The wind and the hot unseasonable temperatures together with lights turned on mid game at People First Stadium conspired to leave many Suns players and supporters red faced and gasping for air as the Demons proved a number of points on their way to a nine goal triumph on Saturday afternoon in the Carrara sunshine.

Melbourne is the only non-Queensland team to taste victory at this venue in 2024. This surely leaves a number of journalists and media mavens red faced after they rushed to pass judgement about a club in crisis when it dropped out of finals contention. The win doesn’t answer all the questions they raised but it does question their own knowledge and understanding of the club’s situation.

The problem in the main being that while sporting clubs in the public eye always come under scrutiny when they perform below expectations (and deservedly so), the conflation of on and off field issues at the club to a level where it was allegedly suffering a seemingly self-administered and terminal curse was more than somewhat over the top. 

The fact of the matter is that the display put on by the Demons at People First Stadium on Saturday afternoon was not that of a team one would expect to be hemorrhaging from some alleged rotten culture as painted by the pundits.

The Suns were touted as firm favourites to win, particularly after Clayton Oliver was ruled out after undergoing surgery on one of the multiple ailments that affected his performance this year. With superstar Christian Petracca already out half a season with a ruptured spleen, champion ruckman Max Gawn affected by a problem ankle, Jack Viney favouring his shoulder, running machine Alex Neal-Bullen leaving for family reasons and Tom Sparrow injured early in the match, the on-field issues highlighted in the media suggested the Sun’s favouritism was fully justified.

Mind you, someone forgot that the team in question had just lost to second placed Port Adelaide by 2 points and by the same margin a fortnight before to third placed GWS to add to previous narrow defeats at the hands of Brisbane away and Carlton.

As it turned out, Melbourne’s new midfield problem area being an inability to win at clearances, was illusory. The on ballers won the clearance battle 45 - 36 aided by another Gawn masterclass (how does he do it?) to rattle the home side from the outset and then finish all over them with a brilliant seven goal final-quarter surge in the sun that crushed them mercilessly.

And the architect behind the success of a winning performance that the football world thought unlikely because it accepted the premise of the media lynch mob was Jack Viney who some had written off as North Melbourne bound. He shrugged off the early physical blows and beat a handy opponent in Matt Rowell, willed and heroically crashed his way through stoppage after stoppage to provide nine clearances, managing also to kick a couple of nice goals in the swirly conditions.

Viney was the guardian angel. Alongside him, Ed Langdon floated tirelessly on a wing notching up 37 possessions to put his team in the van to set up the victory. Under Viney’s wings, Trent Rivers continued his role as an emerging presence in the middle of the ground left vacant by the team’s injured superstars while Judd McVee promisingly began his own apprenticeship in the midfield boiler room.

The Demon defence was solid and held together by Tom McDonald, Adam Tomlinson, Marty Hore and Christian Salem but it was the forward line that finally gelled with Daniel Turner (four), Harrison Petty (three) and Jacob van Rooyen (three) all among the goals.

Tucked away amid the excitement and interest of an intriguing end to the AFL home and away season, the win might not count as a famous victory in the scheme of things. It might not mean much at all but then again, it might be the portent to a revitalised Melbourne in 2025 and beyond.

MELBOURNE 3.2.20 8.5.53 11.5.71 18.9.117

GOLD COAST SUNS 3.2.20 7.5.47 8.6.54 9.9.63

GOALS

MELBOURNE Turner 4 Petty van Rooyen 3 Melksham Viney 2 Fritsch Langdon McPhee Tholstrup

GOLD COAST SUNS Flanders King Witts 2 Davies Holman Weller

BEST

MELBOURNE Viney Langdon Rivers Turner Howes Salem

GOLD COAST SUNS Anderson Flanders Uwland Weller Witts

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Tom Sparrow (ankle)

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Jake Melksham (replaced Tom Sparrow in the second quarter)

GOLD COAST SUNS David Swallow (replaced Ben Long at three-quarter time)

UMPIRES Nicholas Brown Tom Bryce Harrison Birch Cameron Jones

CROWD 13,026 at People First Stadium

Beautifully written… you put the media pundits on AFL.com to shame!

56 minutes ago, Demonland said:

The wind and the hot unseasonable temperatures together with lights turned on mid game at People First Stadium conspired to leave many Suns players and supporters red faced and gasping for air as the Demons proved a number of points on their way to a nine goal triumph on Saturday afternoon in the Carrara sunshine.

Melbourne is the only non-Queensland team to taste victory at this venue in 2024. This surely leaves a number of journalists and media mavens red faced after they rushed to pass judgement about a club in crisis when it dropped out of finals contention. The win doesn’t answer all the questions raised but it does question their own knowledge and understanding of the club’s situation.

The problem in the main being that while sporting clubs in the public eye always come under scrutiny when they perform below expectations (and deservedly so), the conflation of on and off field issues at the club to a level where the club was allegedly suffering a seemingly self-administered and terminal curse was more than somewhat over the top. The fact of the matter is that the display put on by the Demons at People First Stadium on Saturday afternoon was not that of a team one would expect with the alleged rotten culture painted by the pundits.

The Suns were touted as firm favourites to win this game, particularly after Clayton Oliver was ruled out after undergoing surgery on one of the multiple ailments that affected his performance this year. With superstar Christian Petracca already out half a season with a ruptured spleen, champion ruckman Max Gawn affected by his problem ankle, Jack Viney favouring a shoulder, running machine Alex Neal-Bullen leaving for family reasons and Tom Sparrow injured early in the match, the on-field issues highlighted in the media suggested the Sun’s favouritism was fully justified.

Mind you, someone forgot that the team in question had just lost to second placed Port Adelaide by 2 points and by the same margin a fortnight before to third placed GWS to add to previous narrow defeats at the hands of Brisbane away and Carlton.

As it turned out, Melbourne’s new midfield problem area being an inability to win at clearances, was illusory. The on ballers won the clearance battle 45 - 36 to rattle the home side from the beginning and then finish all over them with a brilliant seven final-quarter goals to crush them mercilessly.

And the architect behind the success of a winning performance that the football world thought unlikely because it accepted the premise of the media lynch mob was Jack Viney who some have written off as North Melbourne bound. He shrugged off the early physical blows and beat a handy opponent in Matt Rowell, willed and crashed his way through stoppage after stoppage to provide nine clearances, managing also to kick a couple of nice goals in the swirly conditions. Alongside him, Ed Langdon floated tirelessly on a wing notching up 37 possessions to put his team in the van to set up the victory.

The Demon defence was solid and held together by Tom McDonald, Adam Tomlinson, Marty Hore and Christian Salem but it was the forward line that finally gelled with Daniel Turner (four), Harrison Petty (three) and Jacob van Rooyen (three) all among the goals.

Tucked away amid the excitement and interest of an intriguing end to the home and away season, the win might not count as a famous victory in the scheme of things. It might not mean much at all but then again, it might be the portent to a revitalised Melbourne in 2025 and beyond.

MELBOURNE 3.2.20 8.5.53 11.5.71 18.9.117

GOLD COAST SUNS 3.2.20 7.5.47 8.6.54 9.9.63

GOALS

MELBOURNE Turner 4 Petty van Rooyen 3 Melksham Viney 2 Fritsch Langdon McPhee Tholstrup

GOLD COAST SUNS Flanders King Witts 2 Davies Holman Weller

BEST

MELBOURNE Viney Langdon Rivers Turner Howes Salem

GOLD COAST SUNS Anderson Flanders Uwland Weller Witts

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Tom Sparrow (ankle)

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Jake Melksham (replaced Tom Sparrow in the second quarter)

GOLD COAST SUNS David Swallow (replaced Ben Long at three-quarter time)

UMPIRES Nicholas Brown Tom Bryce Harrison Birch Cameron Jones

CROWD 13,026 at People First Stadium

Jack, you ought to collate your Before and After pieces, perhaps with clippings of those little graphic media tipster summaries (e.g. Friday's Age - 0 to 14 against us 😄), somewhere for posterity.

If you look at Viney this year he had a good preseason which is a first for quite a while and Oliver had virtually no preseason which probably effected his play this season.

Give Petracca, Oliver and Viney a good preseason who knows how well we are going to be next year, I said all along that teams need virtually an injury free year to win the premiership.