden Gavine Jacob Mollison

Official Crowd TBC at the Adelaide Oval

ReportRd102021.png

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 4

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Demonland Forums  

  • Match Previews, Reports & Articles  

    TRAINING: Wednesday 5th February 2025

    Demonland Trackwatchers were out in force as the Demons returned to Gosch's Paddock for preseason training on Wednesday morning. GHOSTWRITER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Kozzie a no show. Tommy Sparrow was here last week in civvies and wearing sunnies. He didn’t train. Today he’s training but he’s wearing goggles so he’s likely got an eye injury. There’s a drill where Selwyn literally lies on top of Tracc, a trainer dribbles the ball towards them and Tracc has to g

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports

    THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS: 2024

    Whichever way you look at it, the Melbourne Football Club’s 2024 season can only be characterized as the year of its fall from grace. Whispering Jack looks back at the season from hell that was. After its 2021 benchmark premiership triumph, the men’s team still managed top four finishes in the next two seasons but straight sets finals losses consigned them to sixth place in both years. The big fall came in 2024 with a collapse into the bottom six and a 14th placing. At Casey, the 2022 VFL p

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Special Features

    MATCH SIM: Friday 31st January 2025

    Veteran Demonland Trackwatcher Picket Fence ventured down to Casey Fields to bring you his observations from Friday's Match Simulation. Greetings Demonlanders, beautiful Day at training and the boys were hard at it, here is my report. NO SHOWS: Luker Kentfield (recovering from pneumonia in WA), also not sure I noticed Melky (Hamstring) or Will Verrall?? MODIFIED DUTIES (No Contact): Sparrow, McVee (foot), Tracc (ribs), Chandler, (AC Joint), Fullarton Noticeable events (I’ll s

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports 2

    TRAINING: Wednesday 29th January 2025

    A number of Demonland Trackwatchers swooped on Gosch's Paddock to bring you their observations from this morning's Preseason Training Session. DEMON JACK'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Beautiful morning at Gosch's Paddock. Very healthy crowd so far.  REHAB: Fullerton, Spargo, Tholstrup, McVee Viney running laps. EDIT: JV looks to be back with the main group. Trac, Sparrow, Chandler and Verrell also training away from the main group. Currently kicking to each other ins

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports 1

    TRAINING: Wednesday 22nd January 2025

    Demonland Trackwatchers were out in force for training at Gosch's Paddock on Wednesday morning for the MFC's School Holidays Open Training Session. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS REHAB: TMac, Chandler, McVee, Tholstrup, Brown, Spargo Brown might have passed his fitness test as he’s back out with the main group.  Sparrow not present. Kozzy not present either.  Mini Rehab group has broken off from the match sim (contact) group: Max, Trac, Lever, Fullarton

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports

    TRAINING: Monday 20th January 2025

    Demonland Trackwatcher Gator attended training out at Casey Fields to bring you the following observations from Preseason Training. GATOR'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS There were 5 in the main rehab group, namely Gawn, Petracca, Fullarton, Woewodin and Lever.  Laurie was running laps by himself, as was Jefferson.  Chandler, as has been reported, had his arm in a sling.  Lindsay did a bit of lap running later on. Some of the ''rehab 5'' participated in non contact drills and b

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports

    TRAINING: Wednesday 15th January 2025

    There were a number of Demonland Trackwatchers at Gosch's Paddock this morning to bring you their observations from Preseason Training. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS They were going hard at each other. The sims were in two 15 minute blocks. The second block finished a few minutes early, they gathered and had another 7 minutes at it. I think they were asked to compete, as they would play against an opposition. There was plenty of niggle, between some of them. At the end o

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports

    TRAINING: Monday 13th January 2025

    Better late than never … and quite frankly, there’s very little to report other than that training took place at Casey Fields this morning, that Tracc was there nursing his rib injury and that some photographs are on the club’s social media including this one of Clarrie in Raging Bull stance that gives rise for confidence. The other news is that the club has a new train on player in 185cm Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves (love the hyphenated name which is just so fitti

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports

    TRAINING: Thursday 9th January 2025

    Welcome back to Demonland for those like me who have been on vacation. I’m posting this with some trepidation because of a certain amount of uncertainty surrounding the return of preseason training in 2025 after a flurry of weddings including those of our coach, one of our superstar players and a former premiership champion player and bloke, not to mention the recent mysterious incident that occurred on the Mornington Peninsula.  I believe that the team reassembles this morning at Casey Fie

    Demonland
    Demonland |
    Training Reports
  • Tell a friend

    Love Demonland? Tell a friend!
×
×
  • Create New...