Demonland

In the middle and he just seemed to be everywhere.

I had a few autocorrect fails today. 🤦‍♂️

One was Windsor (the first time). The second time was one of the Casey boys (fortunately or unfortunately).

NRL great joins new-look DemonsMelbourne has hired NRL great Ryan Hoffman to a leadership role in what is the latest addition to Steven King's off-field brigade. Hoffman, who will work with the Demons at least one day per week as a leadership consultant, brings a wealth of experience from the elite level, having spent 16 years in rugby league. The Storm legend was on track with the Demons on Wednesday morning as King put his players through a brutal session in the heat. It's understood Hoffman quietly assumed the role three weeks ago. The 41-year-old had three stints with the Melbourne Storm, as well as spells with the New Zealand Warriors and Wigan Warriors, to tally 359 career league games. Hoffman also represented Australia in six Tests and featured for New South Wales 14 times in the State of Origin arena. The addition is one of many off-field changes at the Demons, who have secured Matthew Scarlett, Jared Rivers and Rory Atkins, among others, to form King's new-look coaching strikeforce. Hoffman's code switch isn't the first of its kind, with his ex-teammate Billy Slater linking up with St Kilda in 2019. The Storm called on the services of retired Geelong champion Joel Selwood for the 2023 season following his decorated career with the Cats. Earlier this year, Hawthorn called on the insight of North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten for its Round 13 clash with the Western Bulldogs in a mentoring capacity for Sam Mitchell and his team.

Clarry, Goody payouts, ‘too low’ membership put Dees in the redChris Cavanagh New Melbourne coach Steven King says he wants his players to be more “flamboyant” with the footy next season as he drives high standards on the training track this summer in search of on-field improvement. King is looking to implement what he calls ‘Demons Footy’, working towards building a “ruthless, selfless and connected” playing group with improved scoring ability. Melbourne averaged 82.7 points per game under Simon Goodwin last season, but King has set his sights on more three-figure scores as he puts a focus on ball movement. “I want us to be a bit more exciting and flamboyant with the ball and take the game on a little bit more, and I believe that that’ll start with the way we move the ball out of our back half,” King said during Melbourne’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. “Teams are set up really well defensively, but I feel like the best teams now score. “We’re getting good looks in front of the ball with the way we’re setting up the ground (at training) and the way guys like CJ (Changkuoth Jiath) and Salo (Christian Salem) are taking the game on and changing angles from our back half. I want our defenders up the ground, kicking goals or creating goals. Likewise, I want our forwards to empty out, rip back and help us to defend. So (we’re) just getting the guys to think about the game a little bit differently and hopefully the midfielders then can just be the conduit between the two.” King said he wanted “to make training harder than games” and highlighted some standouts on the track during pre-season including Jai Culley, Caleb Windsor, Bayley Fritsch, Kade Chandler, Tom Sparrow and Kysaiah Pickett. Melbourne reported a $199,000 operating loss for 2025, which was attributed to declining football revenue and payouts to Goodwin and long-term contracted midfielder Clayton Oliver. Goodwin’s payout was made before October 31 this year, meaning it will not impact the club’s soft cap in 2026. Oliver will be paid around $2 million across the next six years while playing for Greater Western Sydney after his trade in October. Demons chief executive Paul Guerra said while the financial position of the club was “sound”, the current membership level of 58,000 was “too low” and some sponsorship packages had gone unsold this year. President Steven Smith said a new facility remained “a top priority for us” and the club was “really close” to being able to make an announcement on that front. Melbourne has been eyeing a $100 million high-performance and administration facility, which would be built on land within the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve and feature two training ovals. A feasibility study on the site began in December 2023, with a business case now expected to be handed down early in the new year.

It's the last preseason training session of the year and Demonland Trackwatchers braved the rising heat to witness a gruelling session that included a proper Match SIM. Farewell 2025. Bring on 2026. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONSPRESENT: 2. Jacob van Rooyen 3. Christian Salem 6. Caleb Windsor 8. Jake Lever 9. Jack Steele 12. Koltyn Tholstrup 13. Jai Culley 16. Bailey Laurie 19. Xavier Taylor 21. Matt Jefferson 22. Blake Howes 24. Trent Rivers 25. Tom McDonald 26. Jed Adams (Wearing #23) 27. Max Heath 29. Tom Campbell 30. Harry Sharp 31. Bayley Fritsch 32. Tom Sparrow 33. Latrelle Sumner-Pickett 34. Kalani White 35. Harry Petty 36. Kysaiah Pickett 37. Kade Chandler 38. Oscar Berry Ricky Mentha Jr 40. Riley Onley 42. Aidan Johnson 44. Luker Kentfield REHAB: 1. Steven May (?) 4. Harvey Langford (Concussion) 5. Xavier Lindsay (Foot) 7. Jack Viney (?) 10. Daniel Turner (Hamstring) 11. Max Gawn (Hamstring) 14. Changkuoth Jiath (?) 15. Ed Langdon (Concussion) 18. Jake Melksham (?) 20. Thomas Matthews (PCL) 28. Brody Mihocek (?) 43. Jack Henderson (Groin) 45. Andy Moniz-Wakefield (ACL) ABSENT 17. Jake Bowey (Foot) 23. Shane McAdam (Achilles) 2 umpires here as well as some ring in players so it looks like there will be another serious Match SIM. I recognise Toby Sinnema and former Demon Deakyn Smith. Some of the Casey boys from the last Match SIM were there too to make up the numbers of the injured players for the Match SIM. Mihocek (in the “injured” attired) has arrived with Viney and Henderson in same non-training guernsey attire. CJ & Matthews running laps. Viney, Henderson, Lindsay & Mihocek setting up things in the shed to do work in there. Other previous rehab players are participating in the warmups. Will keep you posted on whether they join the match SIM. Mihocek on the bike. Lindsay on a resistance band pull down machine (?). Henderson doing planks. Viney standing around looking mean. I’ve listed all the guys in rehab who were in rehab last session like Max, Langford, Melksham, Turner & Langdon. All are doing warmups and look fine. AMW is also doing the warmups. Melksham now running laps. Langford (concussion) Langdon (concussion) & AMW (ACL recovery) have split away from the main group to work with a trainer. The rucks; Max, Heath, Campbell and White have split off to do some work with Mark Jamar. May has split off from the main group with another trainer to do some sprint work on the boundary. I believe he did this before the last Match SIM too. Half ground Match SIM presumably as a precursor to the proper thing. Two fantastic leads from JVR straight up the middle delivered laced out. Love to see it. Someone mentioned that May was having his foot looked at by one of the physios. He has changed into runners and is now jogging very slow laps. Watch this space. 😱 Players look like they’re getting ready for the Match SIM. Max & Disco have joined Langford, Langdon & Melksham doing sprints on the boundary. Match SIM Blues vs Whites STARTING MIDFIELD BLUE: Campbell Steele Windsor Rivers WHITE: Heath sparrow Kozzy Culley WINGS: BLUE: Sharp Onley WHITE: Chandler Kolt Windsor everywhere. Max, Langford, Langdon, Turner and Melksham doing grappling work on the other oval. May now jogging faster laps. Mihocek, Viney, Matthews, CJ, Henderson, AMW & Lindsay all doing circuit work in the sheds. End of First Period: BLUE: 3.4.22 WHITE: 1.0.6 Taylor has taken some great courageous marks. Can definitely play tall and small. Campbell outbodying Heath in ruck contests. FORWARDS: BLUE: JVR, Kentfield, White, Laurie Mentha WHITE: Jefferson, Fritsch, AJ, Trelly, Kolt (2nd period). DEFENDERS: BLUE: Lever Salem Petty Taylor Deakyn Smith WHITE: TMac Berry Howes Trelly tried to take on Salem but was taken down in a beautiful tackle. Windsor lace out to JVR on a beautiful lead. Goal. More of this in 2026. Kozzy is a ball magnet. Got a hardball get on the wing, sold candy, left others in his wake, weighted a nice pass to a train-on, kept running got the handball back and drilled a goal on the run from outside 50. End of 2nd Period: BLUE: 5.6.36 WHITE: 3.2.20 Maysie has been running laps this whole time. Every now and again he stops and gets work on lower back/upper glute from the physio Howes (white) floated down from defense and kicked a goal. Culley bursts out of the pack and snaps a beautiful goal. Chandler gets a ground ball in the pack and breaks out and tries to take on Riley Bonner (Casey) and he tackles. Ump calls holding the ball. Kozzy is a ferocious tackler. Umpires are killing us. Love to see Kozzy and Trelly linking up. End of Third Period (Final): BLUE: 7.8.50 WHITE: 7.2.44 Salo getting a lot of the footy across half back. Skills superb as always. Grapplers on the other oval are done. Melky back to running laps. Mihocek, CJ, Lindsay and Henderson all smashing the bikes in the shed. Match SIM over. 10 vs 7 full ground drill. Max participating as are Langdon & Langford wearing the Fluro no-contact hats. Steele not participating in the drill and is doing sprints on the boundary. Boys changing into the runners now. That’s it from me from preseason training in 2025. Bring on 2026. Addendum: As I was driving off the boys were running around the Tan FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONSAnother glorious day at Goschs. Is TMc ever late for anthing. Guerra and Richo watching on. Guerra always looks like he is enjoying his job. Tom matthews had a bandage on his leg last friday but it hasnt been seen since. Always under the eye of a trainer and spends much time jogging, not sprinting, the line. The rehabbers, Langford, langdon, gawn, melksham, disco look ready to go. Langford had the 'paint' across the bridge of the nose, a la Adam Ant. The non runners were Viney, Miohcek, henderson and Lindsay. Brodie suffering from that military complaint of General Soreness. Would you believe that Viney and Lindsay carried over a 'ski' machine from AAMI. Unbelievable. Windsor is an absolutely standout. XT has some really smarts and reads the ball well. At times though he reminds me of the kid down the back of the class who couldnt sit still. Had 2 senior umps for the match sim. Onley is nearly as big as Jamar. It doesnt help when players are in the wrong jumpers. Campbell beating Heath in the grappling contestants. Lever and Salem are masters of holding their oppoent in the tackle a second or 2 longer. Maysie looked uncomfortable, some part of his body aint right. (like duh). Jogging, running the line. I assume the players loaded up with the fluids as there was much 'watering of the eucalypt trees'. CJ, can i say poetry in motion, beautiful running. DEESPENCER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONSPickett, Fritsch and Salem were the standouts of the half field drill. In to full ground sim now and JVR has found the ball 4 times on the half forward line. 1 behind, 2 successful inside 50 kicks, 1 picked off. The Campbell, Riv , Windsor, Steele midfield on top Toby Sinnema looks like he belongs. As does the Sudanese fella whoever he is. Pro: Windsor Con: Sharp just marked on the wing, took off around Heath, took 4 bounces, burnt the entire open forward line and got run down by Heath and turned it over. Unfortunately King seems to be a nice human being because I wouldn’t send him home. Xavier "Reg" Taylor’s first instinct to counter attack with fast feet is very real and creates great transition. Plenty for him to work on but it’s always nice to see someone’s best attribute look legit. The speed with which we are moving the ball is so clearly faster than the last few years. And all of the main 6 on ballers (3 a side) had moments. Koz was everywhere. Culley was a marking target and kicked a super goal from a half forward clearance. Sparrow was super busy and ran like a machine - his weaknesses remain but when he can keep it simple he’s effective. Windsor has work to do on his inside game but was just carving it up on the outside. Steele was solid. Rivers was very well rounded. All 4 key forwards were involved. JVR just kept hitting up on the flank. Seemed to finally have some connection with the mids. Jeffo had some good contests and clunked a couple, is moving well. Luker had a couple of involvements. AJ was up and back across half forward and now covers the ground like a genuine athlete and nothing like a tradie. All the key backs had moments too. T Mc and Adams at one end, even if both got beat JVR on the lead in to space. Adams kicking is looking better and better. Petty and Lever at the other. Fritsch, Chandler some almost moments from Mentha. Trell and Reg settling in. Not all that much to note from the flankers as we didn’t have too many out there! TRIDENT 22’S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONSI watched the whole session today and am surprised no one was talking about the form of JVR. If they have, I must have missed it. He looks lean but strong. Was moving really well. However, what stood out was his leading and ability to take grabs with both hands, one touch. This is the area of his game which needed the most improvement. I think we will see him thrive under King. Has anyone been able to confirm why Miochek was on the bikes and doing circuit training today? I heard the officials say that CJ is close to be back in full training after the Christmas break. As noted by others, he ran laps all morning. Toby Sinnema (Casey) looked like he absolutely belonged. I’d be signing him up. The biggest cheers from the playing group came for Koz who kicked a long range goal, after the kick he delivered, getting the hands and bombing one from a step inside fifty. The players celebrated that one. The other big one was for Jye Culley, who snapped a roving goal inside fifty. “F…k yeah boy” was shouted by one player. Plenty of claps and whistles. Finally, Caleb Windsor 🍆 EARL HOOD’S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONSI thought JVR was a mixed bag today in the sim. Two strong marks on the lead against TMac, two failed attempts at mark of the year jumping on top of Tommy, one set shot at goal after a strong mark from 40m that went off the side of his boot and one pass that went straight through his hands when on a fast lead. He looks great at times, but still seems to have the odd unexpected skill lapse. Yep Culley’s running goal in traffic was a standout, his kicking just looks so smooth and natural. I can’t see what is going to stop this guy being a big surprise packet for opposition teams next season. Berry is interesting to watch, he doesn’t look dangerous but I haven’t seen him make an error yet, picks bouncing ground balls up on the run cleanly and delivers correctly by foot or hand. Taylor is another who I haven’t seen make a mistake, seems to have plenty of awareness of what’s going on around him, gets the ball takes the opposition on, has a bounce and looks for targets. I am on board with this bloke after watching him in a sim last week, take a pass in the pocket, have a bounce with Kossi coming at him, he just side stepped, fended off Kossi’s lunging arm and proceeded down the field, leaving Kossie sprawled on the ground and that’s no mean feat. Very composed for a newbie. The other player I have been following is Tholstrup, in the few sessions I have attended his skill levels are good in the drills, he’s enthusiastic and involved. His only bad habit is trying to out muscle tacklers and often getting caught. Watching him today he was playing wing on Onley or drifting to half forward but had little direct involvement in the play. I was hoping he would get some time in the middle just to see how he goes getting the ball with the jets, Kossie and Windsor. I still don’t know what roll he can play best for us. He has football skills, his draft combine results say he has elite agility and endurance with more than adequate speed but what are the extra ingredients you need to make AFL level when you are 186 cm tall? Going into next season I am, for some reason, very much glass half full on what I have seen so far. GHOSTWRITER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONThe vibe is great! Everyone: players, coaches and trainers are happy about today because immediately after this session they’re on holidays. 🥳 But… Jadams just told me they’ve been told this session will be gruelling. Absolutely brutal. Regular sessions are brutal so if Kingy has said it’s gonna be brutal… it’s gonna be apocalyptic. There are some Casey boys here as well as a couple of umpires so a match is on the cards. There’s a lovely Casey boy named Jarrod Gatt. I’m sure @Whispering_Jack knows all about this kid. The other day someone asked about Tom Hawkins and I just spoke with Paul Guerra. It’s still something we’re hoping will come to fruition and we’re confident it will eventuate. Tom needs time to settle in and while he hasn’t committed, he’s interested in taking on the role. Out on the other oval are Max, Langers, Disco, Melky and the Bison are with Keith the trainer doing a wrestling drill. One player lies on his back with another player lying on top of him. Keith yells out Go! and the player underneath has to throw the other guy off. Melky pinned Max down successfully and kept him down. Max was not happy Jan. 😁 Now these same players are practicing grappling one-on-one in a marking contest. Very serious stuff. It’s like they’re being instructed to grapple hard but without running a risk of giving away a free. Lamond, Jarrod Gatt and Toby Sinnema are the Casey boys here today. Post Match SIM the players are in their Amazing Race teams so I expect we’ll be seeing part two once it’s filmed. Part one is on the website and it’s a great watch. Actually there’s been a little change to the teams. The rehabbers with foot or leg issues have formed a separate group and they’re walking around the Tan instead of running. Once they’re all back at the marquee they’ll grab their stuff and begin their three weeks off. Three well-deserved weeks off. Richo and Paul G on the other hand. They get Xmas day and New Year’s Day off. And that’s it.

Looking like an injury (or soreness) issue.

Addendum: As I was driving off the boys were running around the Tan

Boys changing into the runners now. That’s it from me from preseason training in 2025. Bring on 2026.

You might be right @Dees1313 To be fair I am wearing a pair of sunglasses that has lenses from 2 prescriptions ago.

Steele not participating in the drill and is doing sprints on the boundary.

lol. Riley Bonner is here in 27 too. I was positive that the 27 was McAdam. Trying to confirm whether there is another 27.

10 vs 7 full ground drill. Max participating as are Langdon & Langford wearing the Fluro no-contact hats.

Are you sure. Looks a hell of a lot like McAdam. If Bonner then he has done some very nice things. 😜

Match SIM over.

Mihocek, CJ, Lindsay and Henderson all smashing the bikes in the shed.

Grapplers on the other oval are done. Melky back to running laps.

Salo getting a lot of the footy across half back. Skills superb as always.

End of Third Period BLUE: 7.8.50 WHITE: 7.2.44

Love to see Kozzy and Trelly linking up.

Umpires are killing us.

Kozzy is a ferocious tackler.

Chandler gets a ground ball in the pack and breaks out and tries to take on McAdam and he tackles. Ump calls holding the ball. Later Edit: It was Riley Bonner not McAdam.