Demonland

KICKING WOES by KC From Casey In a game that was billed as Casey’s last chance to fight its way back into contention for a vital top four place on the VFL ladder with one round left before the finals, the Demons fell short by eight points after a disastrous display in front of goals in the second half against Carlton VFL at Ikon Park on Sunday. After booting six goals from eight scoring shots to half time to trail by 9 points, Casey’s forward line accuracy fell apart in the second half kicking 3.13 to 4.6 in that period. During the final term, the ball virtually lived in their forward line (inside 50s were 17 to 5 in their favour) they managed one single goal while the Blues scored goals in their only two forays forward in the first twenty minutes of the quarter. The Demons can only blame themselves as they missed several easy shots at goal, hit the post on numerous occasions and made poor decisions in the front half. In addition, the disposal and decision-making going forward also left a lot to be desired. Early in the game, Carlton’s small brigade outran the Demons and forced their defence into error with their dominance. It was only through individual efforts that Casey managed to claw its way back into the game. All that was nothing in a wasteful third term that was compounded by the many misses at the end. Luke Dustan was once again prolific in his ball getting and endeavour towards the ball but not necessarily always in the execution. He had 38 disposals, eight clearances, seven tackles and kicked a goal. Similarly, James Harmes was active with 30 disposals, one more than Bailey Laurie who also had a busy day along with Charlie Spargo (28 touches). Taj Woewodin showed the benefits of his stint at AFL level with 25 touches and seven clearances. The Demons came into the game at the scene of their 2022 VFL premiership triumph looking for a key forward to cover the loss of Harrison Petty through injury but it was the limited impact of their talls that was their Achilles Heel with limited marks taken up forward despite no lack of opportunity. In his comeback from a long layoff, Tom McDonald managed just one goal, as did youngster Matt Jefferson while the usually accurate Josh Schache finished with three behinds. Will Verrall battled hard in the ruck and showed a lot of promise for the future with his 17 hit outs. Matt Buntine was the best of the Casey listed players and Jimmy Munro was his usual indefatigable self. Tom Freeman defended strongly in the second half. All in all however, it was a disappointing result for the Demons who will rue some narrow defeats late in the season and must now win next week against the Brisbane Lions VFL side if they are to avoid a wild card playoff in a fortnight’s time. CASEY DEMONS 2.1.13 6.2.38 8.10.58 9.15.69 CARLTON VFL 2.3.15 7.5.47 9.11.65 11.11.77 GOALS CASEY DEMONS Brown Buntine Dunstan Grey Jefferson Laurie McDonald Spargo White CARLTON VFL Cahill 4 Ronke 2 Akeui Boyd Crocker Honey McMahon BEST CASEY DEMONS Dunstan Laurie Spargo Tomlinson Woewodin Buntine CARLTON VFL Binns Boyd Young Cowan Ronke O’Brien Statistics Jed Adams 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 1 tackles 40 dream team points Kynan Brown 1 goal 1 behind 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 43 dream team points Matt Buntine 1 goal 1 behind 10 kicks 9 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 86 dream team points Luke Dunstan 1 goal 16 kicks 22 handballs 38 disposals 7 marks tackles 149 dream team points Kyah Farris-White 1 handball 1 disposal 1 tackle 6 hit outs 12 dream team points Tom Freeman 9 kicks 3 handballs 12 disposals 7 marks 1 tackles 58 dream team points George Grey 1 goal 1 behind kicks handballs disposals marks tackles dream team points James Harmes 15 kicks 15 handballs 30 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 82 dream team points Matt Jefferson 1 goal 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 6 marks 48 dream team points Bailey Laurie 1 goal 13 kicks 16 handballs 29 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 109 dream team points Tom McDonald 1 goal 4 kicks 6 handballs 10 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 9 hit outs 60 dream team points Tom McRae 6 kicks 6 handballs 12 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 48 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 1 behind 8 kicks 8 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 71 dream team points James Munro 1 behind 4 kicks 14 handballs 18 disposals 4 marks 4 tackles 63 dream team points Josh Schache 3 behinds 6 kicks 4 handballs 10 disposals 2 marks 36 dream team points Deaykin Smith 4 kicks 6 handballs 10 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 46 dream team points Charlie Spargo 1 goal 16 kicks 12 handballs 28 disposals 6 marks 3 tackles 105 dream team points Roan Steele 1 behind 5 kicks 7 handballs 12 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 47 dream team points Adam Tomlinson 23 kicks 4 handballs 27 disposals 8 marks 2 tackles 104 dream team points Kye Turner 4 kicks 1 handballs 5 disposals 14 dream team points Will Verrall 2 kicks 8 handballs 10 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 17 hit outs 43 dream team points Mitch White 1 goal 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 61 dream team points Taj Woewoedin 1 behind 12 kicks 13 handballs 25disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 92 dream team points

A fingernail ... that is the difference between winning an AFL match and holding on to 2nd place on the ladder. Or a spot in the next stage of the FIFA womens world cup. While one Carlton Blue’s player had a fingernail long enough to deny a Melbourne victory, Le Bleues had bitten theirs down (along with a lot of Australian fans) in a dramatic penalty shootout. Was the Petracca kick touched or not? Which way does a deflection from the woodwork go? It matters no more, because the decision has been made, and one team of Blues goes home happy, while the other just goes home. Melbourne was on the end of a nail biting finish in this game, and certainly had multiple chances in the dying minutes of the game to take the victory. But when playing against sides like Carlton who sit 5th on the ladder, these are the games which are typical of the finals football that is to come. The match will always come down to one or two critical moments. The coach himself said after the match that it is important to “win those moments”. The Demons didn’t and have paid the price. And once again, with rain falling in this match the Demons failed. Almost every loss by the team has been in slippery and or wet conditions. In some games it was a failure to adapt to play wet weather football, but like this game it just causes a drop off in the slickness needed to transit the ball to the attacking end of the ground. The Demons got off to a poor start in the game, and scored a solitary goal from barely half a dozen entries into the forward 50. Fortunately, their defenders denied Carlton again and again, so come the end of the first quarter both sides had only bothered the goal umpires once each. The second quarter was much the same and the two teams went into the break with three majors each and two points separating them. It was to be a portent of the end result. The match was simply being played between the arcs, and with over 50 i50’s for each side and only 6 goals it certainly wasn’t a game to be watched by the spectators. But then most of them were watching the shootout at another game on their phones. Finally in the 3rd quarter things started to happen. Australia had won the soccer and everyone, including the players returned their concentration to playing real football. More goals kicked in 1 quarter than in the previous half, but once again both sides were level pegging, and there promised to be a nail biting shootout in the final stanza. Well that proved to be the case, and Melbourne gave the Blues a mighty step up in the opening minutes when they simply waltzed the ball out of the middle and put themselves 18 points up, which was the highest margin for the night. To their credit, the Demons clawed their way back and with yet another miraculous goal to Kysaiah Pickett, followed by a great mark and straight kick from Joel Smith, they were back in it. A “gimme” chance to Christian Salem surprisingly fell short and then the Petracca shot was adjudged to have been touched on the line. A four point victory to the Baggers. All around the ground, there were great contests. Steven May probably won the fight against Charlie Curnow, only allowing him two goals. He was ably assisted by Jake Lever with 12 intercept possessions. Still, the Carlton smalls were winning the match for them, so we saw Michael Hibberd introduced to quell the rot, and that he did. As the coach noted, it wasn’t a night for forwards, and the Gawndy experiment was repeated with no positive outcome. A paltry three marks between the two players for the match, is not what is expected and certainly not needed. While Gawn dominated the ruck for hitouts, the outcome was not to the teams advantage, and it was no surprise that the final quarter comeback from the Demons occurred when Grundy was used in the ruck. More importantly the same experiment utterly failed when both players went forward. Does anybody remember them getting a single touch in that area? Once again they just clog up the space and it caused the coach to move Smith to the forward line to get some presence up there. It couldn’t be left to a 20 year old Jacob Van Rooyen alone, who was battling against Weitering, one of the best backs in the whole league. With the fingernails well and truly bitten down to their base, the Demon fans have nothing left now for the final two matches. A game against a re-vitalised Hawthorn and another against Sydney in the Harbour city, are going to be more of the same. Or will comprehensive victories against these two sides, allow sufficient growth for those with severe cases of MFCSS to endure the finals series? MELBOURNE 1.0.6 3.3.21 6.6.42 8.8.56 CARLTON 1.3.9 3.5.23 6.6.42 9.6.60 GOALS MELBOURNE Petracca 2 Chandler Langdon Neal-Bullen Pickett Smith Sparrow CARLTON C Curnow Owies 2 Acres Cripps De Koning Docherty Martin BEST MELBOURNE Viney Oliver Petracca Salem Brayshaw Hunter CARLTON Cripps Newman Weitering Hewett Docherty Saad INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Sam Docherty (calf) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Michael Hibberd (replaced James Jordon in the third quarter) CARLTON Ed Curnow (replaced Sam Docherty in the fourth quarter) UMPIRES Justin Power Ray Chamberlain Robert Findlay Brent Wallace CROWD 68,577 at the MCG

Tracc still on track … 227. Christian Petracca 173. Jack Viney 136. Clayton Oliver 89. Max Gawn 87. Angus Brayshaw 72. Steven May 54. Lachie Hunter Kysaiah Pickett 53. Trent Rivers 49. Jake Lever 46. 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

Ope?

The Demons return to the MCG in Round 23 as they take on the Hawthorn Hawks in a bid to claim a home final. Who comes in and who goes out?

The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 14th August @ 8:30pm. Join Binman, George & I as we analyse the Demons loss at the MCG against 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

The Demons blew a perfect opportunity to consolidate a Top 2 spot and keep the dream of a home final in week one of the finals alive by going down to the Blues by 4 points at the MCG.

Christian Petracca is the runaway leader of the Demonland Player of the Year and has a 57 vote lead over Jack Viney as Clayton Oliver and Max Gawn sit in 3rd and 4th place respectively. Your votes for the loss against the Blues. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Bombers have now beaten 17th and 18th place on the ladder by a total of 10 points in the past 2 weeks.

Ziebell has cost the Kangas this match

North deadset not trying to win this.

St. Kilda have the same claim to fame and they’ll probably play finals.

If north aren’t tanking then Essendon are extremely poor.

Darcy Moore out for the rest of the Home & Away season

@binman what does it mean when Kingy is all in on the Dees?

They'll run out of farms eventually.

The Demons face an in-form Blues who have won their last seven games on the trot and have another Top 4 scalp in their crosshairs. A win for the Demons will consolidate their position in the Top 2 keeping the dream of a home final alive whilst a loss could see them back in 4th place.

Vale, Bob Dawson and Jeff Hilton

Paging @Jaded No More

Almost every question was a gameplan question. They would have been better off trying to hack his computer.