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Last and only player to go back to back in this award until now was a bloke called Gary Ablett Jr Accept it people, we're witnessing greatness.

Well the home and away season has come and gone, very quickly, I might add. Just want to give those who keep this site up and running for very little return a big genuine thank you for all their work. I've had a few health issues this year and often this site has been more than a place of info, venting and knowledge. More often than not it has been a great source of amusement and laughter with not a few some posters having great senses of humor( is that grammatically correct Demonstone?) There have been many times this site has been a huge valve release during a game, keeping me to drinking healthy levels of alcohol intake and less comfort eating. On a more serious note or a lesser one, many posters have given me much free amusement ( aside from my paltry donation to the site) and even more made me laugh out loud even if I didn't feel like it. It also seems we have been less cranky with one another this season with less sniping and more positivity. Maybe a flag after 57 years will do that. So thank you again to those keeping the site going and to those who have shared their unique humor, wit and time over the six months. May we blessed with at least another one of the same fun up until the siren sounds our 14th flag. I wish I had cut and pasted a highlights reel for some of the top posts and we could have handed out some awards, for there have been some posts up there with ... Jesaulenko You Beauty 😃 maybe next year. Cheers fellow Dlandees. Litd.

VOTES PLAYER (CLUB) 10 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 7 Kysaiah Pickett (MELB) 4 Lachie Neale (BL) 3 Christian Petracca (MELB) 2 Luke Jackson (MELB) 2 Jake Lever (MELB) 1 Bayley Fritsch (MELB) 1 Angus Brayshaw (MELB) LEADERBOARD VOTES PLAYER CLUB 98 Touk Miller GCFC 98 Clayton Oliver MELB 92 Lachie Neale BL 89 Christian Petracca MELB 88 Connor Rozee PORT 86 Patrick Cripps CARL 76 Jeremy Cameron GEEL 74 Andrew Brayshaw FRE 65 Callum Mills SYD 60 Mark Blicavs GEEL 57 Shai Bolton RICH 57 Hugh McCluggage BL 55 Tom J Lynch RICH 55 James Sicily HAW 55 Chad Warner SYD 54 Sam Walsh CARL 53 Sam Docherty CARL 53 Max Gawn MELB 53 Dion Prestia RICH

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Their Official Preview thread started last night is cheekily titled: Melbourne Vs Sydney - Mount Buller Financial Woes and starts with: I want everyone to stop thinking about football for one second and feel for those who are running the resorts and ski fields at Mount Buller, since Covid Melbourne have managed to break our previous norms and become one (rather incredible) football team. So of course instead of spending their hard money on a September ski trip, they are now putting it towards grand final packages and finals tickets (with Damn good reason), this has robbed a key Victorian attraction of a financial resource. So if you have some spare coin, please consider donating it to a Carlton or North Melbourne fans get away, you all know the people of Mount Buller need it. I thought that was rather cheeky but gracious! The Official Preview (condensed version): Where the match will be won: decided not out of the middle, but due to which team can bring greater pressure over the entire four quarters. If Sydney can maintain their manic pressure from some of our recent matches (Not the St Kilda and North matches) this will go a long way to deciding the final outcome. Melbourne have an elite inside game with some of the best contested bulls in the league, but if we can place these players under pressure, then their disposal out of the stoppage could be rushed and will greatly benefit our turnover/ skills based kicking game. Key Battles Mills vs Oliver - Got a gut feeling that this will be a key head to head match-up. If Mills can break even here and hurt Oliver in the other direction we will be immediately put on the front foot. Franklin vs May - Usually when it comes to Franklin match ups it is purely about the opposition somehow stopping him, this week though I have a slightly different proposition. Franklin will need to lead May away from the contest a lot this week and if May is at the contest I want to see Franklin break away then hurt him in the other direction. May being out was a huge loss for Melbourne last game, I would rather not see this repeat again. Team defence vs Melbourne Forward Line - Melbourne rotate a lot of different players through their forward line and outside of Ben Brown (Tom McCartin's likely match up), their players don't stay stationary. We will have to be on our toes and commit to a zone style of defence to break them apart (Which I honestly believe we can do). Final Thoughts If we can weather the early Melbourne storm at both the start of the match and after half time (This is a hard ask), then I honestly believe we can win this match of football. Melbourne have been rather inconsistent over the back part of the year and whilst they were impressive last week, Brisbane were also not the side they were earlier in the year. Final Prediction: Sydney by 23 points Other comments on the 'Official Preview' thread; Great preview Bonz, great to see you back in fine sledging form with your titles! Sh---ing myself. Hate this sport. Very confident. Good to have a stress free week and a bit. Melbourne have had a tough draw in the second half of the year and have been found wanting at times. However, they were pretty good last weekend against the Lions. Will be a tough game and hopefully we don’t start slow after the week off. Sydney by a point. Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Clayton Oliver scares the absolute s**t out of me. He's just this freak of nature who does not stop, and can not be stopped. All you can do is hope to drag him down from ridiculously dominant to just "good". Rowbottom made that happen last time. Melbourne owe us for Paul Roos turning that [censored] around I think their best is still the league best to be honest Wake me up in 4 weeks so I can watch our grand final highlights. My favourite: Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Comments from their earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread in the next post.

Both Clarrie and Touk Miller tie for Coaches association award Well done to BOTH players🤩

It's got a bit of "heart beats true" about it too

TRACC’s 150th game next week!!! Let’s all hope he gets to celebrate TWO awesome things that night! On the same night it’s Tommy Sparrow’s 50th (already!)

The swans present an interesting challenge defensively with the two mccartin boys. Both are key to their structure, and their intercept marking is key to their defensive system. Melksham has been playing the defensive forward role brilliantly. And almost always goes to their most damaging interceptor (curiously he went to payne against the lions rather than Andrews - it's worth noting payne is taller and heavier than both mccartin boys). So melksham would be perfect on say paddy, who averaged more intercepts than his bro. Adding tmac to a forward line that has bb in it, and max or jack resting forward, would then make sure Tom McCartin would have to be accountable and would limit his ability to intercept. But tmac would also drag his opponent up the ground and out of the back line. That will mess with their defensive structure. They could hand off, but that has risks too - nor least of which being tmac clunking marks at hb or up on the wing It's that part of tmac's game we have missed the most. You only have to watch how hard bb has had to work in the last 3-4 weeks to get a sense of that. So, both tmac and melksham could work. But then a forward has to come out. No idea who though, because nibbler, spargo, fritter and kozzie are all locks. Sparrow could be the unlucky one in that scenario.

❤️💙 MH14 ❤️💙

OK @WalkingCivilWar and others from the Demon Army: the players are doing this after a win: Can the Army start it it the crowd so that it becomes our mark

I have seen this written a few times now and curious as to how you arrive at this conclusion? 2012 played 20 games 2013 player 17 games 2014 played 21 games 2015 played 22 games 2016 played 22 games 2017 played 22 games 2018 played 20 games (starting at rd 6 - next games he had 2, 2, 5, 4, 2, 4, 6 goals) 2019 played 15 games (didn't play after rd 16) 2020 played 9 games (covid year - he had a poor year along with the club) 2021 played 23 games I think its complete BS frankly. He has had one poor year and now it is set in stone that TMac takes a long time to get back up to speed. "a stumbling block to his career" you say. "Diabolically once he reaches a patch of his best form he gets injured again" 2018 he didn't start till rd 6 and played well out of the blocks Tom will be fine.

Agreed. We have changed the way we structure up fwd of centre and i50 delivery. We are now structured around Max and Petracca in the fwd line. I would see TMc coming in if Brown, Gawn or Melksham are out for injury. Given Goodwins desire for consistency and cohesion I doubt he will make selection changes lightly, I'm not as enamoured as some to bring him in, after all he was dropped for poor form not long before his injury. But it is great that he can play VFL and be ready if needed.

It is a serious injury, and I admit to doubting the optimistic timeline of his rehab. BUT, it’s also an injury that can be objectively signed off as fully healed - X-ray, MRI, bone-scan. If this aligns with subjective reportage, fitness, etc, then the risk is frankly minimal, at least of recurrence or aggravation. There can be compensating issues of course, but these will be ironed out through rehab, then with match-play, which he’s getting this weekend. Will be very interesting to see what transpires with Tmac.

Tremendous for Clarrie, fully deserved, he is a great - IMO this is the most important and relevant award.

What a champion Clarry is, best demon I've seen. Caught the end of Robbie i was 9 in 87. loved Jim, garry, neitz and '94 Schwartz was next best. But this bloke is no1 for me .

I dunno about this idea… it’s the players’ thing and I believe they do it if they keep the opposition below 60 points. Would love to see it once in the crowd with 2 minutes left in a grand final we’re about to win but I feel if we see it done 5 times a week in the crowd it kinda cheapens a concept they clearly bond around.

Gawn. 6 time AA. Legend of the club and the league. Amazing story.

Could someone explain why (edited name ) Robbo is using this occasion to raise the Zorko/ Petty incident? FMD!!! He is the chief football writer for a major paper. The standard of "journalism" in this country is a joke.

I hope Jacko repeats one of the lines from that speech soon.

I joined DL in April 2021 so it’s needless to say I’ve not been here for the 💩 times, only the good and great times. 🏆 Andy and co. provide an awesome service and I’m forever grateful to be a part of this site. 💕 There’s some absolutely beautiful souls on DL. But if I may, I wanna thank one in particular, that being the young Dees diehard who introduced me to DL in the first place. He’s a longtime member of DL who reads the content but never posts (hey hey 👋 you know who you are. 😘). How did we meet? I’m glad I asked. 😁 So, I had a tradesman at mine doing a repair. When his work was finished he came into the kitchen with the paperwork, saw my mini shrine (my pantry wall) and uttered those five magic words… Who’s the Melbourne supporter here? Well, what ensued was the biggest Dees-nerd sesh ever there was. We gushed about our beloved Club for like 40 mins or so. He told me about DL and I joined that very day, probs before he even left my driveway. 😆 THANK YOU ANDY AND CO. ❤️💙💖❤️💙

He’s the only one I can imagine coming out too. Melky is simply playing his best footy, which is pure and elite X-factor, AND with new-found defensive mojo. No way he’s coming out. I’m already grieving with and for James Jordon, he’s been outstanding this year. Tommy Sparrow exiting would be just as cruel. A fit list means harshly felt absences.

Listening to Richo on Saturday morning I got the feeling that Tommy is "break glass in case of emergency"... I doubt we will see him against Sydney but if we lose that game or get a key injury then he will come into the frame.

I remember seeing him play for us at the G early on. His left foot was elite, still is. Hibberd is a bit of a genetic freak. Build like Dustin Martin, leg speed of someone much younger and lighter, and reads the ball and play so well. The sight of him grabbing the premiership cup and bolting to the crowd will make me smile till my time on earth is done. Great memory

If they want to award it like this, change the title from Captain to 'Bloke that's been round for a while and we want to recognise'. Worse than when they made Buddy captain

Fritsch unlucky. Had put together back to back excellent seasons. Will hopefully have another premiership medallion to make up for it

When i saw the Wolf of Wall Street celebration, this was the first thing i thought of

Comments from the earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread: Melbourne should be more scared of us than we are of them Interesting Melbourne with 11 total games against final top 8. What a s**t fixture. Get every Swan to look at this guys (Gawn’s) face, convince them that it is a really bad idea to kick the ball high to a teammate if this man is also near that teammate. Not worried about him. He dominated last time and we won. It’s the rest we have to fear but I think we match up so well against them. It will drive me insane if we kick it to the big bald bloke all game long Yes we beat them once and at this ground but that was ages ago. We are a different team then, probably better tbf but as they showed over the weekend that when they can go, boy they go. Our best wins and we will need to bring it all game Feeling a career best game from Isaac, reckon he is primed to explode... The Grand Final last year showed this Melbourne team is a finals team. No one can have an off game Not just the grand final. They won all three of their finals by an average of 63 points. And it's no wonder when they have names like Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, May... these are players who will be seen as greats of their generation in their respective positions, especially the first two. Very dominant finals campaign reminded me of Richmond 2017 run. 42 inches of snow cover at Mt Buller. I suspect there’ll be plenty of tickets available. Will we adopt our Freo game style of short kicks down the field to avoid Gawn, May and Lever? We have the ability to not get drawn into their gameplan. The fact we are adaptable is what will set us apart, if we match them at the clearances we should be able to win but if we allow Gawn, Petracca and Oliver to get on top it'll be a blood bath Not really happy with the prospect of facing either Brisbane or Tigers if we don't win this one. Not confident about beating the Dees either, they looked unstoppable before half time against the Brions. Hope we're not out in straight sets... The key will be pressure, even if we don't win first use, we shouldn't allow them the time & space to get easy inside 50s. If we put enough pressure, we'll create that turnover game our defence loves. I also don't care if Trac & Oliver get a ton of possessions because their ball use is pretty average May back for Melbourne is the biggest change from that game. He's really the lynchpin of the demons Break works to our favour. Our Young kids are tiring out and need the refresh. The Dees have awesome form but now have a bye to stop their momentum. Gut running and fitness will be key on the expanses of the G as will breaking even in the centre clearances. I say we win. My favourites It feels really weird to be genuinely terrified of an opponent but also very confident we can knock them off. Even if we lose, I’ll still have Essendon’s comical misery to cheer me up.

Thanks guys. As the lone Demon supporter in my household and now living away from Melbourne I enjoy the insights, humour and the bantering on DL. I am married to a Pies supporter and he is somewhat envious (even though he will not admit it) as there is nothing like this for Pies fans who want information and intelligent conversation. Listening to the podcast makes my weekly drives into the city much more bearable. Keep up the good work and I will be making another donation first thing tomorrow. Go Dees.

Lovely post. I feel the same. This site means a lot to me. It’s a release valve for me. As my wife says when I regularly get annoying - why don’t you go on your silly footy forum and crack your stupid jokes on there? aww. You can feel the love thanks DL for prolonging my marriage!

Listening to the podcast now, Binman pointing out how fit Kozzie is and the amount of gut running he does etc. Makes me think of those 4-5 short documentaries the club did after we drafted him, one of them showed a pre-season training day down at the beach, an absolutely brutal session and I remember Kozzie being last to finish a crab walk, other players taking turns to crab walk with him as encouragement, Kozzie was spent when he finished. I just love the effort he has put in to get to this level, there are naturally gifted players that never learn to put in the hard yards. ❤💙

BRAYSHAW yeah good player BUT voted by jealous players IMV CLAYTON CLEARLY CLEARLY BEST

Get Dangerfield off - I find him irksome.

One of the greatest players drafted this millennium. Thankyou Jason Taylor for having the fortsight to pick him.

What a great idea! I’m gonna suggest it right now on our WhatsApp chat!!!

In today's fast paced world, who has time to breathe?

I once had a tradesman over at my place who also must have seen some Demon's paraphernalia and asked if I go for the Demons. We had about the Demons for about 20 mins and he told me that I must go to Demonland to read about the Demons. True Story.

I think Melk knows he's playing for his sporting life and he 'aint going nowhere without a fight.

Did the culture of the AFL give him any alternative to lying? And what did the burden of scrutiny and secrecy do to his mental health and how did that affect him on field?

I thought we might have been better giving match time to one of the younger guys this season, not because Hibbo wasn't up to it, but because it was more important for them to be playing in the seniors and that we have such an abundance of backline depth, that Hibbo wouldn't have been required. How wrong was I. One -- two week injuries to May, Lever, a promising looking Turner and our backline and team in general was looking alot less than solid and stable through the middle portion of the season. Enter the Pig Dog, who has been bloody brilliant and solid as a rock. Critical part of our defence right now, is an absolute lock through our finals campaign and gets a gig for next year and however long he wants. He's actually getting faster you know.