Captain Max Gawn still has a massive lead in the Demonland Player of the Year Award from Christian Petracca, Jake Bowey, Kozzy Pickett & Clayton Oliver. Your votes please; 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1.

Pickett - 6

Fritsch - 5

Gawn - 4

Salem - 3

Oliver- 2

Rivers - 1

Pickett

Fritsch

Salem

Gawn

Langford

Oliver

6: Pickett
5: Fritsch
4: Salem
3: Gawn
2: Rivers
1: Oliver

6 Pickett

Now struggling to find ANYONE ELSE

Lots of players drifted in and out

5 Rivers

4 Fritsch

Now really struggling

3 Gawn because he just tries all night

2 Langford perhaps because when everyone fumbled all night , he had clean touches

1 Oliver because he just tried

Players like Clarry, Trac, Salem , JV7 accumulate possessions that do zero. Don’t get fooled by stats. Often they handball to someone in a worse position

Picket

Fritsch

Oliver

Langdon

May

Salem

6. Pickett

5. Fritsch

4. Bowey

3. Salem

2. Rivers

1. Oliver

1 Kozzie

2 Fritsch

3 Gawn

4 Salem (but I wish he had some penetration in his kicking, those dinky little team mate killers kill me)

5 Oliver

6 Langford

I wanted to give votes to Trac, Rivers or Bowey but so many of their possessions were ineffective or downright poor. At least they tried hard, but still.

6. Pickett - Surely a lock for AA at this point? ANOTHER 5 goal, 20 touch game

5. Fritsch - Seems to have rediscovered his mojo. Nailing set shots and leading well. Has quietly had a decent second half of the season.

4. Gawn - Up against two tricky opponents and probably took home the chocolates.

3. Salem - Like Fritsch, seems to have rediscovered some of his best form. Just needs more 'oomph' with his kicks.

2. Bowey - Only player who looked to be adventurous with his kicking. That moment of hesitation against Docherty probably killed us though.

1. Oliver - Worked his guts out tonight. If he's awarded that HTB in the fourth, it could've been a whole different story.

6. Kysaiah Pickett

5. Max Gawn

4. Clayton Oliver

3. Bayley Fritsch

2. Trent Rivers

1. Christian Salem

6. Pickett

5. Gawn

4. Oliver

3. Rivers

2. Salem

1. Bowey

6 Pickett

5 Gawn

4 Fritsch

3 Bowey

2 Rivers

1 Oliver - because he played his 200th.

Pickett - an absolute to delight to watch this guy do his thing

Gawn - just a genuine superstar and brilliant leader. Beat both the Carlton rucks easily

Fritsch - nice to see Bailey looking like he's enjoying himself again.

Oliver - thought he tried hard, especially in the second half. Took a couple of nice contested marks.

Rivers - stood tall early and remained a consistent positive influence throughout.

Langdon - I liked Ed's game. Lots of contested possession for him and ran hard as always.

6 Kozzy

5 Fritta

4 Max

3 Salo

2 Clarry

1 Riv

Hon mention Harvey

But where were the other 16 players tonight? All very average or poor.

My assessments

6. Pickett - a joy to watch. So happy that we have him on a long term contract!

5. Fritsch - back to his very best. Fantastic to see!

4. Gawn - just battled on, and got battered and bruised, as usual.

3. Bowey - continued standout season.

2. Oliver - worked his butt off, and it was his 200th

1. Langdon - also worked his butt off, but it wasn’t his 200th

Salo, Riv and Langford also earned some credits.

Most of us seem to agree with our best six - the exception being those whose anger with Salem's insipid safe little kicks missed the fact that Saylo had his best game of the season with several face-saving defensive plays on top of a couple of ripper passes through traffic - including one that hit JVR and another to Fritter - both goals. I agree he's been frustrating this year with his at times innocuous safe disposal when we need more for him, but he had a ripper.

6 Pickett - quiet in the second term, he was electric the rest of the time and ironically we now have two likely AA players this year in a side that is going to finish bottom five.

5 Salem - yep this was his night. Played tight, intercepted when needed and cleaned up and saved us all night - stats say he amassed 475m gained and he went at 80%.

4 Fritter - with Melky drawing the Weitering card, we needed a spark up forward and other than Kossy, he was it. Clever and at times courageous (yes I said it) and even team-oriented (yes I said that too), he has returned to his 2021 form in the past three weeks. Would be nice to know how/why that has happened - is it fatherhood?

3 Gawn - Not a dominant night as Pittonet entire role was to nullify him. But gees he worked hard even attempting a huge smother late (didn't come off, but I saw it). Along with Kozzie, he was our one winning presence all night. Question: Why doesn't our coach go into bat for him like the Pies do for Daicos about how he is constantly being impeded at marking contests.

2 Rivers - Third really good game in a row by Trent and the key to his return to form is clear - he is playing as a pure defender. Yes it was good that he was tried out as a midfielder but he is way better suited to peeling off and intercepting and he seems to have a bit more awareness that he can mix up his long bombs with short kicks now.

1 Oliver - I actually had him as one of our worst up until three quarter-time, but he came out of the final huddle and played with a gay abandon that I haven't seen since 2021. He attempted a couple of hangers, he ran like a wild banchee, had a bounce and did everyone see that short kick inboards he made. He played on Cripper all night who was good but not dominant like he can be.

6 - Kozzie ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

5 - Salem

4 - Max

3 - Riv

2 - Fritta

1 - Claz

Jeez 80 more touches, only 8 more I50’s, we were in struggle street all night, we had a couple of bursts but they looked the better side with their kicking efficiency. Still great to see Clayton carried off by Tracc and Salo.

Salem

Fritsch

Pickett

Rivers

Oliver

Bowey.

6 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

Salem

Fritsch

Pickett

Rivers

Oliver

Bowey.

Pickett with 5 goals and 23 touches has to be the player of the game.

That is insane level output for a forward mid hybrid.

6 Pickett

5 Gawn

4 Oliver

3 Salem

2 Fritsch

1 Rivers

50 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Pickett with 5 goals and 23 touches has to be the player of the game.

That is insane level output for a forward mid hybrid.

Watching at the ground it felt like his impact was less. Of course 5 goals and 23 speaks for itself. I felt Salem was terrific offensively and defensively.

13 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

Watching at the ground it felt like his impact was less. Of course 5 goals and 23 speaks for itself. I felt Salem was terrific offensively and defensively.

Salem was very good. One of the better games he’s played and he was actually damaging by foot, which is one thing I’ve really struggled to accept with him this year. He’s been kicking nothing sideways dinky kicks, which aren’t damaging and just inflating his stats.

Kosi spent most of the second quarter rotting at FF for some ridiculous reason, but when he’s near the ball he’s just electrifying. One of the few players who can turn a [censored] into gold.