FREQUENT FLIERS by The Oracle

The Melbourne Football Club will continue its trend of accumulating frequent flier points with a fourth interstate trip of the season this weekend. The next destination is Queensland where the team takes on the Gold Coast Suns at the renamed Heritage Bank Stadium (formerly Metricon).

The Demons have put together ten consecutive victories over the Suns but their trip to Carrara in 2022 was fraught with difficulty in steamy conditions on a sopping wet pitch that caught the visitors off guard. The team looked fatigued in running out winners by 13 points and was saved on that occasion by their early accuracy in front of goal and the midfield magic of Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.

Little wonder that Melbourne officials will be looking closely at the local weather forecast, especially after the troubles the team had handling the ball against Brisbane in Round 2. The good news is that the current forecast in the lead up to the game is no rain and low 20s temperatures.

Despite their topsy turvy season and a current 13th place on the AFL ladder, the Suns can’t be taken lightly. They have beaten two 2022 finalists including the reigning premiers and their strong showing last week against Richmond at Marvel Stadium breathed life into their season. The way they took the Tigers apart in the third quarter in a game with stellar performances coming from Ben King, Noah Anderson and Will Powell has signaled that they will be no easy beats on their home turf this Saturday. This is definitely a case of “game on!”

Fortunately for the Demons, they hit a rich vein of form with a rousing comeback win against the Tigers on Anzac Eve followed by a percentage boosting 90-point win over North Melbourne - all in the space of five days. The latter game might have been with thanks to a mismatch but they got most things right with their system, discipline, endeavour and approach to the ball instilled by Simon Goodwin and his coaching team. They are strong in every department be it in the ruck, on the ball, either in defence or attack and in their general depth.

There will be some great duels in this game. Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy have their work cut out for them against Gold Coast giant Jarrod Witts  who starred in the equivalent game last year.

At their feet, the Demon midfield, dubbed by Goodwin as “contested ball beasts", should continue their dominance over their counterparts who are are also noted for being strong at the contest but will sorely miss Touk Miller.  And the Demons have an advantage there in that the younger Suns midfielders will be coming off a six day break.

Melbourne was buoyed this week with the inking of a new four year deal by Kysaiah Pickett thus avoiding the uncomfortable situation surrounding the ongoing “will he, won’t he” deliberations about Luke Jackson’s future last year. The club is now well serviced by its small brigade of Pickett, Kade Chandler and Charlie Spargo up forward as well as their “second tier mids” such as Alex Neal-Bullen, Tom Sparrow and James Jordon, who together are so potent in creating scoring opportunities and in finishing them off.  So potent that the Demon attack is not necessarily dependent upon having multiple goal kicking tall timber.

These are the things that make the Melbourne set up so compelling and why the Demons are so hard to beat.

Melbourne by 23 points.

THE GAME    

Gold Coast Suns v Melbourne at Heritage Bank Stadium Saturday 6 May, 2023 at 4.35pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall - Gold Coast Suns 3 wins Melbourne 13 wins

At Heritage Bank Stadium - Gold Coast Suns 1 win Melbourne 3 wins

Past five matches - Gold Coast Suns 0 wins Melbourne 5 wins

The Coaches - Dew 0 wins Goodwin 6 wins

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Melbourne 12.10.82 defeated Gold Coast Suns 10.9.69 at Heritage Bank Stadium, Round 2, 2022

The Demons made it two from two but not convincingly in a game played on a soggy surface in high humidity. Norm Smith Medallist Christian Petracca picked up 40 possessions and his partner in crime Clayton Oliver, 34 touches.

THE TEAMS 

GOLD COAST SUNS

B S. Lemmens  S. Collins B. Long
HB D. Macpherson C. Ballard W. Powell 
C B. Fiorini D. Swallow B. Ellis 
HF T. Berry J. Lukosius M. Rosas
F  B. Humphrey B. King M. Chol 
FOLL J. Witts M. Rowell N. Anderson 
I/C R. Atkins L. Casboult A Davies S. Flanders SUB J. Tsitas
EMG H. Oea A. Sexton J. Stein

IN T. Berry, L. Casboult, S. Flanders J. Tsitas


OUT B. Ainsworth (quad) N. Holman (foot) A. Sexton (omitted) L. Weller (knee)

MELBOURNE 

B J. Lever S. May T. Rivers
HB J Bowey H. Petty D. Turner
C J. Jordon C. Oliver L. Hunter
HF E. Langdon B. Fritsch T. Sparrow
F K. Chandler B. Grundy K. Pickett
FOLL M. Gawn C. Petracca J. Viney
I/C A. Brayshaw A. Neal-Bullen J. McVee J. van Rooyen SUB J. Harmes EMG B. Laurie J. Schache 

IN H. Petty D. Turner

OUT M. Hibberd (managed) J. Schache (omitted)

Injury List: Round 8

Charlie Spargo - Concussion | Available
Harry Petty - Concussion | Test
Josh Schache - Wrist | Test
Luke Dunstan - Knee | TBC
Christian Salem - Knee | 1 - 2 Weeks
Kye Turner - Groin | 5 - 7 Weeks 
Will Verrall - Pelvis  | 7 - 8 Weeks

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING by Sam the Stats Man

The club was looking fairly healthy over the pre season but it has by no means been immune from injury in 2023.

In fact, at one stage a few weeks ago, Melbourne was sitting in third place on the AFL website injury list behind West Coast and Sydney, two clubs in chronic injury mode. As a result, only 12 players have taken part in all seven games to this point in the season.

At the other end of the scale, two players in Christian Salem and rookie ruckman Will Verrall have yet to play at all this season. The club’s other rookie ruckman Kyah Farris-White started the season the season learning the ruck trade with the Dandenong Stingrays and when the Coates Talent League went into a brief recess, he made switch to the Casey Demons.

The club missed skipper Max Gawn for only a few weeks with a medial injury but, for 24 hours in late March, it seemed as if the prognosis was going to be more dire. Salem was affected by a recurrence of the thyroid issue he suffered a few years back and then was hit by a knee injury. Verrall is going to be out for a while with his pelvis fracture - these things take their time healing. Joel Smith’s injury woes have kept him to just two VFL games at Casey but his return match against the Tigers last week was encouraging.

These are the statistics of games played and goals scored to this point in the 2023 season:-

ADAMS, Jed CDFC games 6, CDFC goals 0.
BOWEY, Jake MFC games 7, MFC goals 1.
BRAYSHAW, Angus MFC games 7, MFC goals 0.
BROWN, Ben MFC games 3, MFC goals 9, CDFC games 2, CDFC goals 1.
CHANDLER, Kade MFC games 7, MFC goals 13.
DUNSTAN, Luke CDFC games 6, CDFC goals 5.
FARRIS-WHITE, Kyah CDFC games  2, CDFC goals 0.
FRITSCH, Bayley MFC games 6, MFC goals 16.
GAWN, Max MFC games 4, MFC goals 3.
GRUNDY, Brodie MFC games 7, MFC goals 3.
HARMES, James MFC games 3, MFC goals 0, CDFC games 3, CDFC goals 3.
HIBBERD, Michael MFC games 4, MFC goals 0, CDFC games  1, CDFC goals 0.
HOWES, Blake CDFC games 6, CDFC goals 0.
HUNTER, Lachie MFC games 7, MFC goals 3.
JEFFERSON, Matthew CDFC games 6, CDFC goals 9.
JORDON, James MFC games 5, MFC goals 3, CDFC games 1, CDFC goals  2.
LANGDON, Ed MFC games 7, MFC goals 1.
LAURIE, Bailey MFC games 2, MFC goals 0, CDFC games 3, CDFC goals  3.
LEVER, Jake MFC games 6, MFC goals 0.
McDONALD, Tom MFC games 4, MFC goals 5, CDFC games  3, CDFC goals  5.
McVEE, Judd MFC games 7, MFC goals 0.
MAY, Steven MFC games 5, MFC goals 0.
MELKSHAM, Jake MFC games 4, MFC goals 4, CDFC games 1, CDFC goals 5.
MONIZ-WAKEFIELD, Andy CDFC games 5, CDFC goals 2.
NEAL-BULLEN, Alex MFC games 7, MFC goals 7.
OLIVER, Clayton MFC games 7, MFC goals 4.
PETRACCA, Christian MFC games 7, MFC goals 8.
PETTY, Harrison MFC games 6, MFC goals 2,
PICKETT, Kysaiah MFC games 5, MFC goals 12.
RIVERS, Trent MFC games 7, MFC goals 1.
CHRISTIAN SALEM - no games.
SCHACHE, Josh MFC games 1, MFC goals 1, CDFC games  3, CDFC goals 9.
SESTAN, Oliver CDFC games  6, CDFC goals 8.
SMITH, Deakyn CDFC games 6, CDFC goals 0.
SMITH, Joel CDFC games  2, CDFC goals 4.
SPARGO, Charlie MFC games 5, MFC goals 6.
SPARROW, Tom MFC games 7, MFC goals 3.
TOMLINSON, Adam MFC games 3, MFC goals  0, CDFC games 3, CDFC goals 0.
TURNER, Daniel CDFC games  4, CDFC goals 0.
TURNER, Kye CDFC games 2, CDFC goals 0.
VAN ROOYEN, Jacob MFC games 5, MFC goals 10, CDFC games 1, CDFC goals 1.
VERRALL, Will - no games.
VINEY, Jack MFC games 6, MFC goals 3.
WOEWOEDIN, Taj CDFC games 3, CDFC goals 2.