THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS: 2024

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Whichever way you look at it, the Melbourne Football Club’s 2024 season can only be characterized as the year of its fall from grace. Whispering Jack looks back at the season from hell that was.

After its 2021 benchmark premiership triumph, the men’s team still managed top four finishes in the next two seasons but straight sets finals losses consigned them to sixth place in both years. The big fall came in 2024 with a collapse into the bottom six and a 14th placing. At Casey, the 2022 VFL premier which lost an elimination final in 2023 plummeted to 17th with just five wins. Similarly, the 2022 AFLW premiership Demons which had also followed up their flag with a straight sets finals exit, missed out finishing in ninth place.

The signs for the club were not good from early on. The Joel Smith suspension fiasco continued as the Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) investigation lingered and was eventually resolved with his outing from the sport after season’s end.

Clayton Oliver’s battle with his physical and mental demons continued through the off season and he was barely ready when he returned for the start of play for 2024. Indeed, there were some raised eyebrows at his selection for the opening game. Both club and player persisted even as Oliver collected further injury concerns during the season and despite displaying glimpses of brilliance (sometimes in heroic fashion), his overall performance was well below par for the four-time club best and fairest winner.

The fallout from the controversial Brayden Maynard “legal” head high hit on Angus Brayshaw in the Qualifying Final lingered until the eve of the second with the Demons’ premiership champion abruptly retiring from the game on medical grounds after courageously battling concussion issues throughout his illustrious career.

A number of players were already sitting out the preseason with injury concerns, most notably Jake Melksham who was recovering from ACL surgery at the end of 2023, Harrison Petty who had made a promising move to the forward line, Charlie Spargo nursing an Achilles which kept him out for all bar the season opener, Lachie Hunter (calf), Shane McAdam (hamstring) and Daniel Turner (hip) while Ben Brown’s knee was to prove a week to week proposition throughout. Kysaiah Pickett was missing for the season opener against the Swans with a week’s suspension incurred in the 2023 semi-final. In the game up in Sydney, Jake Bowey broke his collarbone, an injury that out him for two months.

Coach Simon Goodwin is not one to use injuries as an excuse and his team overcame a shaky Round Zero start in steamy conditions at the SCG against eventual grand finalists, the Swans, and went about staking a claim with four consecutive victories, three of them against teams that made the 2024 finals. The Demons easily disposed of the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn at the MCG before beating Port and then the Crows at Adelaide Oval in the Gather Round. The weight of successive games off short breaks proved too much when they met their match against the slow starting Lions who were on their way to a premiership flag.

The bye in Round 6 was handy and Melbourne easily dispatched Richmond after a scrappy first half on Anzac Eve and followed that up with a sterling performance against an undefeated Geelong at the MCG, easily its best win of the season.

So far, so good. They were a third of the way into the season and riding high. Max Gawn was at his peak in the ruck, Christian Petracca and Jack Viney were starring in the midfield, Bayley Fritsch was regularly kicking goals and the defence was solid as a rock. Alex Neal-Bullen was quietly building a reputation at high half forward, recruit Caleb Windsor was proving a real find, Judd McVee in defence and Jacob van Rooyen up forward were continuing on an upward trajectory and Daniel Turner was at last looking comfortable, this time as a potential key forward. To top it all off, the injury list was suddenly looking manageable. What could go wrong?

The reality was that the team was on the edge of the precipice. After the heroics of the win over Geelong, Melbourne took forty minutes to register its first score against Carlton which led early by six straight goals to nothing in their Round 9 match up. Christian Petracca was moved forward and a blistering five goal display left them one point short against the accurate Blues. Worse was to come a week later when the Demons capitulated to the lowly Eagles in Perth and lost Jake Lever to a knee injury early in that game. The knee was an issue for Lever until the end of the season when he had surgery on it. Confidence was restored a little with a routine win against the Saints that saw the team run away at the end, but a storm was brewing on the horizon.

Off the field, the club awaited the SIA verdict amid speculation that other players had been dragged into the now long drawn-out investigation. From time to time, parts of the media revived the story and reminded the world that the ongoing litigation was proceeding, also apparently at snail’s pace. All of these distractions were slowly wearing the club down. Melbourne was finally able to fill its vacant list position and chose a young Western Australian tall, Luker Kentfield from Subiaco. He accepted a rookie spot on the list.

On the field, the club’s painful decline accelerated. After the devastation of a 92-point hammering by Fremantle at Alice Springs. the season close to effectively was over by Kings Birthday with Christian Petracca’s calamitous rib and spleen injury after Collingwood’s skipper collided with his back in a marking duel. The inaccurate Demons went down in defeat, heads bowed, bodies bruised and minds dazed. The bye could not have come soon enough.

The rest of the season was a roller coaster ride for the Demons, mostly heading in a downward direction. They almost blew a big lead with a poor final quarter against the rising Kangaroos, then they did capitulate late by five points at the Gabba after a brilliant second term against the Lions. They extracted their revenge against the Eagles at home as Jake Melksham returned after 310 days on the sidelines. He kicked two goals while Jacob van Rooyen put on a show and would have finished with a bigger bag than his four goals but for some near missed shots and the extra ruckwork necessitated by Max Gawn’s broken ankle. In the skipper’s absence, they produced an heroic effort against Essendon on a Saturday night at the MCG. Trent Rivers was starting to excel in his conversion to the midfield, Ed Langdon was prolific, Alex Neal-Bullen strong. Despite carrying more than one injury, Oliver was beyond heroic in his efforts to pummel the Bombers and dent their finals hopes.

On that subject, a finals appearance was still possible for Melbourne but it was a horror stretch home starting with Fremantle at Optus Stadium. The Dockers’ ruck and midfield power was too much for the Demons and they dominated them with a 50-point win. The Demons looked back on track and at home with a strong start that was wasted against the accurate GWS Giants who took control in the third term and withstood a strong finish to prevail by two points. An ailing Melbourne was thrashed by the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium before another two-point defeat to a finals contender — this time Port Adelaide at the G, the team’s fourth loss on the trot.

The season was virtually over when the team made the trip north to the Gold Coast. The Suns 2024 record at People First Stadium was impressive. They had beaten all comers from outside Queensland, their only defeat there was by 28 points to the eventual premiers in Round 20. The wounded Demons went in without superstar midfielders Oliver and Petracca, key defender Steven May, its rising star in Windsor and with skipper Gawn still hampered by his ankle injury. They still managed to smash the home side by nine goals in a stellar display. Langdon, Viney and Rivers starred, the key forwards Turner with four goals and van Rooyen and Petty were on target. Was this a portent of the future?

The letdown came in the rain interrupted final round game against Collingwood when a further depleted Melbourne lost without so much as a whimper to finish in 14th place to complete the fall from grace. Pickett was unlucky to suspended for the first three games of 2025 for a hit on Darcy Moore’s head as the Magpie skipper slipped to the ground.

All that remained was the count for the Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Memorial Trophy which resulted in a narrow win to Viney ahead of Gawn and the departing Neal-Bullen who had earlier announced he was heading home to Adelaide.

The immediate post season period was tension filled as off-season controversial dramas swirled around the futures of Petracca, Oliver and Pickett who all appeared set to leave at one stage. In the end, a disastrous interview with commentator Gerard Whateley cost Kate Roffey her role as club chair and an under pressure Gary Pert announced he was quitting soon after. Former skipper Brad Green replaced Roffey on a temporary basis. The long running litigation involving former President Glen Bartlett ended with a statement that all matters were settled and premiership coach Simon Goodwin was cleared of any wrongdoing. The long-awaited result of the Joel Smith investigation saw the player retire from the game after he was suspended for four years and three months for anti-doping rule violations. No other player was named. The drama was by no means over: a review of the club’s activity was conducted, new elections came and went, unhappy and unsettled players stayed and the club lived to fight another day.

The Casey Demons never recovered from a shaky start during which they lost key VFL listed signings in Campbell Hustwaite and Leo Connolly through injury in the opening weeks of the season. On top of the retirement of hard man James Munro at the end of 2023, the cupboard was bare and the team muddled its way through the season with a mere five wins — a far cry from its famous premiership season two years earlier. The final blow was the retirement of intrepid leader Mitch White at the end of the season. White comfortably won the best and fairest ahead of Roan Steele and Matt Jefferson who also booted 29 goals to top the goal kicking. The VFL affiliate went to work immediately embarking on a recruiting spree which at this stage looks promising for season 2025.

The AFLW Demons also missed the finals. Their fate was partially sealed when the 2024 fixture was released in May. It was a tough draw that ended up even harder as the teams Melbourne played did better than expected and teams it didn’t play, did worse. A slew of injuries to key players, an exodus of quality, battle-hardened teammates, resulting in playing young recruits prematurely, culminated the team winning six games with a lowly percentage (87.9%), and finishing ninth. After winning first up against Geelong, injuries and near misses had them virtually out of the race before a late surge saw them fail by half a game. How much did they rue that after-the-siren defeat against the Dockers at Fremantle Oval and the last-minute withdrawal through injury of skipper Kate Hore in the decisive late season game against the Hawks?

The team was again led brilliantly by Hore who won a third successive Daisy Pearce Trophy winner, edging out vice-captain Tyla Hanks by two votes. Maeve Chaplin, put together a career-best season and was named in the All-Australian squad. Eliza McNamara and Sinead Goldrick also stood out.

As things stood, the club faced the imperatives of bringing the players together and raising the standard and depth of its playing lists. One of the steps toward achieving the first aim in the preseason was utilising mindset master Ben Crowe who had been involved in the club review. Prior to Christmas a player's camp at Bright, which focused heavily on their connection, perspective and communication, has hopefully laid the foundation for a team revival in 2025. The club's trade and free agency period was mainly uneventful with the club picking up athletic Brisbane Lion Harry Sharp and a backup ruckman in Tom Campbell from St Kilda  but it had an excellent draft, securing elite talent in the form of Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay with its early picks and a “smokey” in Werribee mature aged forward Aidan Johnson to go with promising NGA rookie Ricky Mentha Jnr.

The Casey Demons have also recruited strongly and coach Taylor Whitford will be looking forward to an influx of quality player into his squad.

The AFLW team lost long time favourite Lily Mithen but retained Tayla Harris who was sidelined with injury for what was basically the whole of the season. The club was happy with the draft as it welcomed WA star Molly O’Hehir with selection 3, Maggie Mahony from the Oakleigh Chargers and its own “smokey” in cross-code athlete Amelia Dethridge.

After a year in which the club suffered its fall from grace, expectations are high for better things to come in 2025.