Demonland

Melbourne v Gold Coast Suns votes 10 – Clayton Oliver (MELB) 6 – Angus Brayshaw (MELB) 6 – Jesse Hogan (MELB) 4 – James Harmes (MELB) 2 – Christian Salem (MELB) 2 – Alex Sexton (GCFC) Shadforth Financial Group AFLCA Champion Player of the Year: top five 86 – Tom Mitchell (Haw) 80 – Max Gawn (Melb) 78 – Patrick Cripps (Carl) 72 – Clayton Oliver (Melb) 65 – Andrew Gaff (WCE)

This is the injury list for last week. It's interesting because Rohan is listed as 2 weeks yet is a chance to play this week. I wish our injuries healed as quickly. Give us some of that magical Sydney medicine.

Just being a good scout and keeping an eye on the enemy. Staying two moves ahead. Feel free to come back next week to see all the intel I have gathered.

Brayshaw Brothers and Gaff all played golf together last week.

Another great piece of vision from the game. Jesse Hogan's 1st, 2nd and 3rd efforts.

We need to beat Sydney this week to collect a full set of wins against all 18 teams since the competition became an 18 team competition.

Feel free to start a new thread about records we break. I like the idea. This one however stays until all of our past demons are erased. Pun intended.

Your setup seems more professional than mine.

I'd be satisfied with that scoreline.

Clarry is starting to look good for a repeat - 184. Clayton OIiver 165. Max Gawn 109. Jesse Hogan 107. Angus Brayshaw 70. Nathan Jones 67. Tom McDonald 52. Christian Salem 51. Christian Petracca 50. James Harmes 49. Jake Melksham 47. Neville Jetta 39. Bayley Fritsch 38. Jack Viney 32. Jordan Lewis 31. Michael Hibberd 29. Jake Lever Oscar McDonald 18. Jeff Garlett 14. Alex Neal-Bullen 6. Tom Bugg 4. Joel Smith 2. Dean Kent 1. Sam Frost Bernie Vince Josh Wagner

Timely given the Gaff hit on Andrew Brayshaw during yesterday's game in Perth. The last time Melbourne played Sydney, we witnessed the Tom Bugg apply a nasty left hook to Callum Mills' chin which cost him six games' suspension. Mills recovered to play the following week and pick up 22 touches against the Gold Coast Suns. The Sydney game was also the game when Jack Viney's foot injuries first surfaced - we now know that following a further issue with his toe, the co-captain is likely to reappear only if we make the finals. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: Michael Hibberd, Oscar McDonald, Neville Jetta HB: Jordan Lewis, Sam Frost, Jayden Hunt ? James Harmes, Dom Tyson, Bernie Vince HF: Billy Stretch, Cameron Pedersen, Christian Petracca F: Clayton Oliver, Tom McDonald, Alex Neal-Bullen FOLL: Max Gawn, Jake Melksham, Jack Viney I/C: Tomas Bugg , Mitch Hannan, Josh Wagner, Mitch White EMG: Dion Johnstone, Jack Trengove, Sam Weideman IN: Josh Wagner, Mitch White OUT: Jeff Garlett (hamstring), Christian Salem (hamstring) SYDNEY B: Nic Newman, Heath Grundy, Nick Smith HB: Zak Jones, Dane Rampe, Jake Lloyd ? Isaac Heeney, Josh P. Kennedy, Callum Mills HF: George Hewett, Lance Franklin, Kieren Jack F: Gary Rohan, Sam Reid, Tom Papley FOLL: Sam Naismith, Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker I/C: Oliver Florent, Jarrad McVeigh, Lewis Melican, Dean Towers EMG: Jordan Foote, Jeremy Laidler, Callum Sinclair IN: Zak Jones, Jarrad McVeigh OUT: Will Hayward (foot), Callum Sinclair (omitted)

Book a plane ticket to Perth. @Ethan Tremblay you have room on the couch?

Last time we beat Sydney? 2010?

3 Qualifying/Elimination Finals.

Huntly is more likely to replace Joel Smith off the half back and then depending on form he might move to a wing when Hibberd returns.

GOLD COAST SUNBURN by George on the Outer If you go out into the heat without protection, it doesn’t take long to get sunburnt. For the Gold Coast Suns with a whole raft of players missing for one reason or another, it took not more than 15 minutes exposure to Melbourne’s sunshine for the Demons to absolutely and completely burn them! By quarter time, with the margin already 51 points, Melbourne had set another record for season 2018 with the highest first quarter score of any side. It was also the MFC’s 4th highest first quarter ever! It was not that long ago when Demon fans were crossing off long established undesirable records from past years. Now their team is setting new more positive records. The unfortunate thing for the fans was that by the 15 minute mark, with the game result already a foregone conclusion, it was only a matter of by “how much” which sort of took away the crowd noise and excitement, because what they were witnessing was an unadulterated demolition of an opponent. At the end, the margin was 96 points, with Bayley Fritsch having the opportunity to put the result over the 100 point mark after the siren, but the kick went astray. It was not unlike a lot of the shots at goal during the match in the swirling windy conditions. Even the ever reliable Tom McDonald failed to score a major for the match - he managed only three behinds from set shots. In the middle, Max Gawn notched up another 30 hit outs to Jarrod WItts’ 40 but Max provided much more than just the touches as he had 8 contested possessions 2 clearances and 5 inside 50’s. Also the coach gave him long periods on the bench, no doubt to conserve him for the coming weeks. While the big man may not have been as dominant as previous weeks, the now usual pair of Brayshaw and Oliver didn’t let up as they burnt the Suns mids seriously. Oliver 31 touches, 14 contested and 2 goals. Brayshaw 27, 11 and 1 goal. This week they had the “old stager” Nathan Jones returning to some of his best with 24, 10 and 2 goals as well. This from playing mainly off the wing, as Goodwin continues to develop the younger brigade in the middle. James Harmes now has made himself a permanent starter at the bounce to take care of opposition players and he produced a performance close to the others with 25, 10 and 3 goals. The backs had little to do in all honesty as the ball simply didn’t get down the Suns way all that much. Their situation wasn’t helped when Two Metre Peter went down in the opening minutes, which left no tall targets for them and Frost and Oscar had a field day picking off their attacks. Unfortunately, Bernie Vince, in his 100th game for the club was well below standard, and appears to be relying on his wiles to keep in the contest. It failed too often as he played off his man and gave them too much space. The older legs can’t make up the difference any more, and with Melksham and Hibberd to return in coming weeks, he may be the one to make way, even though Joel Smith’s broken collarbone looks to have finished his season. Normally the third quarter is owned by Melbourne, but today it managed a paltry 2 goals 6 while the Suns scored 1.2. For a team so in control of the game, it wasn’t at the standard that finals football demands. The Demons simply cannot give others the opportunity to get back in the game, although that wasn’t a realistic scenario for the Suns. We have seen it happen in past weeks and is why we all suffer from the stress of being Demon fans. The reality is that we still have a number of NQR players who struggle under pressure or consistently turn the ball over without pressure. This will kill the team in finals, but we don’t have anyone else putting their hand up at Casey. Despite a 91 point victory yesterday, the 2 best players were Casey listed, so there remain few options for us in the weeks ahead. Finally the last quarter saw a return to something better as the Demons piled on another five goals to improve their percentage even further, and put themselves in the best possible situation with the remaining three games against teams who are also challenging for finals spots. With Tommy failing to register a major, it was up to Jesse Hogan to get himself back in the Coleman race with four goals. He is still looking sore and struggles to run at times, but on the day had plenty of helpers around him. Now to Sydney next week. This becomes the make or break game for the side. Win this and we see September action, lose it and the task is much, much harder. The Swans are very beatable as evidenced by a seriously understrength Collingwood nearly beating them with a first gamer forced to play on Franklin at times. Without Buddy’s output, the Swans would now be out of the eight and probably staying there. Can we turn on the afterburners again next week, and burn off Sydney as well? Once again it is all in our hands … Melbourne 9.3.57 14.6.90 16.12.108 21.17.143 Gold Coast Suns 1.0.6 4.2.26 5.4.34 7.5.47 Goals Melbourne Hogan 4 Harmes 3 Garlett Jones Neal-Bullen Oliver Petracca Spargo 2 Brayshaw Salem Gold Coast Suns Sexton 5 Holman, Rischitelli Best Melbourne Oliver Brayshaw Hogan Salem Garlett Harmes Gold Coast Suns Sexton Bowes Harbrow Weller Fiorini Injuries Melbourne J Smith (broken collarbone) Gold Coast Suns Wright (knee) Reports Melbourne Nil Gold Coast Suns Nil Umpires Foot, Schmitt, Hay Official crowd 23,072 at the MCG

How many Suns fans were there? A dozen? Two dozen? Honestly there were more seagulls than Suns fans.

If you go out into the heat without protection, it doesn’t take long to get sunburnt. For the Gold Coast Suns with a whole raft of players missing for one reason or another, it took not more than 15 minutes exposure to Melbourne’s sunshine for the Demons to absolutely and completely burn them! By quarter time, with the margin already 51 points, Melbourne had set another record for season 2018 with the highest first quarter score of any side. It was also the MFC’s 4th highest first quarter ever! It was not that long ago when Demon fans were crossing off long established undesirable records from past years. Now their team is setting new more positive records. The unfortunate thing for the fans was that by the 15 minute mark, with the game result already a foregone conclusion, it was only a matter of by “how much” which sort of took away the crowd noise and excitement, because what they were witnessing was an unadulterated demolition of an opponent. At the end, the margin was 96 points, with Bayley Fritsch having the opportunity to put the result over the 100 point mark after the siren, but the kick went astray. It was not unlike a lot of the shots at goal during the match in the swirling windy conditions. Even the ever reliable Tom McDonald failed to score a major for the match - he managed only three behinds from set shots. In the middle, Max Gawn notched up another 30 hit outs to Jarrod WItts’ 40 but Max provided much more than just the touches as he had 8 contested possessions 2 clearances and 5 inside 50’s. Also the coach gave him long periods on the bench, no doubt to conserve him for the coming weeks. While the big man may not have been as dominant as previous weeks, the now usual pair of Brayshaw and Oliver didn’t let up as they burnt the Suns mids seriously. Oliver 31 touches, 14 contested and 2 goals. Brayshaw 27, 11 and 1 goal. This week they had the “old stager” Nathan Jones returning to some of his best with 24, 10 and 2 goals as well. This from playing mainly off the wing, as Goodwin continues to develop the younger brigade in the middle. James Harmes now has made himself a permanent starter at the bounce to take care of opposition players and he produced a performance close to the others with 25, 10 and 3 goals. The backs had little to do in all honesty as the ball simply didn’t get down the Suns way all that much. Their situation wasn’t helped when Two Metre Peter went down in the opening minutes, which left no tall targets for them and Frost and Oscar had a field day picking off their attacks. Unfortunately, Bernie Vince, in his 100th game for the club was well below standard, and appears to be relying on his wiles to keep in the contest. It failed too often as he played off his man and gave them too much space. The older legs can’t make up the difference any more, and with Melksham and Hibberd to return in coming weeks, he may be the one to make way, even though Joel Smith’s broken collarbone looks to have finished his season. Normally the third quarter is owned by Melbourne, but today it managed a paltry 2 goals 6 while the Suns scored 1.2. For a team so in control of the game, it wasn’t at the standard that finals football demands. The Demons simply cannot give others the opportunity to get back in the game, although that wasn’t a realistic scenario for the Suns. We have seen it happen in past weeks and is why we all suffer from the stress of being Demon fans. The reality is that we still have a number of NQR players who struggle under pressure or consistently turn the ball over without pressure. This will kill the team in finals, but we don’t have anyone else putting their hand up at Casey. Despite a 91 point victory yesterday, the 2 best players were Casey listed, so there remain few options for us in the weeks ahead. Finally the last quarter saw a return to something better as the Demons piled on another five goals to improve their percentage even further, and put themselves in the best possible situation with the remaining three games against teams who are also challenging for finals spots. With Tommy failing to register a major, it was up to Jesse Hogan to get himself back in the Coleman race with four goals. He is still looking sore and struggles to run at times, but on the day had plenty of helpers around him. Now to Sydney next week. This becomes the make or break game for the side. Win this and we see September action, lose it and the task is much, much harder. The Swans are very beatable as evidenced by a seriously understrength Collingwood nearly beating them with a first gamer forced to play on Franklin at times. Without Buddy’s output, the Swans would now be out of the eight and probably staying there. Can we turn on the afterburners again next week, and burn off Sydney as well? Once again it is all in our hands … Melbourne 9.3.57 14.6.90 16.12.108 21.17.143 Gold Coast Suns 1.0.6 4.2.26 5.4.34 7.5.47 Goals Melbourne Hogan 4 Harmes 3 Garlett Jones Neal-Bullen Oliver Petracca Spargo 2 Brayshaw Salem Gold Coast Suns Sexton 5 Holman, Rischitelli Best Melbourne Oliver Brayshaw Hogan Salem Garlett Harmes Gold Coast Suns Sexton Bowes Harbrow Weller Fiorini Injuries Melbourne J Smith (broken collarbone) Gold Coast Suns Wright (knee) Reports Melbourne Nil Gold Coast Suns Nil Umpires Foot, Schmitt, Hay Official crowd 23,072 at the MCG

He is a first year player who has exceeded all expectations from when he was drafted in terms of the impact he would have in his first year. He will be a better player in 2019 for the experience in 2018. Agree that he will need to bulk up over the offseason but I have confidence that with another full preseason this will occur. Very happy with Sparticus this year.

Spargo kicked 2 goals. I think JKH is more likely to make way for Melksham.

Was only his second game back from a long injury and Casey had a bye last week. I think his selection ahead of Kent and Bugg was telling from pecking order point of view. With Melksham likely (?) to be back this week selection after a 90+ point win will be very interesting.