Demonland

Speaking of Tracc, this was the King’s Birthday game when his second unravelled. The old adage about good kicking being good football was proved beyond a shadow of doubt as the Demons hit the post five times and lost a goal review while the Pies could not miss from any angle. MELBOURNE 0.4.4 2.6.18 4.11.35 6.15.51 COLLINGWOOD 3.1.19 7.3.45 11.3.69 14.5.89 THE TEAMS COLLINGWOOD B B. Maynard, D. Moore, C. Dean HB I. Quaynor, B. Frampton, J. Noble C S. Sidebottom, F. Macrae, J. Daicos HF B. Hill, L. Schultz, W. Hoskin-Elliott F B. McCreery, P. Lipinski, J. Howe FOLL D. Cameron, J. Crisp, N. Daicos I/C H. Harrison, N. Kreuger, O. Markov, L. Sullivan SUB J. Bytel EMG E. Allan, T. Jiath, A. Johnson IN W. Hoskin-Elliott, N. Kreuger OUT A. Johnson (omitted), W. Parker (omitted) MELBOURNE B J. Bowey, S. May, T. Rivers HB C. Salem, T. McDonald, J. McVee C E. Langdon, C. Oliver, C. Windsor HF K. Pickett, B. Fritsch, H. Petty FF K. Chandler, J. van Rooyen, A. Neal-Bullen FOLL M. Gawn, J. Viney, C. Petracca I/C B. Howes, B. Laurie, T. Sparrow, D. Turner SUB J. Billings EMG B. Brown, K. Brown, T. Woewodin IN J. Billings, B. Howes, B. Laurie, IN J. van Rooyen OUT L. Hunter (calf), S. McAdam (omitted), A. Tomlinson (omitted) T. Woewodin (omitted)

Nothing has been officially revealed but it has been surmised that all of the above factors are involved to some degree or another.

Day 2? It's been 7 days now but feels like ...

Lebanese cucumbers?

More (but not much) in this article now. Petracca provided an update on his injuries which saw the Norm Smith Medallist and brilliant midfielder take an extended break in Noosa this month. He returned to the club last week and has been engaged in talks with club officials about some of his frustrations, the club has confirmed. Key sources are adamant he is interested in a trade, however any deal would be near impossible as Melbourne would demand at least two early-first-round draft picks in return. In the unlikely event of a trade, Collingwood is seen as the frontrunner for Petracca. But the Magpies do not have a pick in the first round of this year’s draft and could be handcuffed. The only way Petracca would be able to explore a move out of Melbourne is if he forcibly demands a trade. It would be the biggest blockbuster move since former West Coast superstar Chris Judd joined Carlton in 2007 Petracca, who met up with Brisbane’s Lachie Neale on Saturday morning for a conversation about mindfulness, was thrilled with Melbourne’s win on the Gold Coast. “Loved watching the boys win and seeing my teammates playing the way they did yesterday!,” Petracca said via text.

Who is Robbie?

In case you haven't seen @WalkingCivilWar training thread here is her exclusive photo of Tracc at training today.

Don't be a Dill. He's Oregano. I'll see myself out.

You'll have to wait for the Tom Morris exclusive.

Presumably the Demons did not return calls line is regarding enquiries about the meeting and the content of what was discussed.

Melbourne superstar Christian Petracca addressed his premiership teammates about his reported issues at the club this morning. Petracca spoke with his teammates late morning at the club to discuss the speculation he was interested in a trade from the Demons. The meeting was to provide clarity and understanding about what he had experienced in the wake of his life-threatening injuries in the King’s Birthday clash against Collingwood. That included the physical and mental impact on him in the wake of suffering a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and lacerated lung. Melbourne has strongly denied it will consider trading him. The Demons did not return calls.

Don't go shy on us now @WalkingCivilWar? Door stop him. 😜

Reports have him linked to a job at the AFL.

Melbourne captain Max Gawn has conceded there would be “fractures” in the Demons playing group after missing out on finals but hosed down renewed reports that superstar teammate Christian Petracca wanted out of the club. Gawn, who has re-signed until the end of 2027, said he was in “open conversations” with Petracca and denied any suggestion the playing group was upset with him spending time in Noosa while he recovered from the car-crash-like injuries in June that forced him to spend two weeks in hospital. But while he said everyone, including himself, was disappointed at how the season played out, mixed messages of player discontent “can circulate around” as they express their frustration. “There’s always fractures in a team which has played finals for four years and now isn’t playing finals,” Gawn said on Monday. “We’re pretty flat on that. At the halfway mark we were top four, that’s pretty flattening. “My mum and dad, if they are talking to friends, would say ‘Max is pretty disappointed at the moment’ and I am. You can see how things can circulate around.” Gawn, however, moved to shut that down and said post-season conversations would all be geared around healing any rifts and putting the club back on course for 2025. “Obviously, the Trac stuff, I’m in open dialogue with Trac, I don’t see the build-up that has happened,” he told Triple M. “He went away for nine, 10 weeks, four of them to Noosa. He had to spend a few weeks at home after the surgery. I’m happy he did that. I’m happy he went away and any player that is struggling with anything that’s going on, it doesn’t have to be two weeks in the ICU that Trac had, it could be a rolled ankle. “Anyone that is struggling, more than happy to grant leave. That will all play out, there will be conversations held over the next two weeks. “I’m pretty focused on Collingwood to be honest. “We play Friday, then Saturday and Sunday will be a write-off, then come Monday, Tuesday, I will start talking to the board, CEO, Goody, all the players about how we make this club better and I think that’s the way to do it.”

Cutting off the questions here. See you tonight at 7:30pm.

The wind and the hot unseasonable temperatures together with lights turned on mid game at People First Stadium conspired to leave many Suns players and supporters red faced and gasping for air as the Demons proved a number of points on their way to a nine goal triumph on Saturday afternoon in the Carrara sunshine. Melbourne is the only non-Queensland team to taste victory at this venue in 2024. This surely leaves a number of journalists and media mavens red faced after they rushed to pass judgement about a club in crisis when it dropped out of finals contention. The win doesn’t answer all the questions they raised but it does question their own knowledge and understanding of the club’s situation. The problem in the main being that while sporting clubs in the public eye always come under scrutiny when they perform below expectations (and deservedly so), the conflation of on and off field issues at the club to a level where it was allegedly suffering a seemingly self-administered and terminal curse was more than somewhat over the top. The fact of the matter is that the display put on by the Demons at People First Stadium on Saturday afternoon was not that of a team one would expect to be hemorrhaging from some alleged rotten culture as painted by the pundits. The Suns were touted as firm favourites to win, particularly after Clayton Oliver was ruled out after undergoing surgery on one of the multiple ailments that affected his performance this year. With superstar Christian Petracca already out half a season with a ruptured spleen, champion ruckman Max Gawn affected by a problem ankle, Jack Viney favouring his shoulder, running machine Alex Neal-Bullen leaving for family reasons and Tom Sparrow injured early in the match, the on-field issues highlighted in the media suggested the Sun’s favouritism was fully justified. Mind you, someone forgot that the team in question had just lost to second placed Port Adelaide by 2 points and by the same margin a fortnight before to third placed GWS to add to previous narrow defeats at the hands of Brisbane away and Carlton. As it turned out, Melbourne’s new midfield problem area being an inability to win at clearances, was illusory. The on ballers won the clearance battle 45 - 36 aided by another Gawn masterclass (how does he do it?) to rattle the home side from the outset and then finish all over them with a brilliant seven goal final-quarter surge in the sun that crushed them mercilessly. And the architect behind the success of a winning performance that the football world thought unlikely because it accepted the premise of the media lynch mob was Jack Viney who some had written off as North Melbourne bound. He shrugged off the early physical blows and beat a handy opponent in Matt Rowell, willed and heroically crashed his way through stoppage after stoppage to provide nine clearances, managing also to kick a couple of nice goals in the swirly conditions. Viney was the guardian angel. Alongside him, Ed Langdon floated tirelessly on a wing notching up 37 possessions to put his team in the van to set up the victory. Under Viney’s wings, Trent Rivers continued his role as an emerging presence in the middle of the ground left vacant by the team’s injured superstars while Judd McVee promisingly began his own apprenticeship in the midfield boiler room. The Demon defence was solid and held together by Tom McDonald, Adam Tomlinson, Marty Hore and Christian Salem but it was the forward line that finally gelled with Daniel Turner (four), Harrison Petty (three) and Jacob van Rooyen (three) all among the goals. Tucked away amid the excitement and interest of an intriguing end to the AFL home and away season, the win might not count as a famous victory in the scheme of things. It might not mean much at all but then again, it might be the portent to a revitalised Melbourne in 2025 and beyond. MELBOURNE 3.2.20 8.5.53 11.5.71 18.9.117 GOLD COAST SUNS 3.2.20 7.5.47 8.6.54 9.9.63 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 4 Petty van Rooyen 3 Melksham Viney 2 Fritsch Langdon McPhee Tholstrup GOLD COAST SUNS Flanders King Witts 2 Davies Holman Weller BEST MELBOURNE Viney Langdon Rivers Turner Howes Salem GOLD COAST SUNS Anderson Flanders Uwland Weller Witts INJURIES MELBOURNE Tom Sparrow (ankle) GOLD COAST SUNS Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GOLD COAST SUNS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jake Melksham (replaced Tom Sparrow in the second quarter) GOLD COAST SUNS David Swallow (replaced Ben Long at three-quarter time) UMPIRES Nicholas Brown Tom Bryce Harrison Birch Cameron Jones CROWD 13,026 at People First Stadium

I don't have a spotify account and the pods just appear on there. I haven't looked into it but will.

It's impossible to tell from the stats you get from Apple Podcasts which doesn't take into account other podcasting apps which don't provide stats at all. The hosting company's stats package used to provide some stats on the amount of times a file (the podcast audio file) had been accessed but that stats package has changed and doesn't provide that stat anymore. The stats also only say that the file has been downloaded or accesses and doesn't provide an accurate reflection on how long someone has listened. For example the podcast app might automatically download the episode because they have subscribed but then it is not listened to. Someone may listen for a minute or the entire episode. As for LIVE listeners it all depends on how we're traveling at the time. Can sometimes have 30 live listeners or over 100 at any one time. Those stats only tell me how many are listening at that particular time. 300 listeners may have come and gone listening to bits and pieces or 30 could have listened the whole time.

It's going to be a massive show tonight so get any last minute questions or comments in. I will be closing the thread at about midday.

I haven’t listened but assume it’s in here.

Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to change it.