Demonland

I’d love to get a chopping the arms free kicks for our forwards. Every other game I watch it happens.

There were a couple of calls last night from the furthest away umpire that was actually the incorrect decision.

Gold Coast have got the rub of the Green this quarter. Adelaide fans at home can’t understand why their opposition are getting free kicks.

Ump didn’t even call him back.

That’s a shocking 50m penalty against the Crows but I’ll take it.

Bulldogs experiencing the Darwin effect

Hewett concussion confirmed. Not going to help DeGoey’s case.

190 could fall today

Eagles are the unluckiest team going around.

And Trac grabs the lead - 143. Christian Petracca 127. Clayton Oliver 53. Max Gawn 50. Jack Viney 40. Angus Brayshaw Brodie Grundy 39. Jake Lever 33. Trent Rivers 30. Steven May 23. Lachie Hunter 19. Jake Bowey 18. Ed Langdon Kysaiah Pickett 15. Judd McVee Tom Sparrow 14. Bayley Fritsch 12. Christian Salem 11. Kade Chandler 9. Ben Brown 8. Charlie Spargo 6. Jacob van Rooyen 5. Tom McDonald Alex Neal-Bullen 3. Michael Hibberd James Jordon 1. Harry Petty

Surely can’t escape a ban.

DeGoey in a bit of trouble?

Long time supporters would be all too familiar with the call “free kick, Hawthorn”, as umpires seemed to gift certain teams an inordinate amount of free kicks in the game. Similarly, in the Melbourne v Carlton game a 22 to 13 free kick count, was grossly out of place given the dominance of Melbourne in just about every other statistic for the game. However, for the Blues with only 4½ wins from their 12 games, their season is rapidly heading the same way as Hawthorn, despite all the help they receive from umpires and tribunals. But enough of umpires who seem to be having an even worse season, despite there being four of them officiating now (Memo to Gill or Dill: The AFL is a billion dollar enterprise with the available umpiring talent spread too thinly, given their semi-amateur status - surely something can be done?). The win by Melbourne could only be described as “uninspiring”. For the second week in a row, the kicking for goal from set shots was simply appalling, and were it not from some boundary line efforts from Max and Jacob van Rooyen, the picture would have been even worse with the Demons putting through 13 minor scores. Once again, the game should have been put away as early as the first quarter, but the door was left open to Carlton, and of course they took the advantage to keep themselves in the game. The two goal lead at the first break only managed to increase to 3 or thereabouts for the rest of the match, with the final margin an uninspiring 17 points. With the lack of acceptable output up forward, the task was left to the defenders who only allowed Carlton 39 forward entries during the game. This contrasted with the 59 for the Demons, but that only showed up the poor return for all that effort upfield. Steven May dominated Charlie Curnow, holding the Coleman medal leader to a single goal. Adam Tomlinson was given the job on Harry McKay, who finished with three majors but this meant both May and Jake Lever were able to play their natural games with the latter taking 12 intercepts. The return of the three tall structure then saw flow on effects to others, with Jake Bowey amassing 8 intercepts, while Christian Salem and Trent Rivers picked up 20 and 24 touches respectively. The defence was back to its humming self, even despite the absence of Hibberd and Petty. The other absence in the game was Clayton Oliver, and his presence probably would have seen a more inspiring scoreline and game to watch. He was covered successfully by Christian Petracca, Jack Viney and others. Petracca with 32 touches including 17 contested possessions was the real standout in the middle while Viney’s grunt at critical times of the game was sorely needed. The return of Lachie Hunter to the wing filled the gap that enable delivery upfield, so sadly missed last week. While Bayley Fritsch couldn’t find his set shot kicking boots again, at least van Rooyen took another step forward in his development with his aerial power and bullocking to create those one on one chances. And in only his second season, don’t forget he was matched against Weitering, who is one of the best backs in the business today. Max and Brodie Grundy won the ruck battle together against De Koning, but they were aided by the loss of Silvagni in the second half, which corresponded to their increased marking around the ground. They are still a work in progress and once again were aided by the lack of entries into the 50m area for Carlton, which has been an achilles heel for the Demons in goals from stoppages. The four points was banked by the Demons, who now face the perennial enemy in Collingwood on Kings Birthday. There is no doubt a vocal, rabid and one-eyed crowd of Pies supporters will seek to influence the outcome of umpiring decisions, but like this game against the Blues, it is something which the Demons have shown they can overcome. They will need to do so, because the crowd size will be nearly double what it was this week. And the best way to silence them is to kick straight when the opportunity presents itself. 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 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 2 Gawn Neal-Bullen Petracca Pickett Spargo van Rooyen CARLTON McKay 3 Acres Curnow Fisher BEST MELBOURNE Petracca Viney Langdon Lever van Rooyen Rivers CARLTON Cripps Cerra Docherty McKay Weitering Kemp INJURIES MELBOURNE Jake Bowey (concussion) CARLTON Jack Silvagni (hip) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE James Harmes (replaced Jake Bowey in the third quarter) CARLTON Paddy Dow (replaced Jack Silvagni at half-time) UMPIRES Chris Donlon Robert O'Gorman Andrew Stephens Robert Findlay CROWD 49,872 at the MCG

The Demons were well on top in the first half of the Round 21 clash with the Magpies but simply couldn’t put them away because of their opponents’ deadly accuracy in front of goal. This continued into the second half when the Pies finally edged in front. MELBOURNE 6.2.38 10.7.67 11.11.77 13.11.89 COLLINGWOOD 5.0.30 8.2.50 11.4.70 15.6.96 THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: T. Rivers 24 H.Petty 35 S.May 1 HB: J. Jordon 23 J.Lever 8 M.Hibberd 14 C: A.Brayshaw 10 C.Oliver 13 J.Hunt 29 HF: K.Pickett 36 B.Fritsch 31 E.Langdon 15 F: A.Neal-Bullen 30 B.Brown 50 C.Spargo 9 Foll: M.Gawn 11 J.Viney 7 C.Petracca 5 I/C: L.Jackson 6 J. Melksham 18 C.Salem 3 T.Sparrow 32 Sub: J.Harmes 4 Emerg: K.Chandler 37 A. Tomlinson 20 J.Van Rooyen 21 In: B.Brown Out: S.Weideman (omitted) COLLINGWOOD B: N.Murphy 28 D.Moore 30 J.Howe 38 HB: S.Pendlebury 10 B.Maynard 37 I.Quaynor 3 C: J.Daicos 7 J.Crisp 25 J.Noble 9 HF: J.Elliott 5 D.Cameron 14 S.Sidebottom 22 F: Beau McCreery 31 B.Mihocek 41 J.De Goey 2 Foll: M.Cox 46 N.Daicos 35 P.Lipinski 1 I/C: J.Carmichael 45 J.Ginnivan 33 W.Hoskin-Elliott 32 A.Johnson 40 Sub: Trent Bianco 8 Emerg: C.Brown 17 O.Henry 16 W.Kelly 20 In: J.Mihocek Out: T.Adams (groin)

Hard to under a May blanket

To all our fabulous commentors and questioners; Feel free to ask questions about the Blues match but as the podcast is on Tuesday night this week please ask questions about the King's Birthday match too as we'll do an extended preview this week.

The Demons take on the Magpies in a massive Top Four clash on King's Birthday at the MCG with over 90,000 fans expected to be in attendance. Who will come in and who goes out for this huge clash between traditional rivals at the home of football?

The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Tuesday, 6th May @ 8:30pm. Join Binman, George z& I as we analyse the Demons win over the Blues. 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