TURNAROUND by Meggs

Epic battle alert.  This Sunday, Casey Fields hosts a coach’s showdown pitting the wits of the master Mick Stinear (92 games, 71.7% win rate) against his protégé Daisy Pearce (16 games, 43.8%). Still early in her coaching journey, Daisy’s record doesn’t yet reflect her impact — but she’s already the best-performed coach at West Coast.Dais’ is mythic.  Like Katniss Everdeen, everyone either wants to kiss her, kill her (sporting metaphor) or be her.  Toothers Daisy Pearce is a role model, someone admired for their heart, humility and humour.

Well, that was a shock. The Demons 4-game unbeaten run came to a grinding halt in a tense, scrappy affair at the sunny, windy Alberton Oval, with the Power holding on for a 2-point win. The Dees had their chances—plenty of them—but couldn't convert when it mattered most. Port’s tackling pressure rattled the Dees, triggering a fumble frenzy and surprising lack of composure from seasoned players.

The Melbourne Football Club has selected a new coach for the 2026 season appointing Geelong Football Club assistant coach Steven King to the head role.

The undefeated Demons venture across the continent to the spiritual home of the Port Adelaide Football Club on Saturday afternoon for the inaugural match for premiership points between these long-historied clubs. Alberton Oval will however, be a ground familiar to our players following a practice match there last year. We lost both the game and Liv Purcell, who missed 7 home and away matches after suffering facial fractures in the dying moments of the game.

A glorious sunny afternoon with a typically strong Casey Fields breeze favouring the city end greeted this round four clash of the undefeated Narrm against the winless Tigers. Pre-match, the teams entered the ground through the Deearmy’s inclusive banner—"Narrm Football Weaving Communities Together and then Warumungu/Yawuru woman and Fox Boundary Rider, Megan Waters, gave the official acknowledgement of country. Any concerns that Collingwood’s strategy of last week to discombobulate the Dees would be replicated by Ryan Ferguson and his Tigers evaporated in the second quarter when Richmond failed to use the wind advantage and Narrm scored three unanswered goals. 

The late-season run of Casey wins was broken in their first semifinal against Frankston in a heartbreaking end at Kinetic Stadium on Saturday night that in many respects reflected their entire season. When they were bad, they committed all of the football transgressions, including poor disposal, indiscipline, an inability to exert pressure, and some terrible decision-making, as exemplified by the period in the game when they conceded nine unanswered goals from early in the second quarter until halfway through the third term. You rarely win when you do this.