Demonland

Round 9 kicks off out west with the Dockers hosting a Collingwood side resting several stars. Fremantle need to make a statement on their home deck after some disappointing form on the road, while the Magpies will be keen to maintain their Top 2 position. Friday night sees a must-win clash between two sides desperate to stay in touch with the eight. St Kilda have shown glimpses while Carlton are clinging to relevance after a flat start to the season. Saturday’s twilight game at Marvel pits the Bombers against a struggling Sydney outfit. Essendon can’t afford another close match against a lower-ranked side, while the Swans risk sliding down the ladder even further. Up in Darwin, the fourth-placed Suns will look to extend their stay in the top four. The Bulldogs have hit their stride with three big wins on the trot and will be very keen to consolidate on their momentum. The always fiery Showdown looms as pivotal for both clubs. Adelaide are eyeing a spot in the Top 4 with a win, while Port Adelaide’s season could slip away if they drop another game and fall further behind the pack. Sunday begins with a yawn fest between Richmond and West Coast. The Tigers need to bank the points to stay clear of the bottom two, while the Eagles are still chasing their first win of the year. The Giants face one of the league’s toughest road trips as they travel to GMHBA Stadium to face the Cats. With GWS at risk of a third straight loss, Geelong will be eager to consolidate their position inside the eight and start their climb up the ladder. The round wraps up with the top-of-the-table Lions heading to Ninja Stadium to take on the second-last Roos. The Lions should easily take care of the struggling Roos who might be powerless against the best in the comp. Who are you tipping and what are the best results for the Demons?

Melbourne and Hawthorn who face off against each other this week have more in common than having once almost merged and about to wear a blue jumper with a red v triangle and an embroidered picture of a bird on the front. They also share the MCG as their main home ground, their supporters are associated with the leafy suburbs of Melbourne and in recent times, James Frawley graced the colours of both teams. Even more recently, both have bounced back from disastrous five game losing streaks to start off a season. Of course, the Hawks turned their bounce into a successful leap from the bottom of the ladder into a finals appearance, making it to the semifinals in 2024 and this year, they’re riding high in third place on the AFL table. The Demons are just three games into their 2025 bounce back, and are yet to climb their way out of the bottom four although they are sitting a game and percentage out of the top eight. However, with the current sportsbet odds of $3.90 to win this week’s encounter, it seems a forlorn hope that their upward progression will continue much longer. The Hawks destroyed the Tigers last week and the way they went about it was clean, efficient and clinical. They were direct, their disposal efficiency was high and, after quarter time, their kicking for goal was accurate. The question about them is that despite sitting in third place, who have they beaten so far this season? Only one team in the top eight which is GWS who are barely in that space and who provided soft opposition at a safe venue, the University of Tasmania Stadium. Leaving aside that you can only deal with whatever challenges you have to face, the question remains open as to how would they react to the application of heavy pressure such as that applied to them in their losses to Port Adelaide and Geelong? There’s no doubt that this is one of the questions exercising Simon Goodwin’s mind at the moment. He would also be concerned that despite their improved form of late, his Demons have yet to prove themselves against heavy pressure throughout a game of football and that their once highly vaunted defence has been exposed this year on more than one occasion when opposition teams have attacked them head on. Unfortunately, as long as Jake Lever remains a missing piece in this defence, Melbourne will continue to struggle, notwithstanding the strong form of Steven May, Tom McDonald, Trent Rivers (when he’s down back), the improvement of Jake Bowey and the return of Judd McVee. Caleb Windsor and Xavier Lindsay are also adding pace and precision ball movement when they are called upon to play in defence. Max Gawn, Melbourne’s man marvel in the ruck, its valiant skipper and now ball-magnet will be under pressure to repeat the heroics of the past few weeks, especially as he is up against a more formidable opponent than those he has faced recently. His name might be unfortunate but Lloyd Meek is anything but meek and he’s waiting for the challenge. The Demons’ on ball division also has the challenge of improving against a better opposition. They must be able to better follow up and improve on converting any advantage from initial clearance wins. If they do that, then they might be able to apply the pressure and expose weaknesses that Port Adelaide was able to do when they caused that big upset in Round 5. I would like to think that Melbourne can continue to bounce back as it has done in recent weeks but the oddsmakers suggest otherwise and the doubts in my mind created by the team’s poor start to this season remain. I’m therefore tipping Hawthorn to win but it won’t be emphatic. My crystal ball says they will salute by 15 points. THE GAME Melbourne v Hawthorn at the MCG Saturday 10 May 2025 at 1.20pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 83 wins Hawthorn 87 wins 1 draw At the MCG Melbourne 43 wins Hawthorn 46 wins 1 draw Last 5 meetings Melbourne 4 wins Hawthorn 0 wins 1 draw The Coaches Goodwin 3 wins Mitchell 0 wins THE LAST TIME THEY MET Melbourne 14.9.93 defeated Hawthorn 5.8.38 in Round 2, 2024 at The MCG It was March 23 and the Demons were up and about while the Hawks played without any purpose or direction. Max Gawn and Christian Petracca starred, Bayley Fritsch booted five goals and, but for injuries to key defenders Jake Lever and Steven May, it would have been a perfect day for the club THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B J. Bowey, S. May, J. McVee HB C. Salem, T. McDonald, T. Rivers C X. Lindsay, C. Petracca, E. Langdon HF K. Chandler, B. Fritsch, T. Sparrow F C. Spargo, J. van Rooyen, K. Pickett FOLL M. Gawn, C. Oliver, H. Langford I/C M. Jefferson, H. Sharp, D. Turner, C. Windsor SUB K. Tholstrup EMG B. Howes, A. Johnson, B. Laurie IN M. Jefferson, C. Oliver, J. van Rooyen OUT J.Melksham (managed), H.Petty (concussion), J. Viney (concussion) HAWTHORN B C. Jiath, J. Weddle, J. Sicily HB J. Battle, J. Impey, M. D'Ambrosio C K. Amon, J. Ward, H. Morrison HF B. Hardwick, N. Watson, D. Moore F J. Gunston, M. Chol, C. Macdonald FOLL L. Meek, J. Newcombe, H. Hustwaite I/C L. Breust, J. Ginnivan, F. Maginness, J. Worpel SUB B. Macdonald EMG S. Frost, N. Reeves, J. Serong IN K.Amon OUT T. Barrass (managed) NUMBERS by Stan the Stats Man Melbourne was travelling well injury-wise at the end of 2024 but a series of injuries through the months after the Christmas break caused some havoc with the team’s list with two new players coming in via the Preseason Supplemental Draft and the disruption continued into the opening rounds. The player the team has missed the most is Jake Lever who is still a few weeks away. More lately, the situation has stabilized. ADAMS, Jed CDFC 5 games, 0 goals. Developing nicely at Casey and closing in on an AFL debut. BILLINGS, Jack MFC 1 game, 0 goals, CDFC 4 games, 1 goal. Failed to impress at his only outing. BOWEY, Jake MFC 8 games, 2 goals. Has recovered well from last year’s injury woes and has been one of the team’s best this year. BROWN, Kynan CDFC 5 games, 1 goal. Knocking on the door to promotion. CAMPBELL, Tom CDFC 4 games, 2 goals. Will be a handy back up when Max is finally given a rest. CHANDLER, Kade MFC 8 games, 9 goals. Continues to improve and has been important in the small forward role. CULLEY, Jai CDFC 3 games, 0 goals. Biding his time at Casey where he has impressed. FRITSCH, Bayley MFC 7 games, 7 goals, CDFC 1 game, 1 goal. Playing well below his best. FULLARTON, Tom MFC 2 games, 0 goals, CDFC 3 games, 10 goals. Just went in his two games at AFL level. GAWN, Max MFC 8 games, 1 goal. Superlative as a leader and in the ruck. HENDERSON, Jack MFC 5 games, 2 goals, CDFC 1 game, 2 goals. Had his moments after a long wait at Werribee VFL. HORE, Marty CDFC 1 game, 0 goals. Struggling with a calf injury. HOWES, Blake 4 games, 0 goals, CDFC 2 games, 0 goals. Had some good moments at senior level but now back at Casey. JEFFERSON, Matthew MFC 2 games, 2 goals, CDFC 2 games, 1 goal. Made a great start but restricted by injury and has been quiet at Casey since his return. JOHNSON, Aidan MFC 2 games, 1 goal, CDFC 3 games, 6 goals. A mature aged hard nut with a VFL background at Werribee – has shown some good signs. KENTFIELD, Luker CDFC 2 games, 0 goals. Back after a prolonged illness. Has had some good moments in defence at Casey. LANGDON, Ed MFC 8 games, 5 goals. Masterful on a wing with some midfield moments. LANGFORD, Harvey MFC 7 games, 4 goals, CDFC 1 game, 1 goal. An emerging big bodied rising midfielder. LAURIE, Bailey CDFC 5 games, 5 goals. Remains on the periphery in the VFL. LEVER, Jake MFC 2 games, 0 goals. Injury has plagued his season to date. Sorely missed in defence. LINDSAY, Xavier MFC 7 games, 0 goals. Has made a good debut as a polished wingman/half back with silky skills. McADAM, Shane — long term injury (Achilles) McDONALD, Tom MFC 7 games, 0 goals. An invaluable rock in defence. McVEE, Judd MFC 2 games, 0 goals, CDFC 1 game, 0 goals. Just coming back from injury. MAY, Steven MFC 6 games, 0 goals. Still the solid, dependable defender. MELKSHAM, Jake MFC 5 games, 2 goals. Classy in attack. MENTHA, Ricky CDFC 5 games, 0 goals. Learning the trade as a small man with some smooth skills and pace. MONIZ-WAKEFIELD, Andy — long term injury OLIVER, Clayton MFC 7 games, 1 goal. Coming back from a year and a half of injury and personal issues. Still working with the club on his wellness but has shown in patches that he still has it. PETRACCA, Christian MFC 8 games, 10 goals. A great comeback after last year’s horror injury and off field issues. PETTY, Harrison MFC 8 games, 7 goals. Served the club well at both ends of the ground until he was subbed off with concussion last week. PICKETT, Kysaiah MFC 5 games, 9 goals. Exciting player with more midfield moments after coming back from his 3 week suspension at the start of the season. RIVERS, Trent MFC 8 games, 1 goal. Continues to impress whether in defence or on the ball. SALEM, Christian MFC 8 games, 0 goals. Strong in defence. SESTAN, Ollie CDFC 4 games, 1 goal. Another young player on the cusp of senior promotion. SHARP, Harry MFC 8 games, 5 goals. Impressed with his pace around the ground and good around goal. SPARGO, Charlie MFC 6 games, 1 goal. Working back into the game after last year’s bad run with injury. SPARROW, Tom MFC 8 games, 3 goals. Adapting to a new role this year and has shown glimpses of settling down at half forward. THOLSTRUP, Koltyn MFC 3 games, 1 goal. Coming back well from injury and showing promise. TURNER, Daniel MFC 4 games, 5 goals, CDFC 1 game, 5 goals. Has been impressive at both ends of the ground. VAN ROOYEN, Jacob MFC 5 games, 4 goals, CDFC 2 games, 6 goals. Was disappointing as a key forward under pressure and suffered his first slump in form. Good last up at Casey. VERRALL, Will CDFC 5 games, 2 goals. Showing some great signs of improvement as a backup ruckman. VINEY, Jack MFC 8 games, 2 goals. Hardheaded on ball bull who has played a role in quelling some of the opposition’s best in recent games. WINDSOR, Caleb MFC 6 games, 2 goals. Hard and fast – another rising star at the club. WOEWOEDIN, Taj MFC 1 game, 0 goals, CDFC 4 games, 0 goals. Not quite there at this stage. Injury List: Round 9 Clayton Oliver — personal / Test Ricky Mentha — concussion / 1 - 2 weeks Harrison Petty — concussion / 1 - 2 weeks Jake Lever — ankle / 2 - 3 weeks Marty Hore — calf / 3 - 4 weeks Shane McAdam — Achilles / next season Andy Moniz-Wakefield — knee / next season

test

test

We're LIVE. Sorry forgot to put the Podcast Stream up for the start of the show.

On Wednesday I'll be interviewing the Melbourne Football Club's first pick in the 2024 National Draft and pick number 6 overall Harvey Langford. If you have any questions you want asked let me know. I will release the interview on Wednesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, no. Based on past experience, whenever we’ve tried to set clear rules or guidelines for certain types of sensitive discussions or content that could have legal reprocussions, a significant number of posters either ignore or struggle to follow them. This puts an unreasonable burden on the moderation team, who are then forced to wade through posts, dissect comments line by line, and make difficult judgment calls about what can stay and what needs to be removed. It becomes a time-consuming and often contentious process. As a result, it’s far simpler and more effective to disallow the topic entirely rather than attempt to selectively moderate individual posts.

There is absolutely to be no discussion about matters that are before the courts on this website.

Going to cut off the questions here. See you tonight at 8pm.

test

On a night of counting, Melbourne captain Max Gawn made sure that his contribution counted. He was at his best and superb in the the ruck from the very start of the election night game against the West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium, but after watching his dominance of the first quarter and a half of the clash evaporate into nothing as the Eagles booted four goals in the last ten minutes of the opening half, he turned the game on its head, with a ruckman’s masterclass in the second half. No superlatives would be sufficient to describe the enormity of the skipper’s performance starting with his 47 hit outs, a career-high 35 possessions (22 of them contested), nine clearances, 12 score involvements and, after messing up an attempt or two, finally capping off one of the greatest rucking performances of all time, with a goal of own in the final quarter not long after he delivered a right angled pass into the arms of Daniel Turner who also goaled from a pocket (will we ever know if the pass is what was intended). That was enough to overturn a 12 point deficit after the Eagles scored the first goal of the second half into a 29 point lead at the last break and a winning final quarter (at last) for the Demons who decided not to rest their champion ruckman at the end this time around. One would expect that the almost identical twin dominance in hit outs (49-27) and clearances (49-26) might have resulted in a 15 goal wipeout of the opposition such as the one witnessed earlier in the day at Mars Stadium when the Bulldogs gave the Power a spanking. But not so with the Demons in this match. Up forward (and particularly early in the game), they continued to struggle with converting opportunities into goals and down back, they permitted the opposition to get loose far too often. The resultant 32 point win, while welcomed, will hardly pass muster against much tougher opponents in the coming weeks and will no doubt give Simon Goodwin cause to have some sleepless nights. I checked and discovered that Jake Lever isn’t due to return for a month so the issues in defence will likely remain in place for the short term. With Harry Petty out for at least a week under concussion protocols, even the likely return of a rejuvenated Jacob van Rooyen will not be enough to solve the conversion issues in front of the goals. Max will have to battle on and the midfield will continue to rely on Christian Petracca who was firing on all cylinders for 29 disposals and eight clearances and the new “supertagger” in Jack Viney who turned in his usual strong effort in the packs. Also at the feet of the midfield maestro of the ruck in the absence this week of Clayton Oliver were Kozzie Pickett who was a real livewire when in the guts and emerging young guns Harvey Langford (25 and five clearances), Caleb Windsor (20 and five inside 50s) and, to a lesser extent, the very enthusiastic Xavier Lindsay and Koltyn Tholstrup. Although fumbly at times, you get the feeling that sooner or later, he is going to have a break out game in a big way. No pressure there. Speaking of which, Kade Chandler is actually finally reaching that point. He is rapidly approaching the point where he is a real threat to opposing defences while the versatile Daniel Turner proved his value with his three second half goals. At the other end of the ground Trent Rivers produced some real important efforts although he had a few shaky moments with his decision-making. But in the end, everything paled into insignificance in the shadows of the big man who, after the season’s disappointing start, stood up once again to be counted on the big night of counting. MELBOURNE 2.2.14 3.7.25 10.12.72 16.12.108 WEST COAST EAGLES 0.5.5 4.7.41 6.7.43 11.10.76 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 3 Fritsch Langdon 2 Chandler Gawn Melksham Petracca Pickett Sharp Spargo Viney Windsor WEST COAST EAGLES Hewett Waterman 3 Cripps 2 Brockman Hunt Williams BEST MELBOURNE Gawn Petracca Langford Turner Chandler Viney WEST COAST EAGLES Waterman Ginbey Hewett Allan Maric Baker INJURIES MELBOURNE Harrison Petty (concussion) WEST COAST EAGLES Reuben Ginbey (nose) Jeremy McGovern (concussion) Archer Reid (lower leg) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil WEST COAST EAGLES Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Harry Sharp replaced Harrison Petty in the third quarter WEST COAST EAGLES Tom Cole replaced Jeremy McGovern at half-time UMPIRES Nick Jankovskis Nathan Williamson Eleni Tee Andrew Adair CROWD 41,991 at Optus Stadium

In Round One of last year, the Hawks were the easybeats and the Demons took them to the cleaners. MELBOURNE 5.3.33 6.5.41 10.7.67 14.9.93 HAWTHORN 0.1.1 2.3.15 4.6.30 5.8.38 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 5 Pickett 3 Chandler 2 Billings Petracca van Rooyen Sparrow HAWTHORN Breust Lewis McDonald Weddle Watson BEST MELBOURNE Petracca Fritsch Neal-Bullen Salem Gawn Pickett HAWTHORN Sicily Weddle Amon Scrimshaw, Worpel THE TEAMS HAWTHORN B J. Weddle, S. Frost, J. Sicily HB J. Impey, J. Scrimshaw, M. D'Ambrosio C K. Amon, D. Moore, C. Macdonald HF J. Ginnivan, M. Lewis, C. Nash F L. Breust, M. Chol, Nick Watson FOLL N. Reeves, J. Newcombe, J. Worpel I/C B. Hardwick, C. Mackenzie, F. Maginness, J. Ward SUB J. Gunston EMG H. Hustwaite, H. Morrison M. Ramsden No change MELBOURNE B J. McVee, S. May, B. Howes HB T. Rivers, J. Lever, C. Salem C E. Langdon, C. Petracca, A. Neal-Bullen HF T. Sparrow, B. Brown, K. Pickett F B. Fritsch, J. Van Rooyen, K. Chandler FOLL M. Gawn, J. Viney, J. Billings I/C T. McDonald, C. Oliver, H. Petty, C. Windsor SUB M. Hore EMG T. Fullarton, B. Laurie, T. Woewodin IN H. Petty OUT T. Woewodin (omitted)

Because people start arguing politics and it causes unnecessary fights that mods have to clean up.

Next political comment gets permanent ban from this website.

The Demons return to the MCG to take on the High Flying Hawks on Saturday Afternoon. Hawthorn will be aiming to consolidate a position in the Top 4 whilst the Dees will be looking to take a scalp and make it four wins in a row. Who comes in and who goes out?

The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 5th May @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we analyse the Demons 3rd win row for the season against the Eagles. Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show. If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human. Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/ Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Following a disastrous 0–5 start to the season, the Demons have now made it three wins in a row, cruising past a lacklustre West Coast side on their own turf. Skipper Max Gawn was once again at his dominant best, delivering another ruck masterclass to lead the way.

Max Gawn leads the Demonland Player of the Year from Jake Bowey in 2nd place. Christian Petracca, Ed Langdon and Clayton Oliver round out the Top 5. Your votes for the win over the West Coast Eagles in Perth. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1.

😜

Someone run past Max. Have to practice this.