Demonland

Despite the fact that the initial contact might have been shoulder to shoulder that doesn't factor in the impact then caused Smith to hit his head on the turf which can cause damage and concussion too. The only thing working in Kozzy's favour is that Smith did not receive a concussion and continued playing.

On a balmy Saturday night in March, the Demons of 2023 were unleashed and, in a show of strength, they sent the Bulldogs packing to their kennel to lick their wounds after their resounding 50-point opening round victory. Things looked ominous early for the Demons with Bayley Fritsch, Steven May, Jack Viney and Christian Salem from their best 23 unavailable, compounded by the threat of facing up to a four man tall forward line of Darcy, Lobb, Ugle-Hagan and Naughton. However, in the end the Bulldog threats came to nothing — it was all bark and no bite with some simply appalling coaching moves removing any advantage they may have had. One had to feel for Tim English, who rucked essentially the whole match on his own against two AA quality players in Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy. He certainly was dominant before half time and over the match took six marks and 22 hit-outs. But he was never really rested against the double onslaught and it was not surprising they simply ground him into the turf. With other rucking options in Lobb, Darcy and Bruce it was astounding they were not used except for short cameo roles. When English waned, the ball just stopped coming out of the middle and around the packs, as the Melbourne mids led by Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver started to take advantage of the service from the double G’s. Instead of the Melbourne defenders trying to cover the multiple forays into their zone, the ball just stopped coming in. When the Sherrin stopped heading one way, it turned up multiple times in the Melbourne forward line. Taking full advantage of the offerings Kysaiah Pickett cut the particularly ineffective Bulldogs defence to pieces to amass four goals. And Ben Brown found the space he hadn’t experienced for years and picked up four of his own, while other Melbourne forwards also found a dysfunctional Bulldog defensive system easy to overcome. How many of the Melbourne goals came from players sitting on their own or out the back? Again something not seen for years since most sides employ zone defence to cover those types of options, but amazingly not the Bulldogs. Make no mistake, this goal avalanche wasn’t due to a change in Demon tactics of moving the ball into the forward line. To the fans it looked great as time and time again targets were hit with ease. But it was the complete collapse of the Bulldogs defence that left Tom McDonald, Brown, Kade Chandler and Pickett standing on their own inside the 50m line, dead in front. How could a coach allow this to happen? The same coach who left English to flounder on his own against overwhelming odds. The same coach who sent Mitch Hannan to Judd McVee instead of one of his experienced talls to create a mis-match. The Demon defenders put up a magnificent effort to deny the first half attacks of the Dogs. Jake Lever with nine marks and 13 intercepts was a central figure, while Harry Petty with six marks and seven intercepts backed him up again and again. The Bulldogs sole effective target in Naughton threatened constantly with his marking capability, but let the Demons off the hook with wayward kicking. Not a single Bulldogs forward bothered the goal umpire more than once and it was telling for them that majority of their score came from their mids and wingers. The question remains whether the Demons are that good, or were the Dogs that bad? Melbourne certainly looked far, far fitter than their opposition, and the prospect of the Double G’s doing similar damage in coming weeks is daunting for other coaches. More so when one considers the Demons will be bringing back a couple of their better premiership players in the coming weeks, making them even stronger. With a a day break to the trip to Brisbane who themselves were pulverised by Port in this round, we should get an even better picture of the strength and fitness of the side. After all the Lions made it to Preliminary finals last year, after disposing of the Demons. A bit of payback to come? The fans should be hoping to see more of the Dees that they know come out again after the glimpse seen against the Bulldogs. MELBOURNE 3.3.21 9.4.58 13.8.86 17.13.115 WESTERN BULLDOGS 2.4.16 5.9.39 8.10.58 9.11.65 GOALS MELBOURNE Brown Pickett 4 Gawn Spargo 2 Chandler Grundy Melksham Neal-Bullen Sparrow WESTERN BULLDOGS Baker Bontempelli Johannisen Liberatore Macrae Naughton Treloar Ugle-Hagan Williams BEST MELBOURNE Pickett Brown Gawn Petracca Rivers Lever WESTERN BULLDOGS Liberatore Richards Bontempelli Treloar Macrae INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil WESTERN BULLDOGS L Jones (neck) SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jake Melksham (replaced Bailey Laurie at three-quarter time) WESTERN BULLDOGS Toby McLean (replaced Liam Jones at half-time) REPORTS MELBOURNE K Pickett for rough conduct on Bailey Smith WESTERN BULLDOGS Nil UMPIRES Leigh Fisher Andrew Stephens Andrew Heffernan Jacob Mollison OFFICIAL CROWD 48,103 at The MCG

Yep we always fall on the wrong side of the inconsistency scale

That could just be coach speech. He was confident some would play this week too. Having been to training last week I reckon Viney will play. He didn’t train with the main group but was doing agility work with with a trainer before training without any strapping on the knee and looked to be moving very well. Salem trained with the 2nds. Theoretically he could play but they may bring him back through Casey. Fritsch didn’t train at all and was just having shots on goal. Given Kozzy will be out we need Frisch to fill that scoring void. Given he didn’t train last week I have no idea whether his foot is ready. Perhaps they were just keeping the load off for another week and that’s why he didn’t train. I can’t see May being ready this week based on his slight limp. Given his age I think they may be conservative with him. He was kicking the ball at training off one step and had no strapping on the calf but running at match level pace is a different story. Thomo played well enough not to rush him but there are massive match ups in the next 2 weeks.

I think the optics are the worst thing here. AFL will want to make a statement. If we’re prepared to fight with Carlton level QCs we might get a more lenient sentence but I think the best we can expect is 1-2 weeks.

Here is the Buddy incident. No comparison with Kozzy. Kozzy’s incident looks much worse. I believe Kozzy will be made an example of because the AFL will be under pressure with all the concussion stuff in the news. He would get more if Smith had been concussed and hadn’t bounced back up. Having said that if Buddy has done exactly what Kozzy did he would most certainly get off with a slap on the wrist.

Melbourne was beset by injuries and swimming against the tide in its first semi final match up against Brisbane. The team still fought tooth and nail in the opening half but their hard earned 21 point half time lead evaporated to nothing by the final break. The pattern had been set and the energy simply wasn’t there. The Lions were able to take control of proceedings and they unceremoniously marched the Demons out of the finals in straight sets. MELBOURNE 3.6.24 6.8.44 8.11.59 11.13.79

 BRISBANE LIONS 1.3.9 3.4.23 9.5.59 14.8.92 THE TEAMS
 MELBOURNE B: C.Salem 3 S.May 1 H.Petty 35 HB: A.Brayshaw 10 J.Lever 8 M.Hibberd 14 C: T.Sparrow 32 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15 HF: J.Melksham 18 M.Gawn 11 J.Harmes 4 F: A.Neal-Bullen 30 B.Fritsch 31 C.Spargo 9 Foll: L.Jackson 6 J.Viney 7 C.Petracca 5 I/C: B.Brown 50 J.Hunt 29 K.Pickett 36 T.Rivers 24 Sub: J.Smith 44 Emerg: T.Bedford 12 J.Bowey 17 J.Van Rooyen 21 No change BRISBANE LIONS B: D.Gardiner 27 D.McStay 25 D.Rich 10 HB: B.Starcevich 37 H.Andrews 31 K.Coleman 18 C: Z.Bailey 33 J.Berry 7 C.Ah Chee 4 HF: D.Zorko 15 E.Hipwood 30 L.McCarthy 11 F: J.Payne 40 T.Fullarton 21 3 C.Cameron 23 Foll: D.Fort 32 46 L.Neale 9 H.McCluggage 6 I/C: N.Answerth 43 C.Rayner 16 D.Robertson 2 D.Wilmot 44 Emerg: K.Lohmann 1Emerg: R.Lester 35 K.Lohmann 1 R.Mathieson 36 J.Prior 20 In: N.Answerth D.Fort T.Fullarton C.Rayner Out: J.Daniher (personal reasons) O.McInerney (ill) R.Mathieson (omitted) J. Prior (omitted) M.Robinson (omitted)

The comments section from Bulldogs fans in this tweet is pretty entertaining.

Definitely need another premiership (or 2) and perhaps a Brownlow to start being in the conversation by the wider footy community. This includes being compared with Brisbane 3peat and Hawthorn 3peat teams. Even if individually they stack up without the silverware the wider footy community won’t even begin to include them.

Can’t see Kozzy getting off this one.

The Demons head to Brisbane for the their Round 02 clash against the Lions. The Demons will be looking to make amends for their loss to the Lions in last years Semi Final. Who comes in and who goes out?

The Demons took the first step on their road to redemption by thrashing the Western Bulldogs in their opening match for the season to the tune of 50 points at the MCG.

Demonlanders cast your votes for the Demonland Player of the Year. Clayton Oliver is aiming to defend his title by taking home his fifth Demonland Trophy in 2023. Cast your votes please 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Kozzy will probably get a few weeks for that late hit.

This was paid a mark. 🤦‍♂️

21 to 4 Brisbanes way. The locals must be going loco.

I even have a cupboard for all the scarves and other wearable Dees paraphernalia and it was somewhere else.