Leaderboard

Thought Demonlanders might appreciate having all this gathered in one spot. Comment anything I've missed and I'll add it to the list. PRE-MATCH Road to the Grand Final – MFC Past players video message AFLW players video message Channel 7 Grand Final intro Dees take to the field ‘One team; One dream’ RADIO SEN full call (audio only) Melbourne fans on post-game talkback SEN Chris from Camberwell Dennis Cometti’s last call: Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 GAME HIGHLIGHTS SEN Commentary synced with vision [full game] – Yeah the Dees 3AW Commentary synced with vision [full game] – Yeah the Dees MMM (ft Dennis Cometti) Commentary synced with vision [full game] – Yeah the Dees Multi-Call: Angus Brawshaw Puts Melbourne in Front! – The Mighty Dees Multi-Call: Petracca Kickstarts the Demons – The Mighty Dees Multi-Call: Melbourne’s Third Quarter Blitz – The Mighty Dees Multi-Call: The Final Siren – The Mighty Dees Multi-Call: Bayley Fritsch Goes Back to Back! – The Mighty Dees All the goals – MFC Mini-match – AFL Petracca: Norm Smith highlights – AFL Fritta’s six goals – MFC https://www.afl.com.au/news/684511/drought-breakers-watch-each-quarter-as-demons-destroy-dogs PRESENTATION, CELEBRATIONS, GRAND OLD FLAG Lyon presents the cup – AFL Channel 7 post match Team song 1.0 Team song 2.0 In the rooms again Final siren and song in Melbourne cheer squad – gamblore514 Fans in Perth CBD Melbourne Demons sing-along ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘Grand Old Flag’ INTERVIEWS Goodwin and Petracca presser – MFC Inside the rooms – post-match interview highlights – MFC Petracca – MFC Viney – AFL Brown – AFL May – AFL Gawn – AFL Fritta – MFC Fox Footy: Garry Lyon in the Melbourne Rooms Sunday Footy Show Panel commentary Goodwin Petracca Viney Oliver Brayshaw SOCIAL MEDIA ETC. Gus and Gawny and the Premiership Cup Podcast/Video Viney and Goody call Todd Hectic Fan Vlog from the MFC cheer squad MFC Social Wrap MFC Fan’s View Demon Fan Diaries Celebrations at Forrest Place, Perth Garry Lyon reacts on SEN The Age Real Footy podcast Jeff White reacts Ben Brown run-up meme ARTICLES At long last: For the Demons, this is a grand new flag – Jake Niall (The Age) Dee-Fence: the secret weapon in Melbourne’s drought-breaking season – Nathan Schmook (AFL.com) Luke Jackson re: Max Gawn – Sarah Black (AFL.com) Premiership skipper Gawn a captain for the ages – Peter Ryan (The Age) How the west was won: Decade of dysfunction wiped away in 31 seconds – Riley Beveridge (AFL.com) Everybody loves a happy ending - Demonblog Melbourne exorcises demons to rise from 57-year hell – The Sporting Landscape TV/ANALYSIS Fox Footy panel AFL 360 Countdown with Daisy Pearce On the Couch PHOTOS Oliver goal celebration Ben Brown realises he’s a premiership player The team and the cup Neale Daniher 2021 Premiers ANB ski mask Jack Viney snow angel Kozzie’s air time / team celebrates Kate Roffey and Simon Goodwin Famous Dees fan at 00:47 QTR3 Fritter points to his jumper (Michael Wilson) Gawn and Harmes video call Jonesy (Michael Wilson) POST MATCH Then and now: Jackson's rise to stardom - MFC YouTube Premiership Tales series - MFC YouTube Every Player's Grand Final Highlights - The Mighty Demons YouTube

Winning the premiership last Saturday was a magnificent feeling - which will last me a lifetime.. However, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, our daughter today has had a baby boy, giving us our first grandchild. The only downside is that due to Covid restrictions, we cannot yet meet this future Demon mid. (but may be able to come Monday, as some of our restrictions are about to be lifted). Life really is good

That says a lot more about the poor culture of Norf than about her. She is not your typical WAG, and having met her a couple of times thru mutual friends, I can tell you categorically that she is lovely, generous and kind. She just doesn’t think that football is the be all and end all, and wanted better for Ben and her when they were going thru a very hard time personally. Norf were not interested in supporting one of their better players. Too hard basket for a basket case of a club. Did not seem too hard for us to accept them in. We are a family club. A lot of our players have kids and have made Ben feel welcomed and at ease with wanting a work life balance and accepted his family first attitude. That is why we are successful and Norf are wooden spooners. You cannot except players and their partners to be robots that fit into your box neatly. We embrace different personalities and our group is as close as any club out there. I am so happy for Ben and his family. He’s an excellent football and a lovely guy who just needed a better environment to rediscover his spark.

Woodville-West Torrens thrashed Glenelg in today’s SANFL Grand Final and one of its stars was Jimmy Toumpas, still just 27 years of age. The win comes ten years after Toumpas played in his first premiership for the Eagles in 2011 in just his 5th game at senior level. He was a star in the following season for SA in the Under 18 championships earning him a number 4 selection by the Demons in the 2012 draft. We know the rest. Toumpas never lived up to his potential after undergoing major hip surgery before his career began. He ended up at Port Adelaide after 27 games with the Demons and managed 10 more with the Power. Congratulations go to Jimmy!!!

Our 2021 was perfect. we won the flag

when you walk ♪ from the G and you've had a pie and don't want a beer or a chip at the end of the gates ♫ there's a great big van with balls of dough fried in grease walk on queue up and bag yourself six ♪ though your tongue be scalded by jam walk on walk on with sat-is-fied guts coz you'll never make them at home you'll never make them at home ♫

I so clearly remember this game. They were the reigning 3-peat Premiers. We had been 'their bunny' for soooo long. They were one of the 'Big' clubs that a few years earlier had said they didn't want to play their Home games vs us at the G because their fans won't go. We lost to them earlier in the season. There was a lot of hurt tangled up in all that. We beat them 17.8 to 11.15. It felt like a cathartic win. On the siren I cried as some of the past hurt was released. It felt like a turning point. As it turns out that game marked a changing of the guard. The Hawks did not make a PF again (we took care of that in 2018) and here we are Premiers. I looked for reports of that game and The Age wrote: "No football fan wants to hear their team is rebuilding, but today Demons supporters glimpsed a future filled with speed, talent and dare, and must have started to believe it had all been worthwhile...This may not be the Demons' year, but all signs suggest they would have one, and soon. Prescient.

Re Goodwin: "The members get a bit annoyed by him and media, because he’s very much one message in his press conferences and quite monotone – he just tells the media that one line that protects all his players. I think that builds trust. We got challenged in all of our finals at different points and we were able to respond with massive quarters. I think it comes off the back of him telling us how they’re challenging us and how to fix it, really cool, calm and quickly, so his on-field stuff is superb. But don’t underestimate how much batting for your players externally builds trust, especially with the young guys."

All the people who made the premiership possible like Roos PJ Jones Jetta Cross Vince Lewis Bartlett Mahoney many past assistant Coaches and Goodwin Burgess Yze Williams Stafford Richarson as well as the board and the CEO Pert. Some may have left the club but without their input and effort we would never have reached the pinnacle of success in the AFL not only get to Grand Final but winning the Premiership.

I’d cut him some slack. He’s a young man letting his hair down. I hate the way footy fans expect players to act like they’re at a funeral after they lose a game. Just because we’re emotionally unbalanced and tie our complete mental well-being to our footy team, doesn’t mean the players should. And this was obviously some time afterwards, seeing as it is in a night club. Fair dinkum, who cares.

I am irrationally bothered by the fact that the only team we didn't beat all season was the Filth.

Norm Smith coaching Barassi, who coached Blight who coached Goodwin.

17-1-4 (130.8%) for a total of 70 pts was our record in the 2021 home and away season. 3-0-0 (213.1%) was our finals record taking our overall season performance to 20-1-4 (139.4%). We had some fantastic wins with 80% win-loss against the top 8 sides. But i want to examine how close we really were to pulling off one of the most amazing seasons in AFL history. Our finals will go down in the history books as being one of the most dominant and clinical performances, effectively putting to bed beyond any doubt that we were the best team in 2021. But this thread is not about that. I wanted to hone in on where we left some points on the table and determine how close we were to pulling off a lossless season. Round 10: AFC vs MFC 96-95. It was a tantalizing game of football by one of the up and coming (surprisingly) teams in the AFL. The Crows put up a performance that everyone was probably a little unprepared for including the players out on the ground. We hadn't seen that brand of fast ball movement and tactics against our defensive structures. Whilst the Crows were at/near the bottom, they were definitely giving us a sneak peak of the threat they will pose with their list in the years to come. How close were we? Really really close. I think we all agree we were robbed in this game of at least 2 points. A few very controversial non free kicks in the last 1-2 mins. It was also probably the first signs of fatigue starting to set in in the season. Salem was rested, our forward 50 connection was not where we wanted it to be. Some interesting stats from the game. +37 disposals Crows, +7 i50 Dees, +23 clearances Dees, +11 contested possessions, 15-6 to 14-11 and we were in front for about 70% Round 13: MFC vs CFC 63-80. We actually started this game well, but you could tell there was a lack of intensity in comparison to the Pies from the get go. Could have been that wave 3 was kicking in, but probably had more to do with the Pies playing out of their skins for Bucks. In retrospect, this was one of, if not the worst performance of 2021 and it was only a 3 goal loss. We have all heard that good teams can still find a way to win, even if they are not playing well, but we didn't use the ball well enough (despite having lower turnovers that the Pies). The Pies were able to get their kick-mark game going (97- 124), which we were never really looked to undo. Surprisingly we took back the lead in the 3rd quarter and also won the free kick count (28-17), but after being beaten in the clearances and back-to-back-to-back goals to start the last quarter, it was just not going to be our day. How close were we? Had a sniff. I'd say that the occasion had the Pies playing well above themselves and that a few players had already checked out for the upcoming bye. Round 16: MFC vs GWS 55-64 Cant say i recall too much from this game other than thinking we were outcoached. I have always rated GWSs stoppage work - they are so tenacious and clean at the contest and were able to get the ball out of traffic quickly and seamlessly, to their runners with such ease. Our goal kicking accuracy also really let us down with a 2.4 to 1.2 last quarter performance that had it been reversed, would have just got us over the line. We had +1 scoring shots, had much more of the ball but were smashed in the stoppage game. The narrative of the inevitable fall was also starting to take hold in the media. Only lead for 2 mins, but probably was the impetus of GWS late season build of form. How close were we? Could of, should of, would of. Bad kicking = Bad football. Round 18: MFC vs HFC 79-79. I hate the Hawks (lot of rivalry with mates during early 2000s) and so whenever we dont win, it feels like the end of the world for me at least. This game had a cracking first quarter, but my attention was drawn to the intensity of HFC and thought it was not going to be a walk in the park despite where they were on the ladder. It had some similarities to the Crows about 2 months earlier. Whilst we beat them comprehensively earlier in the year, it was only the last quarter where we were able to build a generous lead. We all know the genius coaching of Clarko and how he is able to take our game away from us and we saw it again on this occasion with a Clarko masterclass. We had well and truly settled into being one of the least accurate goal kicking teams with another poor 11-13 to 12-7 display. How close were we? Statistically speaking, this was ours, but had the game gone on another 1-2 mins, you feel like we were lucky to hang onto the 2 points in the end. Round 19: MFC vs WB 65-85 Our first and only back-to-back loss of the year but more importantly, our last one too. Like the first encounter, it was a subdued game where both teams were trying to find a weakness but not really challenging each other. The Doggies were able to adjust their game style to suit the conditions. The umpires had an absolute howler of a game where they were responsible for changing the momentum in the last quarter even though we got to within a goal of the margin. Doggies had a freakish forward 50 stoppage conversion game and our goal kicking accuracy again haunted us with a 1.4 opening quarter. How close were we? Loading, umpiring & goal kicking accuracy. Projected score (champion data) had us winning by 1. So there you go folks, we were 18 points away from the statistically perfect season. We had no blow outs, despite clearly hitting some form issues after the bye and our total losing margin for the whole year was 49 points. FORTY-NINE POINTS! I still cannot believe that. An amazing 2021 capped off in the best way possible. It is going to be tough to top that in 2022 but it is absolutely possible.

Happy to help. Anything that avoids giving Murdoch money is fine with me.

All I heard all week from bulldogs fans that because they’ve played more, they’ll be more fresh and we had played one game in 28 days and it would disadvantage us. After the grand final, all I heard was how they had to travel all round and barely had any time to rest and try it’s why they lost

I am entirely convinced that Melbourne loaded heavy after the bye, and the Bulldogs loaded heavy running into the finals. Both were the better teams all year. Geelong have skewed data because of their home ground. No season is perfect, but ours was as close to perfect a finals series as you’ll get. It was remarkable. The only game we looked in for a battle in we won by 74 points.

Because our success was so concentrated - 10 flags in 24 years - he is already top 3... Tough to get into the top 2 though; one drove in 4 flags and literally renamed the club, and the other won 6 and has a medal for performance in GFs named after him! As for the turnaround - you never know entirely what goes on inside football clubs and what the players need or will inspire them - but the board stuck fat with him when I am sure they could have mounted pressure or done you-know-what... But Roffey and co. were as quietly confident as Goodwin was when he spoke to Mike Sheahan down in Sorrento...

We should probably merge this thread with the other one that someone started. Then delete it. Nothing personal.

Only interested in one tradition in 2022. Unfurling the Flag!!

Please, please don’t say this. This is by no means due to anything you did. You were taken advantage of by a seemingly very well-organised, well-executed scam. This is 100% on them. 0% on you. 💕

A bit of Sunday morning poetry for you all. Remember, remember Twenty-fifth of September Firepower, awe and shock I see no reason Why Melbourne's fine season Should ever be forgot Recall, recall Petracca's great goal and Sparrow's and Clarry's on top I see no way How Melbourne's big day Can ever be forgot

Our very own NGA Academy prospect is playing today for the Allies live stream below. He's been named on a wing.

He new we were on track when he recruited the trac then Oliver. You have to give it to Roos, he brought in Salem, Brayshaw, Oliver and Trac. He could spot what was needed.

I’ve been doing some reflection on how our premiership success was achieved. The Who and the How our club has been rescued from the dark days, brought back into the light and finally delivered Premiership success. Ultimately the feeling of exhilaration for us Dees fanatics. 1. Jack Viney - father son selection - heart and soul 2. Peter Jackson Paul Roos Jason Taylor critical appointments 3. Salem Petracca Brayshaw Oliver - getting it right in the top 10 draft picks 4. Max Gawn - 2015 starting to show his coming of age to show he is ready to be the number 1 ruckman 5. Appointment of Simon Goodwin 6. (Josh Mahoney) the trades to get - Hibberd Lever May Langdon Brown 7. the successful 2nd round picks ANB Petty Spargo Fritsch Sparrow Jordon Rivers, Bowey (on top of trading out 2nd rounders to get Melksham, Hibberd, Langdon, Brown). 8. Progressive breaking of hoodoos and victories against Tigers, Hawks and Saints and Cats. Turning around to creating the winning culture. 9. the appointment of Darren Burgess 10. the drafting of young guns Jackson, Pickett, Rivers, Bowey 11. the appointment of Yze and Choco 12. The team culture. Selflessness. Doing the right thing for the Team. The culture of all being part of the success. It’s strange how the “curse of Norm Smith” actually contained the secret to unlock the curse. Smith based his coaching on “ the team “ . He had the team all aligned on key principles. Whilst there are individuals with talent and brilliance, ultimately team success is achieved together and helping each other as part of your role. Smith (also like Goodwin) had to instill the sense of belief into the players. Believing you can win it, is an equal part to having the players capable of winning it. Smith also knew that to achieve ongoing success, he had to keep refreshing the team, finding improvement from the existing team and also continuing to look to add new talent. Let’s find the improvement, stay focussed and continue to achieve that premiership glory.

I can't spell Smyth or Lion correctly, so give me some lenience on Bowey. Thank goodness Leocelli doesn't play for us anymore, I would have no hope. I still can't get Trengrove right either.

I have the perspective that every loss we had during the season was a stepping stone towards our premiership. It’s nice to wonder what might have been if we were undefeated all year, but at the end of the day, the journey turned out how it turned out, and we won the flag.

I can't wait to see Derm have to offer us praise next year and not backhanded compliments either like he has in the past. Having to admit we are a genuinely good, tough team with mental resilience will just about break his reality.

We didn't beat Geelong by 187 and we didn't beat Dogs in the GF by 120, but there's always next year.

So much love for Roosy and what he did to turn our club around. Took us from a total basket case and set us on the path to sucess. Established the foundations of the premiership we are now basking in, by creating the start of the great team culture we now have. When you look at it too, he is one of the few (possibly only) coach that I can think of in the modern era that has executed a near seamless and sucessful coaching hand over that has led to premierships.

I do. It just makes the comeback and subsequent slaughter more satisfying.

He joined the players who went too soon like Flower Stynes Wight Sylvia Gordon who put on the Melbourne Guernsey with pride but never felt the joy of a being a part of a premiership team. I am 75 and in good health and love the club spent 10 years as trainer at the club, each year we would look at the list and hope this would be our year well here it is!!! In 1984 I was a trainer with MFC and felt a apart of the reserves premiership.

It could have been Ollie Wines winning that premiership. Who’s laughing now? On ya Toump,

Now pinned at the top of the Demons Forum

The AFL get kicked a lot and rightfully so, but the footy department cap has to go down as one of the greatest rule changes I can think of. The big spending teams - Coll, Hawthorn, Geel, West Coast, even Sydney and Brisbane that invested a lot in the early 00's were winning all the flags and were a mile ahead when it came to drafting, fitness, development coaching and so on. Now the Dogs, Dees and Richmond (before reaching full powerhouse off field level) have all won flags. The Bailey days particularly, but also the Neeld times, were a direct reaction to what happens when instead of even a playing field from 200-2007 you have clubs spending millions more on their footy department whilst we had Neale Daniher and the possums at Junction running the show. Once Neale couldn't keep it together any more we were in a huge hole. And there was no disincentive to sacking a coach either. Sure you had to pay them but you could lean on influential members who loved a good sacking to chip in some cash and go hire someone else. The cap punishment for sacking someone is now so strong it makes teams stop listening to the peanuts in the cheap (or very expensive) seats and start fixing their issues. And members are coming around to that view as well which is promising. They're starting to question clubs rather than just blaming it all on a coach. Even some Carlton members had some sympathy for Teague! Without the footy cap I'm not sure we keep Goody. I'm not sure we sign Yze - the Hawks probably just chip in to keep him. And surely we don't get Burgo who probably takes top dollar at a big club who can easily afford to fit him in and move on whoever they had.

Honest reflection on how stressful these jobs are when losing and not meeting expectations. Must be incredibly hard to destress when you're a public figure and the week to week grind is so time and energy consuming. The energy healer isn't really my cup of tea but mindfulness and reflection are so important to know yourself and know what you need to provide to your colleagues. There must also be a lot of stress lifted when you're a premiership coach too. Goody now joins Chris Scott (with the aura fading on that one), Longmire, Bevo, Hardwick and Simpson as the only active premiership coaches next year. Also I like the way we've pretty much just copied most of Richmond's culture and game style but it hasn't felt like a bad imitation. We've made it our own. It seems a lot of the changes have happened somewhat organically. Goody has turned things around. A female President has taken over. We added valuable assistants. The players bought in to selfless acts. The defensive system, pace, pressure all hallmarks but all our own way rather than desperately shoehorning things in. Clearly we've looked at what they've done and aimed to be similar but then made the organic changes to get there.

I reckon Jake Lever has coaching capabilities post his playing days. Leadership. Intense type person but also connects well with others.

I love the ones that tell you your Telstra account is about to be closed. Handy as I don't have one.

My god, no. Just the Melbourne song and that's it.

He'll be 29 next year. Not sure whether it was his back that resulted in this but his form in the back end of the year dropped significantly. We were just lucky the like of Brown, Fritsch, Pickett were able to stand up and kick goals. I honestly think that IF Weideman is able to have an injury free pre season and get through the pre season games without any hiccups then he may potentially take McDonald's spot. But right now it's McDonald's spot to lose.

Thank you St Kilda for Trac!!

Should be free to a good home. Did not suit our 2021 style as we amped the pressure game and he aged as well. However he offered us fantastic service, easy to forget in 2018 if I recall he led the league in goal assists and in my view was one of the best pound for pound one on one players going about. If he can find a opportunity elsewhere we should support as also frees some cash and a spot on our list (and spots are tight).

As mentioned a great pair of hands and contested mark. He would have kicked a bag of goals if not let down by his inaccuracy. Think he did his knee at some stage thereby restricting his mobility. However with his mop of fair hair he lit up some gloomy afternoons with his aerial strength. If the ball went forward there was a fair chance that Greg would take a strong overhead mark. Not great but a very good player in a bleak period characterised by defeat.

- he has a feeling of content - knew the club was back on track after the Hawthorn win in 2016 - Goody was hired based on his high performance program and a respect for Neil Craig - Disappointed for Jones - you can message him on insta and he'll reply congrats

Who can ever tire of watching the last 10 minutes of the third quarter…more inspiring on every viewing

Daisy Pearce was embarassing BT and James Brayshaw, with insightful contradictions all game on stratgy. So much so, after half time BT would often ask Daisy what she thought was happening. The best example was 3rd 1/4 when Lever kicked the ball long on Langdon's wing to a footrace beteween Kossie and Tmac, kicking to TMAC. He was much further forward than Kossies\. TMAC lost the contest and Dogs retained the ball. Brayshaw said that was a win for the Dogs. 20 seconds later May marks the rebounding dogs kick due to the backline set up, pointed out then by Daisy how Lever's clever kick gave the Dees defence time to set back up. THAT was embarrassing.

in the centre square.