Demonland

A final at the MCG against an interstate club that was unimpressive at its last start when a home final for them was on the line. Things were going reasonably well until Franklin came from nowhere, interfered with Steven May but got a free and next thing you know the momentum’s gone. MELBOURNE 4.1.25 5.4.34 10.5.65 10.9.69 SYDNEY SWANS 2.3.15 6.4.40 12.5.77 14.7.91 THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: T.Rivers 24 H.Petty 35 S.May 2 HB: A.Brayshaw 10. J.Lever 8 M.Hibberd14 C: J.Hunt 29 C.Oliver 13 J.Melksham HF: C.Spargo 9 L.Jackson 6 E.Langdon 15 F: K.Pickett 36 B.Brown 50 A.Neal-Bullen 30 Foll: M.Gawn 11 J.Viney 7 C.Petracca 5 I/C: B. Fritsch 31 J.Harmes 4 C.Salem 3 T.Sparrow 32 Sub: J.Smith Emerg: T.Bedford 12 J.Bowey 17 J.Van Rooyen 21 In: C.Salem J.Smith Out: J.Bowey (omitted) J.Jordon (foot) SYDNEY SWANS B: D.Rampe 24 T.McCartin 30 N.Blakey 22 HB: J.Lloyd 44 P.McCartin 39 J.McInerney 27 C: E.Gulden 21 C.Warner 1 C.Mills 14 HF: I.Heeney 5 S.Reid 20 W.Hayward 9 F: T.Papley 11 L.Franklin 23 R.Clarke 4 Foll: T.Hickey 31 L.Parker 26 J.Rowbottom 8 I/C: O.Florent 13 R.Fox 42 L.McDonald 6 D.Stephens 3 Sub: B.Campbell 16 Emerg: H.Cunningham 7 H.McLean 2 C.Sinclair 18 In: B.Campbell Out: S.Wicks (omitted)

CASEY’S NEW CAMPAIGN by KC from Casey The Casey Demons unfurled their 2022 premiership flag early on Saturday afternoon at Casey Fields and commenced their campaign to earn the honour of back to back champions in 2023. They did so emphatically beating Footscray by 37 points in a contest they dominated throughout and, but for some wayward kicking for goal early in the piece, they could have determined the issue a lot earlier in the day than during the final term when the Dogs finally hit the wall. The Demons were forced to make changes to the selected side with Jake Melksham and Adam Tomlinson in Brisbane and Daniel Turner also out. Trent Burgoyne, Max Gregory and Miles Shepherd came into the side to replace them leaving 14 AFL listed players in the side. Last week against the same club, Casey was listless and struggled to score. This time, the game was played in near perfect conditions with just a slight breeze but the Demons were struggling to find the middle of the big sticks. James Jordon and Luke Dunstan held sway in the clearance battles but the forwards were missing some easy shots at goal, as reflected in the quarter time score line. The trend continued early in the second term with a couple of behinds added to the score before Josh Schache, Jordon and Dunstan found the goals opening up a 26-point lead. A late Bulldog revival narrowed the margin back to 8 points at half time. Michael Hibberd was in everything during the second term, Bailey Laurie was coming into his own and Josh Schache was putting his hand up for the likely vacancy caused by the injury to Max Gawn at Melbourne. There were some hints of future forward line strength through Jacob van Rooyen and newcomers Matt Jefferson and Oliver Sestan. Jefferson was winded and came off temporarily after taking a great mark. The Doggies came hard early in the second half but Casey’s class came to the fore and a flurry of goals to the home team including two in quick succession to Sestan saw them off to a handy three quarter time lead which was stretched to 37 by the final siren. Sestan finished with three goals while Schache and Andy Moniz-Wakefield scored two each in their team’s impressive start to the season. Hibberd was the star with 36 disposals and 10 marks. Other strong performers were Dunstan with 29 disposals, seven clearances and a goal, Laurie with 27 possessions and four tackles and Jordon (25 touches, 2 goals). Schache took a knock to the head and was off after the final break and if cleared of concussion, is a good chance for Melbourne against Sydney on Sunday. Note however, that Schache did not take the ruckwork in this game. Jacob van Rooyen continues to promise to become a potential point of difference at AFL level with his enthusiasm, leap and versatility. He finished with 19 disposals, 11 marks, six hitouts and a goal and surely must get his chance soon? James Munro was again a tower of strength amassing 16 tackles while Max Gregory made an excellent 20 touch debut in these ranks. Next week, the Demons play host to the strong Sydney side with an early start at 11:00am on Sunday. CASEY DEMONS 1.7.13 4.10.34 10.11.71 13.16.94 FOOTSCRAY VFL 1.1.7 4.2.26 7.5.47 8.9.57 GOALS CASEY DEMONS Sestan 3 Jordon Moniz-Wakefield Schache 2 Dunstan Grey J Smith van Rooyen FOOTSCRAY VFL Goater Hannan 2 Clarke Johannisen Khamis McPherson BEST CASEY DEMONS Hibberd Jordon Dunstan van Rooyen Laurie Munro FOOTSCRAY VFL Sullivan McPherson Khamis Craig-Peters Garner Hannan Statistics Jack Bell 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 22 hit outs 67 dream team points Jed Adams 6 kicks 1 handball 7 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 33 dream team points Matt Buntine 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 53 dream team points Trent Burgoyne 1 behind 2 kicks 4 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 22 dream team points Paddy Cross 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 34 dream team points Luke Dunstan 1 goal 20 kicks 9 handballs 29 disposals 6 marks 2 tackles 107 dream team points Max Gregory 12 kicks 8 handballs 20 disposals 9 marks 2 tackles 87 dream team points George Grey 1 goal 1 behind 4 kicks 5 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 47 dream team points Michael Hibberd 23 kicks 13 handballs 36 disposals 10 marks 1 tackle 128. dream team points Blake Howes 11 kicks 8 handballs 19 disposals 7 marks 5 tackles 90 dream team points Matt Jefferson 4 behinds 9 kicks 2 handballs 11 disposals 7 marks 2 tackles 66 dream team points James Jordon 2 goals 2 behinds 13 kicks 12 handballs 25 disposals 7 marks 4 tackles 116 dream team points Bailey Laurie 16 kicks 11 handballs 27 disposals 7 marks 4 tackles 101 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 2 goals 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 4 tackles 78 dream team points James Munro 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 16 tackles 94 dream team points Josh Schache 2 goals 1 behind 8 kicks 2 handballs 10 disposals 7 marks 60 dream team points Oliver Sestan 3 goals 1 behind 10 kicks 2 handballs 12 disposals 6 marks 1 tackle 76 dream team points Miles Shepherd 13 kicks 3 handballs 16 disposals 6 marks 2 tackles 71 dream team points Deaykin Smith 9 kicks 6 handballs 15 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 62 dream team points Joel Smith 1 goal 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 8 marks 1 tackle 72 dream team points Roan Steele 6 kicks 9 handballs 15 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 44 dream team points Kye Turner 11 kicks 6 handballs 17 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 78 dream team points Jacob van Rooyen 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 11 marks 2 tackles 6 hit outs 102 dream team points

Jackson comments on the Freo boards * Jackson is a unicorn bull [censored] the guys a bloody donkey * Said Jackson was s**t, was s**t then preceded to trade for him. All the great trades prior to this, evaporated. * I watched Jackson pretty close and there was 1/2 a dozen times where he should have been breaking out of his running patterns to react to the ball but he just kept his head down motoring along to get to where he was ‘ supposed’ to be * Need picks for the Jackson disaster. * Jackson can’t mark s**t up forward. * I don’t think Jackson is a Unicorn, more like a clapped out cart horse. Except I think a clapped out cart horse could mark better. * Jackson would be good if he actually had some impact in some way on the game. It would be good If he took a mark * Jackson is clearly not worth what we paid.

That’s the state my glass is always in but it’s plastic and porous

A pleasant, balmy Brisbane evening with perfect conditions for football turned into a bleak, dark night in more ways than one for the Demons on Friday night at the Gabba. Coming up against a Lions outfit which had been truly cut to shreds by Port Adelaide the previous week, with the Demons having accounted for the Dogs emphatically, it was reasonable for the droves of Melbourne supporters to expect to witness more pain being inflicted as payback for their loss to the same team in the previous years finals. Sadly the only pain happened within minutes of the first bounce when Jack Viney crashed into Max Gawn’s leg, damaging his knee. A collective hush passed through the Demons supporters as vision came to the screen of Max sitting on the dressing room floor with ice packed over the knee and him looking despondent. The despondency was to last for 24 hours as Demonland erupted into a mass of conjecture about what damage had been done, for how long and who was needed to replace the giant of the Club. MFCSS had truly arisen again, and it wasn’t until late Saturday that the news came back ... the damage was to a medial ligament, not the feared ACL and the prognosis was 4-6. However, Melbourne supporters, especially those with a good dose of MFCSS, know all too well that 4-6 is not necessarily 4-6 weeks away, but we will keep the collective fingers and everything else crossed that 6 weeks is the worst outcome. Back to the game … Well it may as well have finished at that point, as the Melbourne players seemed utterly deflated, lethargic and couldn’t pick the ball up cleanly or mark the ball when required. Yes, there was an element of humidity which caused the ball to be slippery, but to counter Brisbane’s Will Ashcroft in only his 2nd game amassed 31 possessions, and he didn’t seem to have any trouble picking up the ball. The fumbles spread throughout the side over the next 3 quarters, but by the end of the first break Brisbane had opened up a four goal lead. The Demons mids were comprehensively outpointed, not just at centre square but around the ground as well with Brisbane essentially doubling all the clearance statistics that Melbourne could produce. Centre clearances 20 to 10. Stoppage 40 to 22. Overall 60 to 32. Simply unheard of numbers for a Demons outfit which claims to be one of the best in the business! Thank goodness for the Melbourne defenders, particularly Jake Lever who led the way in the absence of Stephen May. Thirteen intercept possessions and backed up by Bowey and Rivers with half a dozen each, they kept repulsing the free flow of Lions attacking moves coming out of mid-field. It wasn’t until later that Angus Brayshaw joined the fray with 12 intercepts, but he often let down his good work with his disposals, coming at only 60 odd percent efficiency. Still they held back the dam wall as best they could, but by ¾ time the Lions had opened up a 6 goal lead and looked like continuing the demolition of the Demons into the final stanza. Things were looking truly dark for Melbourne. It had lost the captain, was losing the match and a right royal drubbing was coming up. With twelve minutes left in the quarter things got even darker but this time it wasn’t just for the Demons. A huge bang was heard around the ground and half the lights went out. And the power to various sections, which wasn’t a bad thing as it stopped the ridiculous blaring music that Queenslanders seem to enjoy being played at anything more than a five second break in play. The ground operators even tried to intervene with this cacophany at boundary thow-ins instead of allowing football followers to watch what they had come to see - the football. Well seeing the football was now out of the question as half the ground was plunged into darkness. Unfortunately, the music came back and we were treated to a singalong session of the worst of Neil Diamond and John Denver. Surely things couldn’t get worse for the Demons? Fortunately not, as the Gabba electrician finally found the fuse box or the management paid the electricity bill and on came the lights again after 40 minutes. In true Queensland fashion half the crowd had gone home by now, perhaps thinking it not worthwhile waiting for more than their allotted five second attention span. What they missed was a monumental comeback for the Demons who piled on five goals in the remaining 12 minutes of play, and among the remaining crowd murmurs were audible of a possible dramatic loss as Ben Brown, Bayley Fritsch and others just kept finding the big sticks. An appalling failure to pay a front on free to Angus Brayshaw with perhaps two minutes to go may have cost the Demons that chance, but they got to within 11 points when the final siren went. Good thing it did sound as there was some concern that without power it may not signal the end of the game when the button was pressed. Well, Brisbane walked away with a win. Melbourne were horrible until the lights came back on, and utterly deserved to miss out on the four points. Still they took away some belief for themselves in that things are never quite as bad as it may seem, and they can come back from truly dark situations. Now they have a chance to prove that, as the captain and main ruck will be absent for the coming games. Some of the performances on the night will see others also missing in the near future. Their statistics are simply too damning to justify their spot in the side. Dark days mean the light is coming. We just have to see who is going to hold up that light. MELBOURNE 2.1.13 5.2.32 7.3.45 13.4.82 BRISBANE 6.2.38 8.4.52 13.5.77 14.9.93 GOALS MELBOURNE Brown 4 Fritsch 3 Chandler Hunter McDonald Neal-Bullen Oliver Petracca BRISBANE Daniher 4 Bailey Cameron Zorko 2 Ashcroft Berry McCarthy McInerney BEST MELBOURNE Oliver Lever Brayshaw Fritsch Brown Hunter BRISBANE Zorko Ashcroft Neale Andrews Dunkley Daniher McKenna INJURIES MELBOURNE Max Gawn (knee) BRISBANE Jarrod Berry (shoulder) LATE CHANGES MELBOURNE Steven May replaced in selected side by Adam Tomlinson BRISBANE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jake Melksham replaced Max Gawn in the first quarter BRISBANE Deven Robertson replaced Dayne Zorko in the fourth quarter REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil BRISBANE Nil UMPIRES Leigh Fisher Andrew Stephens Andrew Heffernan Jacob Mollison OFFICIAL CROWD 30,047 at The Gabba

I guess it's when the whistle is blown to signal stop the clock. If the clock stops before it ...

Well that's unlikely.

I like 4 to 6 better but everything else you say is sound.

If GWS win tomorrow we will sit outside the 8 for the first time since the end of 2020. * * Neither Sydney nor Essendon are going to lose

Siren clearly went after the ball went out. I would be furious if that was us.

Roo Roo Roo

It was “paid” but deemed after siren which it wasn’t.

Have a cry Freo. You got so many underserved frees in the last.

Suck it Freo

Should have been a free.

Umps willing Freo over the line.

Freo getting every free.

How is that not deliberate given the others.

Reckon he’s also cost them trying to do too much and getting caught

Thank you Dogga

Dockers will cruise home from here.

Freo are getting an armchair ride from the umps and they’re still crying about every free they don’t get and every free against them.

The worst thing about playing interstate is getting these frees against you but almost always never getting those exact same free kicks for you.

Interesting useless stat