This week Melbourne takes on Hawthorn hot on the heels of a six-day break after its encouraging response to a disappointing season opener in steamy Sydney.

The Hawks were disappointingly wasteful last week, but they also failed to bring sufficient pressure into the contest and, as a consequence, the Bombers scored goals at will. Against the Demons, a repeat would be fatal.

The Hawks are still in the rebuilding phase and need everything to go right against Melbourne which is gradually building up to overcome some of the deficiencies felt by its fall from grace in departing last year’s finals series in straight sets. 

Hawthorn is no pushover. Despite being in development mode, the Hawks managed to upset both 2023 grand finalists, Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions during the home and away season. Against the former, they completely took apart the Magpies’ system including shutting down a rampant Nick Daicos until he was injured. The problem was that which many young, inexperienced teams face - a lack of consistency.

But more about the Hawks later. 

One of the consequences of the Demons’ tumultuous offseason has been the debate about its standing in the competition. While some observers were willing to write the club off even before a single ball was bounced, others believed the intrinsic strength of the list, coaches and support staff ensures its status as a premiership contender. 

I read a piece this week that was critical of the Demons for their lack of key forwards, an explanation for its poor “forward connection”, and for its aging list with most of its elite players being in the mid 20s and over. I’m not impressed by these lines of criticism because neither can be validated statistically. 

Melbourne’s forward woes in the latter part of last season were more in terms of conversion and the absence of key forwards through injury. As for aging, there are several other clubs with far worse age demographics (Geelong and Collingwood for example) and Sunday’s outing showed the club’s mix of players to be in solid shape. 

I tend to look at the playing group in terms of its binary nature with many of the club’s qualities coming in twos:-

Leadership - ruckman Max Gawn, the best ruckman in the country, and the toughest midfielder in the game, Jack Viney leading by example.

Midfielders - Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver, the best midfield duo going around and still young enough to be in that mix for half a decade.

Defenders - How can anyone go past key defenders Jake Lever and Steven May?

Mature age recruits - Jack Billings and Marty Hore are great mature age pick ups, adding to the club’s needs in attack and defence respectively.

Emerging talents - Trent Rivers and Tom Sparrow are premiership players. Each is primed for a break out season.

Debutants - Blake Howes and Caleb Windsor made their respective AFL debuts less than a fortnight ago and are already making an impact.

Comeback kids - how about Ben Brown (key forward) and Tom McDonald (key back), both of who were virtually written off over the summer?

The odd couple - Alex Neal-Bullen, a relentless running machine in the forward line and Jake Bowey who doesn’t cover as much ground but has great disposal skill.

Second year talent - Judd McVee and Jacob van Rooyen. Both were kept on the back burner in the VFL in their first seasons, both were outstanding debutants last year and both are kicking on in 2024.

Small forwards - the attack looked so much more potent with Kozzy Pickett in the team and Kade Chandler back in form and kicking goals.

There’s more of that in the club’s armoury but let’s return to Saturday afternoon and Hawthorn who face up to Melbourne and a game plan that works in modern football. A team that dominates defensively and through the middle and is now primed to play more directly when going forward.

I believe the six day break should not worry the Demons as it will be offset by the benefit of the extra game in their legs at this stage of the season.

Hawthorn has a long injury list including Will Day, Denver Grainger-Barras, Changkuoth Jiath and Chad Wingard and are lucky to have James Sicily after his visit to the AFL Tribunal. The Hawks still have a decent midfield but will have their hands full with the Melbourne engine room. 

In the last encounter between the teams, tagger-in-chief Finn Maginness was given the task on Clayton Oliver and fulfilled it admirably but that was in the early days of Clarrie’s return from a long term injury. Even if Maginness gets the job again and succeeds in keeping him down, there are plenty of options available to the Demons which is something the Hawks lack. 

That’s where the club’s binary kit bag makes it such a difficult proposition to overcome and why the Demons will win this after a tough tussle.

Melbourne by 31 points.

THE GAME

Melbourne v Hawthorn at the MCG Saturday 23 March 2024 at 4.35pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Hawthorn 87 wins Melbourne 82 wins 1 draw
At the MCG Hawthorn 46 wins Melbourne 42 wins 1 draw
Last 5 meetings Hawthorn 0 wins Melbourne 4 wins 1 draw
The Coaches Mitchell 0 wins Goodwin 2 wins 

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Melbourne 13.9.87 defeated Hawthorn 9.6.60 in Round 23, 2023 at The MCG

The Demons locked in a top four spot on the AFL 2023 ladder on Sunday with a 27-point victory against the Hawks in the penultimate round of the season. It was a tough, hard tussle with barely a goal or two in it until the Demons broke the shackles in the final term. Jake Melksham was the their best player with three telling three goals. 

THE TEAMS 

HAWTHORN

B J. Weddle, S. Frost, J. Sicily
HB J. Impey, J. Scrimshaw, M. D'Ambrosio
C K. Amon, D. Moore, C. Macdonald 
HF J. Ginnivan, M. Lewis, C. Nash
F L. Breust, M. Chol, Nick Watson
FOLL N. Reeves, J. Newcombe, J. Worpel 
I/C B. Hardwick, C. Mackenzie, F. Maginness, J. Ward SUB J. Gunston
EMG H. Hustwaite, H. Morrison M. Ramsden

NO CHANGE 

MELBOURNE 

B J. McVee, S. May, B. Howes
HB T. Rivers, J. Lever, C. Salem
C E. Langdon, C. Petracca, A. Neal-Bullen
HF T. Sparrow, B. Brown, K. Pickett
F B. Fritsch, J. Van Rooyen, K. Chandler
FOLL M. Gawn, J. Viney, J. Billings
I/C T. McDonald, C. Oliver, H. Petty, C. Windsor SUB M. Hore
EMG T. Fullarton, B. Laurie,  T. Woewodin

IN H. Petty 

OUT T. Woewodin (omitted)

Injury and Suspension List: Round 2

Harrison Petty — toe/ available   
Ollie Sestan — concussion/ 1 week 
Lachie Hunter — calf/ 2 weeks
Daniel Turner — hip/ 5 - 6 weeks
Jake Bowey — shoulder/ 8 weeks
Shane McAdam — hamstring/ TBC
Jake Melksham — knee/ TBC     
Charlie Spargo — Achilles/TBC
Joel Smith — suspended/ TBC

More young guns to come - Young Doggie and the Kolt.

For so many years, this head-to-head has been skewed badly against us (true of surprisingly many rivalries, actually, for a 13-premierships team!) But, at 87-82, parity is now within reach. Get 83 done on Saturday, boys, and squaring of that ledger becomes tantalisingly close.

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

The odd couple - Alex Neal-Bullen, a relentless running machine in the forward line and Jake Bowey who doesn’t cover as much ground but has great disposal skill.

 

Thanks @Demonland did you mean the other JB here?

3 minutes ago, demosaw said:

 

Thanks @Demonland did you mean the other JB here?

A tertiary has snuck in to the binaries?

7 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

A tertiary has snuck in to the binaries?

1 0 X

std_logic_1164 is how it really works in the digital world

8 hours ago, demosaw said:

 

Thanks @Demonland did you mean the other JB here?

@Whispering_Jack 

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary numbers and those who don't. 

4 hours ago, demosaw said:

1 0 X

std_logic_1164 is how it really works in the digital world

Education appreciated! My life exposure to coding consists of early-70s forced(!) exposure to Fortran.

Definitely no 'zeroes' among Billings, Bowey and @Whispering_Jack; all could maybe claim to be the 'One'? WJ was the 'unknown', too, though, evidently.

5 minutes ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Education appreciated! My life exposure to coding consists of early-70s forced(!) exposure to Fortran.

Ex Enigineer Tim?

10 minutes ago, Left Foot Snap said:

Ex Enigineer Tim?

Dare I say it, you got it in 1.

 

And your accidental mis-spelling reminds of that old joke. Anyone?

I blame the transgression on the post operative drugs!

I guess that makes me a "post op transgressional"

7 hours ago, Demonland said:

@Whispering_Jack 

Not the other JB - he was already paired.

This is the odd couple. One’s a forward with a great tank and the other’s a backman with a great kick. That’s what makes them an odd combo 😎

What about AMW and KFW as our two, as yet uncapped, hyphenated ones?

3 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Dare I say it, you got it in 1.

 

And your accidental mis-spelling reminds of that old joke. Anyone?

Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer, now I is one?

16 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

A tertiary has snuck in to the binaries?

3 can be expressed comfortably in binary  -  0000 0011  (X'03')

50 minutes ago, BigFez said:

Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer, now I is one?

That's the 1!

34 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

3 can be expressed comfortably in binary  -  0000 0011  (X'03')

O, this site! O, this thread!

🥰

😊

Edited March 20, 20241 yr by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

31 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

3 can be expressed comfortably in binary  -  0000 0011  (X'03')

Much discussion elsewhere on here about a pinned list of nicknames.

So how about a pinned list of binary jumper numbers (which I hope doesn’t code any disastrous consequences!)

6 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Much discussion elsewhere on here about a pinned list of nicknames.

So how about a pinned list of binary jumper numbers (which I hope doesn’t code any disastrous consequences!)

...noting that - to get us started - May, Salem, Viney, Langdon and Fritsch hold the pleasing 1, 11, 111, 1111, and 11111 respectively (BBB tops things out with 110010).

I’m coming out as non-binary and leaving this thread