After 6 agonizingly long months the 2025 AFL Premiership Season is almost upon us. The Demons return to the MCG to take on the GWS Giants and will be hoping to get their year off to a flying start.

 

FB: Howes May Petty
HB: Salem Lever Windsor
C; Lindsay Rivers Billings
HF: Tracc Turner Sharp
FF: Fritsch JVR Chandler
Foll: Gawn Oliver Langdon
Int: Bowey Viney Sparrow Langford
S: Woey

Backline: Where's Petty? Could Rivers take Bowey's spot and add a midfield rethink? Maybe, but I doubt it. Can't imagine Howes is in real jeopardy, he's no good at all on talls but we rested May, Lever and Adams more than 3 talls usually would and otherwise I thought he tracked Walters and Bolton reasonably well, they did their damage on others. 

Midfield: Will the real Riv step up? No one loves Billings but I guess he gets that 2nd wing spot for now?

Forward: Is JVR right to go? I can't see Sparrow, Sharp or Chandler getting dropped even if the results aren't great. Langford....low minutes and low impact today, playing the trickiest role on the field. Back him in or go for a more mature body?

Others:
AJ - clearly can do a job filling in for JVR if needed
T Mc - back up if Petty isn't good to go
Henderson and Culley - who knows how they went in the mystery Casey game but they've got to be around the mark.

My prediction is as above but I think Henderson will be right in the frame given how our half forwards just lacked any polish against Freo.
 

 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by DeeSpencer

I hope Henderson gets a call up sooner rather than later 

I know he only joined the list a couple of weeks ago but we’re seriously lacking in small forwards at the moment 

Yeah I'm all for Henderson for a round 1 sock selection. 

Certainly couldn't be any worse then what Chandler has dished up the last two weeks.

Not that I think he will play anytime soon, but I am intrigued to know how Ricky Mentha went on the weekend. 

  On 02/03/2025 at 11:54, dazzledavey36 said:

Yeah I'm all for Henderson for a round 1 sock selection. 

Certainly couldn't be any worse then what Chandler has dished up the last two weeks.

Not that I think he will play anytime soon, but I am intrigued to know how Ricky Mentha went on the weekend. 

Chandler doesn't have a weapon IMV.

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Adam The God

God help us

  On 02/03/2025 at 12:14, Adam The God said:

Chandler doesn't have a weapon IMV.

I've never rated him one bit to be honest.

I'm pinging my hope on Henderson becoming a handy little player and maybe Spargo gets back to form so that we see less of Chandler.

  On 02/03/2025 at 09:58, Demonland said:

After 6 agonizingly long months the 2025 AFL Premiership Season is almost upon us. The Demons return to the MCG to take on the GWS Giants and will be hoping to get their year off to a flying start.

 

The AFL and its media tentacles have made it seem like nothing was ever missing...

Demonland did its bit, too...

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

I think AJ and Sharpie have locked themselves in for R1 after today's performance.

AJ really suprised up forward and in the ruck, he is a real goer.

You can throw a blanket over the top of 6 or 7 players who would be sleeping very nervously from tonight up until the 1st team selection.

Bowey, Howes, Billings, Xavier, Adams, Chandler and Langford.

Edited March 2Mar 2 by YesitwasaWin4theAges

After watching the replay I think we will make little changes. Petty to come back in.

 

B: Lever, May, Bowey

HB: Salem, Petty, Rivers

C: Windsor, Petracca, Langdon

HF: Sparrow, Turner, Sharp

F: Fritsch, van Rooyen, Johnson

FOLL: Gawn, Oliver, Viney

IC: Howes, Langford, Lindsay, Billings

SUB: Chandler

 

I think we are a decent chance. Without Tom Green they will lack inside ball winners: provided we don’t get absolutely torched on the outside of course.

  On 02/03/2025 at 12:19, dazzledavey36 said:

I've never rated him one bit to be honest.

On the credit side for Kade the match committee must see something as they voted him 8th in last year’s B&F.

Giants midfield is poo. We will win even with our deficiencies.

  On 02/03/2025 at 21:54, Tim said:

On the credit side for Kade the match committee must see something as they voted him 8th in last year’s B&F.

In a poor year. 

The small forwards is a target we have attempted to address through the draft/trade period.

I know for a fact we were red hot on Joe Berry last year for the Murray bushrangers which to me shows its still a need for us and then there was obvious talk that we were interested in Matt Owies.

I suppose in a way it's probably a reason why we have signed Henderson as well. 

I like Chandler as a person, he's a solid citizen, but there is no way he would get a game for Brisbane, Sydney, GWS and the likes. 

Reeeally keen to see how Mentha goes this year.

I think yesterday was a good hit out for us in general.

Loads of positives to draw upon from Clarry to Trac to AJ to getting more time into our 1st and 2nd year players.

I thought our forward pressure was good for 3 quarters.

Like every club your bottom 6 is where you are going to get exposed to clubs with more depth like yesterday showed.

From a realistic point of view i thought our effort was generally 8/10 for most of the day, but skills were totally off so more work is required in that department.

Considering the location of the game and the weather conditions which were all in Freo's favour I thought there were more positives than negatives.

More times than not there wasn't much signs of our half ground press and they just seemed to transition the ball through when in our front half without any push back from our defensive 8.

Just rolled through the corridor without and sort of congestion especially during that 2nd quarter.

If and when I see signs of our half ground press i know we will be in a much better space defensively.

So many things that usually get used in our games were not in play.

At the end of the day your not going to be showing your full deck of cards in an AFL community series game half way around Australia in a country town called Mandurah while it's 34 degree heat in a practice game.

Apart from the 2nd quarter we were more than in the game and had plenty of goal scoring opportunities.

We showed more than enough to suggest we will be a handful if we have our full compliment of A and B graders out of the deck.

It's the bottom 6 I'm most concerned about because we drop away badly.

Getting back to R1 I think we will murder them inside without Tom Green, Clarry, Trac, Langers, Gawny to have a field day just a matter of putting the final product on the scoreboard.

 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by YesitwasaWin4theAges

Just watched the highlights,

it was practise match and we need to practise.

do not think there will be too many new names.  AJ, Sharp, HL, perhaps . 

did anyone knock down any houses at Casey, who would know!

any more than that too many. Perhaps as interchanges.

If Max continues to drop into that hole at CHF or CHB as he did yesterday he’ll cop one knee to many in the back and miss weeks.

No Max = we lose.

AJ must play and Max rests deep forward, deep back (as need be) or on the bench.

JvR does no ruck work in my team.

  On 02/03/2025 at 13:54, WERRIDEE said:

After watching the replay I think we will make little changes. Petty to come back in.

 

B: Lever, May, Bowey

HB: Salem, Petty, Rivers

C: Windsor, Petracca, Langdon

HF: Sparrow, Turner, Sharp

F: Fritsch, van Rooyen, Johnson

FOLL: Gawn, Oliver, Viney

IC: Howes, Langford, Lindsay, Billings

SUB: Chandler

 

Windsor is playing in the back line, and Langdon is rotating midfielder. 

  On 02/03/2025 at 12:14, Adam The God said:

Chandler doesn't have a weapon IMV.

I just posted in the postgame thread the question of what would be a pass mark for Kade this season and how would you grade his week by week by week performance this year. Over time I've found him a difficult one to evaluate. 

If he does have a weapon, it's his offensive and defensive running. The guy works damn hard and for that it is very tough to hate him. I'm wondering if he might just not be good enough. He can have some amazing games as a forward but when the games are tougher for a small 'opportunist' forward, you need to be capitalising on minimal chances and turning half-chances into full ones.

Apart from the obvious lock the small forward spots are up for grabs as far as I'm concerned. We need to see what we have in Henderson as from all accounts he has the same work rate as Chandler and is natural around goals. 

OK I've considered the practise matches and looked very uncertainly at comments and GWS proposed team.

Havent read this thread yet just ready to put my thoughts here.

Theres a lot of unfortunate missesbut Im wlling to give a bit of a blend with the tried and true and the new boys.

Happy to receive condemnation or answer any relevant comments.

B:           Salem - May - Lever
HB         Sestan T MAc- Rivers
C            Langdon Petracca - - Windsor

HF:        Fritsch - Turner Chandler

FF:         Johnson van Rooyen - Jefferson

Foll:       Gawn

Mids-    Oliver - Viney
 

Int: -      Langford - Lindsay - Sharp - Sparrow 
Sub:       Petty

 

  On 03/03/2025 at 00:23, Dannyz said:

Windsor is playing in the back line, and Langdon is rotating midfielder. 

Hopefully it doesn't continue both are natural wingers and can get forward for a goal . Net negative having them play back and midfield IMHO 

A Johnson makes the team for mine.

Has shown that he can take a contested mark, is a competitor, can hit the scoreboard and most importantly provide the back up ruck duties. He'll be fine in the ruck against Lachie Keefe or whoever's not Kieran Briggs.

I was concerned that we may have been wasting a spot (if AJ wasn't up to it) for the sole purpose of allowing JVR to pay key forward all day, but I saw enough yesterday to suggest that Johnson will serve a purpose from round 1.

 

  On 03/03/2025 at 00:23, Dannyz said:

Windsor is playing in the back line, and Langdon is rotating midfielder. 

Windsor used the ball and his pace quite well yesterday, but we need more than 10 possessions if that's going to be his permanent position.

The Langdon one doesn't bother me too much. He'd only be getting minimal CBA's, you'd think, and will likely spend his other on field minutes on the wing. Anything to keep Trac and Oliver fresh and firing for the last quarter.

What happened to Petty?

I'm not saying something did happen but he seems to have disappeared without a trace. 

Injured? Sore? Personal? Rested?

Nothing!

Edited March 3Mar 3 by ManDee
Typo

  On 03/03/2025 at 01:04, Bring-Back-Powell said:

A Johnson makes the team for mine.

Has shown that he can take a contested mark, is a competitor, can hit the scoreboard and most importantly provide the back up ruck duties. He'll be fine in the ruck against Lachie Keefe or whoever's not Kieran Briggs.

I was concerned that we may have been wasting a spot (if AJ wasn't up to it) for the sole purpose of allowing JVR to pay key forward all day, but I saw enough yesterday to suggest that Johnson will serve a purpose from round 1.

 

What purpose we he fill up forward alongside Fritsch, Turner and JVR?

I like him, but the answer is he’ll be a big witches hat.