Demonland

I can’t be 100% sure if they are training tomorrow but I don’t believe they will be in the morning as they have team photo day until mid to late morning.

I've made a more visually friendly version

The Demonland Podcast returns for Season 2023 Join @binman & I on the Demonland Podcast Monday night 27th February LIVE @ 8:30pm for breakdown of the Match SIM against St. Kilda. If you have any questions or comments leave it below and we'll include it in the show. Please keep it to Match SIM and general preseason training stuff as we'll do a more in depth Season Preview in a few weeks with George. Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Melbourne A healthy, happy Demons side will be a force this season with Brodie Grundy and Lachie Hunter filling important roles in the match sim against St Kilda. Gawn and Grundy look a good combination in the ruck and switching forward while Ben Brown thinks it will be similar to last year with a resting ruckman joining him and Tom McDonald as key forwards. The Demons looked to be kicking more centrally and, at times, more long and direct during the St Kilda match. Another change is Kysaiah Pickett spending some time in midfield along with his pressure forward role, and he could cause havoc against tired midfielders this season.

Both Gus and Vines were dependable as they usually are.

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To be fair I thought there were more people there as well but I thought that perhaps the Saints would know what a certain capacity looks like. Then again who knows if the author was just guessing too.

According to the match report on the Saints website there were around 5000 people there.

If he gets more than a fine then there are some incidents I’ve seen over the past few years that the assailant should have gone to prison.

75/25 Saints to Dees. Maybe 70/30. It was a lot louder when they kicked a goal but that might have been because they didn’t really get to celebrate much so when they scored it was a big deal.

There were a few instances at the wind advantage end (2nd/4th Qs) that the ball was kicked in high to one on one or two or two contests between talls and the ball was brought to ground but there were no smalls swooping in to mop up. I thought this was strange considering I had highlighted this exact drill in my training observations on Wednesday where a ball was kicked in high to a one on one contest and four players came in from different directions to mop up and snap for goal.

Also in regards to our forward line (which still managed 16 goals with a few gettable misses due to the swirling wind in 33 degree heat) we lost TMac to the backline after half time.

Agreed they are a shambles.

The Demons ventured onto Moorabbin’s RSEA Park on Friday afternoon for their match simulation exercise against St Kilda and predictably managed to comprehensively thrash their undermanned opposition over the four serious periods of play by 16.9.105 to 6.10.46. Back in the day when they used to call these preseason affairs “practice matches”, it was commonly accepted that you took no notice of the result and instead hoped that the team made a good fist of things while avoiding injury to players. It was a bonus if you uncovered one or two new recruits who can play a bit. To that end, it was almost mission accomplished, the exception being a scare involving star defender Jake Lever who might have a recurrence of the injury that kept him in rehab for a few weeks when training resumed after Christmas. Otherwise, Melbourne dominated play for most of the game, flexing its midfield muscle with its dominant midfield led by Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney strengthened by the addition of Bulldogs recruit Lachie Hunter who looks like being the yin on the wing to the yang of Ed Langdon. And then there was the irresistible ruck pairing of Collingwood’s two-time All-Australian Brodie Grundy with six-time All-Australian Max Gawn that will no doubt play havoc with the minds of opposition coaches in 2023. The added bonus was young defender Judd McVee from Western Australia who appears to have moved forward in leaps and bounds in the off season and will certainly make a claim for a place in the Demons strong back half this year. Tom McDonald is back after his injury woes of last year and Ben Brown looked fit and keen up forward in what will be a stronger attacking combination once Bayley Fritsch returns to the mix. At first sight, the forward connection that went missing late in the last season seems to be back. McDonald showed his versatility going into defence to cover for Lever after the first main break. Another danger sign is the extra arrow to Kysaiah Pickett’s bow with a move for more minutes in the midfield. He was his usual hard to pin down self in that role and also produced some blistering runs with the ball that left his opponents gasping for air in the thirty plus degree heat inferno and scored a couple of classy goals as well. When the first four periods of match simulation came to an end, the main players made their exit off stage and the fans interested enough to stay at the ground were treated to three more periods of junk time by teams comprised of the remainder of the respective lists and a helping of VFL players. Those periods were won by the Saints who had more of their seasoned players on the ground and ended in farcical circumstances four minutes early with fill ins doing the umpiring because the real ones called it a day after the sixth period. They should have played a separate VFL game altogether if they were really serious about giving their reserves a fair dinkum hit out. MELBOURNE 3.3.21 8.6.54 10.7.67 16.9.105 ST KILDA 2.1.13 2.3.15 5.8.38 6.10.46 Goals Petracca 3 Brown Gawn Pickett 2 Chandler Grundy Hunter Langdon McDonald Neal-Bullen Rivers Best Hunter Petracca Oliver Viney Pickett Rivers Full scores including the extra three periods with the balance of team lists and VFL top ups:- MELBOURNE 3.3.21 8.6.54 10.7.67 16.9.105 17.13.115 19.14.128 20.16.136 ST KILDA 2.1.13 2.3.15 5.8.38 6.10.46 9.12.66 12.14.86 15.17.107 Statistics (from Lampers at bigfooty.com) Jake Bowey 14 kicks 2 handballs 7 marks 1 score assist Angus Brayshaw 13 kicks 3 handballs 9 marks 2 score assists Ben Brown 7 kicks 2 handballs 6 marks 2 goals Kade Chandler 8 kicks 5 handballs 5 marks 1 goal 1 behind 2 score assists Max Gawn 10 kicks 6 handballs 7 marks 15 hit outs 2 goals 1 behind, 1 score assist Brodie Grundy 4 kicks 4 handballs 2 marks 20 hit outs 1 goal James Harmes 3 kicks 3 handballs Lachie Hunter 17 kicks 10 handballs 9 marks 1 goal 3 score assists Ed Langdon 10 kicks 5 handballs 6 marks 1 goal 1 score assist Jake Lever 6 kicks 3 handballs 4 marks Tom McDonald 4 kicks 3 handballs 2 marks 2 hit outs 1 goal 2 behinds Judd McVee 12 kicks 4 handballs 6 marks Steven May 19 kicks 2 handballs 5 marks Alex Neal-Bullen 11 kicks 4 handballs 5 marks 1 goal 1 behind Clayton Oliver 10 kicks 16 handballs 3 marks 2 score assists Christian Petracca 14 kicks 8 handballs 5 marks 3 goals 1 behind 5 score assists Harry Petty 7 kicks 2 handballs 5 marks Kysiaih Pickett 15 kicks 2 handballs 7 marks 2 goals 1 behind Trent Rivers 11 kicks 8 handballs 9 marks 1 goal Charlie Spargo 4 kicks 3 handballs 4 marks 3 score assists Tom Sparrow 6 kicks 4 handballs 3 marks 2 behinds Jacob van Rooyen 1 kick 2 handballs Jack Viney 9 kicks 10 handballs 5 marks 1 score assist

I really think people are being very harsh on Grundy‘s performance. He did drop a couple of marks and this was his first game since Round 6 and it was in 33 degree heat. He did a couple of really nice things and that goal was great.