Mars is not usually a place known for lighting strikes but on Friday evening it happened twice in the vicinity of the stadium in Ballarat that carries the name and is a half completed building site with limited capacity for spectators.

This was reason alone to avoid playing the game in the former goldfields city; the natural elements provided a second. Ironically, the rain that threatened never came although the swirling wind had an effect and then there was the lightning.

The first strike occurred on the distant horizon two minutes and 20 seconds into the practice game between Melbourne and Richmond, by which time the 5,000 capacity sell out crowd (limited because of the construction) had already witnessed the drama of Demon forward Luker Kentfield being taken from the ground with a suspected concussion and a knee injury after an awkward landing in a marking contest.

His free kick was taken by Harvey Langford who kicked truly to give the team the lead which was never relinquished until the second lightning strike put an end to the game six minutes into the third quarter. By that time, the Demons led by 35 points and were declared victors of their Community Series contest and the game was abandoned with the scoreboard showing Melbourne on 12.6.78 to Richmond 6.7.43.

The Demons continued where they left off last week at Casey Fields but this time around the charge was sparked by different heroes.

Skipper Max Gawn who has been critical of the changes to the ruck rules seemed to relish the opportunity to play under them, his superb ruck craft demonstrating that there is absolutely nothing to concern him about the hierarchy’s decision to instigate change.

Gawn gave his on ballers plenty of opportunities to take the ball from the stoppages and young midfielder Caleb Windsor was in everything early with ten disposals, seven score involvements and a goal in the opening term. The new look midfield which also included Kozzie Pickett, Jack Steele, Trent Rivers, Tom Sparrow and Langford was in fine fettle and fed the ball towards multiple goal kickers including Jacob van Rooyen who was the pick of the forward crop with three goals. Bayley Fritsch is also back to his former dangerous self in attack.

It was a good all round performance from the defence who held firm in the tough conditions. Unfortunately, a couple of first year players in Xavier Taylor and Tom Matthews missed out on game time due to the shortened match while Kentfield’s injury put a dampener on the winning celebrations, particularly coming after injuries to other key forwards in Brodie Mihocek and Matt Jefferson in the course of the previous week.

The abandoned match also provided the fitness staff with another headache as they left Mars Stadium. How to ensure that the team is cherry ripe for its first game in a fortnight’s time?

Fun Fact - although Melbourne was involved in previous lightning stoppages in recent years (vs West Coast in 2021 and Collingwood in 2024, neither game was abandoned. According to the Tigers, the only Richmond game abandoned occurred on 3 September 1888 against Port Melbourne when the game was called off at 3/4 time due to violence.

MELBOURNE 7.2.44 11.6.72 12.6.78

RICHMOND 3.1.19 5.5.35 6.7.43

GOALS

MELBOURNE van Rooyen 3 Chandler Fritsch Gawn Langford Laurie L Pickett Sharp Tholstrop Windsor

RICHMOND Lynch 2 Hopper Mansell Ralphsmith Rioli

BEST

MELBOURNE Windsor Gawn Rivers van Rooyen K Pickett Steele

RICHMOND McAuliffe Taranto Lalor Hopper Rioli

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Kentfield (knee, concussion)

RICHMOND Cumming (shoulder)

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

RICHMOND Nil

CROWD Approx 5,000 at Mars Stadium

One good thing about the game being abandoned so early is the fact that I’ve now been able to watch the replay twice.

On 28/02/2026 at 11:03, rumpole said:

One good thing about the game being abandoned so early is the fact that I’ve now been able to watch the replay twice.

Are Richmond getting closer?

Regarding games called off, that bought back memories of my first season playing seniors suburban footy, early 70’s Eastern Suburban Churches C grade I think. I think our enforcer over-reacted to a rather zealous tackle, snotted the culprit and suddenly everyone was involved, fists flying everywhere, except me, I put a bear hug on my 30 something barrel chested opponent, arms full of Tatts and got tossed unceremoniously into a puddle before he ran into the fray. I remember the young umpire in his 20’s tried to intervene but copped one to the head and promptly evacuated to his car and drove off. Our trainer was decked and a few players flattened. When the dust/mud settled we all realised we didn’t have an umpire - game abandoned! It ended up in court as our opponents needed the 4 points to play finals and pleaded the right to play. Can’t remember the court outcome. Great intro to seniors footy and realising it was part the joy of playing footy and part identifying the local violent psycho in a footy Guernsey to steer clear of.

On 28/02/2026 at 00:16, Demonland said:

Fun Fact - although Melbourne was involved in previous lightning stoppages in recent years (vs West Coast in 2021 and Collingwood in 2024, neither game was abandoned

There was also one against Brisbane in 2023 where the lights went out in the last quarter as well. Thinking that was storm driven as well:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.afl.com.au/news/887706/lights-out-brisbane-lions-ko-max-gawn-less-melbourne-demons-in-the-dark/amp