DEVIL IN THE DEETALE by George on the Outer

When the Demons were down by 33 points early in their game against the lowly Kangaroos, they had to find some true “devil” to keep their charge for a top two spot on track and that is exactly what they did at Blundstone Arena on Sunday.

North Melbourne managed five goals in that opening quarter, but they could only manage a further five for the remainder of the match. By way of contrast, after scoring a paltry single goal in the first, the Melbourne piled on 14 to finally run out 32 point winners and continue the 2023 tale of the Demons.  

Sadly, after finally finding another forward target in Harrison Petty, an ankle/foot injury looks to have put him out of action for the coming weeks. This came after another strong performance from him with two goals from only barely half a game.

Fortunately, his fellow forwards filled the gap with Jacob van Rooyen also contributing two among his ten score involvements and Alex Neal-Bullen with three majors. 

The tale of the afternoon however, lay with the spectacular Kysaiah Pickett who manufactured three unbelievable six pointers, and Kade Chandler with his straight shooting boots on again, at critical junctures in the game also with another three.

The Demons were off to a poor start, and the backline seemed in all sorts of trouble, while the lack of pressure around the ball was really telling with the lack of scoreboard results before they found their devil in the second term. It was then that they began to apply the much-needed pressure that eventually caused the young Kangaroos to wilt.

Angus Brayshaw, who finished with 37 touches and 13 contested possessions led the way while Lachie Hunter had an amazing 33 touches with 15 contested playing on the wing.  

In the much vaunted ruck contest between Max Gawn and Todd Goldstein, it was Max who probably won the day by a small margin, with his 15 hitouts to advantage from 30 in total, although Goldy managed 11 score involvements from the meagre 21 his side had in total.

The backs finally got their act together, even after the loss of Petty forced Joel Smith to move forward and Michael Hibberd to bolster the defence. The backline just looks to be more of a team when Hibberd is skirting the flanks, and even though he only had six touches, it was only one less than Smith had for the whole game. But his strong physical presence allowed May and Lever who were out of sorts in that first half, to perform their usual roles.

The 2023 tale of the Demons is one that shows more Devil, significantly while other teams around them in that top four bracket continue to fail unexpectedly. A top four spot is now all but assured but the carrot of a top two placing and a home final is also well and truly within reach.  

There is nothing more that the Demons can keep doing than winning.  If others fail to take their chances then they will accept that very willingly, especially since finals football is only weeks away. Losing Petty isn’t helpful but the guaranteed return next week of Clayton Oliver (Simon Goodwin said so in his post match conference) and the likely return of Bayley Fritsch in the weeks to come, will strengthen the team considerably.

At the tail end of the season, this tale is turning out to be a tale of a single minded approach to the season, with the premiership target being that sole focus.

MELBOURNE 1.3.9 8.4.52  14.7.91 15.13.103

NORTH MELBOURNE 5.5.35 8.8.56 9.9.63 10.11.71

GOALS

MELBOURNE Chandler Neal-Bullen Pickett 3 Petracca Petty van Rooyen 2

NORTH MELBOURNE Ford 3  Goldstein 2 Curtis Larkey Scott Simpkin Taylor

BEST

MELBOURNE Pickett  Petracca Brayshaw Hunter Neal-Bullen Viney

NORTH MELBOURNE Ziebell Ford Simpkin Davies-Uniacke Scott McDonald

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Harrison Petty (ankle)

NORTH MELBOURNE Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

NORTH MELBOURNE Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Michael Hibberd (replaced Harrison Petty in the third quarter)

NORTH MELBOURNE Charlie Lazzarro (replaced Robert Hansen jnr in the third quarter)

UMPIRES Leigh Fisher Alex Whetton Cameron Jones Nicholas McGinness

CROWD 8,034 (mostly Melbourne supporters) at Blundstone Arena