Demonland

Christian Petracca crossed the 200 point threshold at the weekend and he’s 57 points in front of second placed Jack Viney and 88 ahead of Clayton Oliver in third. If we were talking about mere mortals then I would rule out a meteoric climb to first place by Clarrie (especially given that, barring us placing off in a drawn grand final, there are a maximum of six games and 108 points available). But in his case, you never know. 215. Christian Petracca 158. Jack Viney 127. Clayton Oliver 89. Max Gawn 75. Angus Brayshaw 65. Steven May 54. Kysaiah Pickett 51. Lachie Hunter Trent Rivers 49. Jake Lever 43. Christian Salem 40. Brodie Grundy 27. Jake Bowey Ed Langdon 25. Tom Sparrow 23. Judd McVee 19. Bayley Fritsch 18. Kade Chandler Alex Neal-Bullen 16. Harry Petty 13. Jacob van Rooyen 10. Jake Melksham 9. Ben Brown 8. Charlie Spargo 5. Tom McDonald 4. Michael Hibberd 3. James Jordon Adam Tomlinson

When the Demons were down by 33 points early in their game against the lowly Kangaroos, they had to find some true “devil” to keep their charge for a top two spot on track and that is exactly what they did at Blundstone Arena on Sunday. North Melbourne managed five goals in that opening quarter, but they could only manage a further five for the remainder of the match. By way of contrast, after scoring a paltry single goal in the first, the Melbourne piled on 14 to finally run out 32 point winners and continue the 2023 tale of the Demons. Sadly, after finally finding another forward target in Harrison Petty, an ankle/foot injury looks to have put him out of action for the coming weeks. This came after another strong performance from him with two goals from only barely half a game. Fortunately, his fellow forwards filled the gap with Jacob van Rooyen also contributing two among his ten score involvements and Alex Neal-Bullen with three majors. The tale of the afternoon however, lay with the spectacular Kysaiah Pickett who manufactured three unbelievable six pointers, and Kade Chandler with his straight shooting boots on again, at critical junctures in the game also with another three. The Demons were off to a poor start, and the backline seemed in all sorts of trouble, while the lack of pressure around the ball was really telling with the lack of scoreboard results before they found their devil in the second term. It was then that they began to apply the much-needed pressure that eventually caused the young Kangaroos to wilt. Angus Brayshaw, who finished with 37 touches and 13 contested possessions led the way while Lachie Hunter had an amazing 33 touches with 15 contested playing on the wing. In the much vaunted ruck contest between Max Gawn and Todd Goldstein, it was Max who probably won the day by a small margin, with his 15 hitouts to advantage from 30 in total, although Goldy managed 11 score involvements from the meagre 21 his side had in total. The backs finally got their act together, even after the loss of Petty forced Joel Smith to move forward and Michael Hibberd to bolster the defence. The backline just looks to be more of a team when Hibberd is skirting the flanks, and even though he only had six touches, it was only one less than Smith had for the whole game. But his strong physical presence allowed May and Lever who were out of sorts in that first half, to perform their usual roles. The 2023 tale of the Demons is one that shows more Devil, significantly while other teams around them in that top four bracket continue to fail unexpectedly. A top four spot is now all but assured but the carrot of a top two placing and a home final is also well and truly within reach. There is nothing more that the Demons can keep doing than winning. If others fail to take their chances then they will accept that very willingly, especially since finals football is only weeks away. Losing Petty isn’t helpful but the guaranteed return next week of Clayton Oliver (Simon Goodwin said so in his post match conference) and the likely return of Bayley Fritsch in the weeks to come, will strengthen the team considerably. At the tail end of the season, this tale is turning out to be a tale of a single minded approach to the season, with the premiership target being that sole focus. MELBOURNE 1.3.9 8.4.52 14.7.91 15.13.103 NORTH MELBOURNE 5.5.35 8.8.56 9.9.63 10.11.71 GOALS MELBOURNE Chandler Neal-Bullen Pickett 3 Petracca Petty van Rooyen 2 NORTH MELBOURNE Ford 3 Goldstein 2 Curtis Larkey Scott Simpkin Taylor BEST MELBOURNE Pickett Petracca Brayshaw Hunter Neal-Bullen Viney NORTH MELBOURNE Ziebell Ford Simpkin Davies-Uniacke Scott McDonald INJURIES MELBOURNE Harrison Petty (ankle) NORTH MELBOURNE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil NORTH MELBOURNE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Michael Hibberd (replaced Harrison Petty in the third quarter) NORTH MELBOURNE Charlie Lazzarro (replaced Robert Hansen jnr in the third quarter) UMPIRES Leigh Fisher Alex Whetton Cameron Jones Nicholas McGinness CROWD 8,034 (mostly Melbourne supporters) at Blundstone Arena

Sydney and Melbourne both believe that their game will either be Saturday afternoon or evening.

It was a dull, colourless and boring affair when they met a couple of months ago but it promises to be anything but that this time around. MELBOURNE 3.3.21 5.6.36 7.11.53 8.13.61 CARLTON 1.2.8 2.5.17 5.6.36 6.8.44 THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B A. Tomlinson S. May J. McVee HB J. Bowey J. Lever C. Salem C T. Sparrow J. Viney E. Langdon HF K. Chandler Fritsch Pickett F C. Spargo Grundy Neal-Bullen FOLL M. Gawn C. Petracca L. Hunter I/C A. Brayshaw T. Rivers J. Smith J. van Rooyen SUB J. Harmes EMG B. Brown D. Turner T. Woewodin IN L. Hunter J. Smith A. Tomlinson OUT M. Hibberd (managed) J. Jordon (omitted) T. McDonald (ankle) CARLTON B A. Cincotta J. Weitering B. Kemp HB L. Young M. McGovern A. Saad C S. Walsh P. Cripps B. Acres HF J. Motlop C. Curnow J. Silvagni F Z. Fisher H. McKay M. Owies FOLL T. De Koning A. Cerra M. Kennedy I/C J. Boyd M. Cottrell S. Docherty L. O'Brien SUB P. Dow EMG E. Curnow L. Fogarty L. Plowman IN A. Cincotta P. Dow Z. Fisher L. O'Brien J. Silvagni L. Young OUT C. Durdin (knee) E. Curnow (omitted) G. Hewett (concussion) O. Hollands (collarbone) N. Newman ((hamstring) M. Pittonet (hand)

2nd spot slipping away 😢

Jackson you muppet

At the end of the day you reckon you have to go with the here and now. Prefer a premiership now than a pick that may or may not come good.

Thank you ARC

Lions on top this quarter.

Freo just bombing it in to Andrews.

Loving the work of the biased Western Australian umpires.

Walter’s hungry then. Could have passed to a certain goal.

If St. Kilda make the finals they have stolen a place in the 8

Will be a massive crowd next week.

This is the first time this season I will be cheering Jackson for a goal.

And back in 2nd

Dropped into 3rd

Strange barracking for the Dockers after a season of Death Riding. Feel like I needed to be deprogrammed first.

In: Clarry Out: Harmes Who comes in for Petty?

For the moment.

The Demons return to the MCG in Round 22 as they take on the rampaging Carlton Blues who have won 7 on trot and would love to take another Top 4 scalp on their way back into AFL finals. Who comes in and who goes out?

The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 7th August @ 8:30pm. Join Binman, George & I as we analyse the Demons victory/loss at the MCG over/against the Tigers. You 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 & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Christian Petracca is the runaway leader of the Demonland Player of the Year and has a 45 vote lead over Jack Viney as the injured Clayton Oliver and Max Gawn sit in 3rd and 4th place respectively. Your votes for the win/loss over/to the Tigers. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.