Demonland

Embarrassing record broken. Back on track ...

I had an iPhone 7. It does not work anymore.

We've lost our last 2 last quarters since this article was published. We need to break that embarrassing record.

17 Dangerous Tackles have been suspended this season. Cerra is the first to get off.

Carlton’s MVP

Appeal Successful. Cerra is free to play.

Verdict incoming

That is the biggest certainty.

Next week we'll do a bigger Preview of the Kings Birthday match.

Didn't see this one either until after but it's an interesting question. Some games we seem to roll multiple players through the middle and other we stick with the same 3 or 4. This week was the latter.

I didn't see this until after the podcast but I think we answered it anyway. Thanks for your 5 Star Review on Apple Podcasts. Gave you a shoutout on the show.

VOTES PLAYER (CLUB) 8 Christian Petracca (MELB) 8 Luke Jackson (FRE) 6 Andrew Brayshaw (FRE) 3 Hayden Young (FRE) 2 Max Gawn (MELB) 2 Angus Brayshaw (MELB) 1 Jaeger O'Meara (FRE) LEADERBOARD VOTES PLAYER CLUB 59 Zak Butters PORT 56 Nick Daicos COLL 51 Christian Petracca MELB 47 Jordan De Goey COLL 44 Marcus Bontempelli WB 43 Zach Merrett ESS 41 Lachie Neale BL 41 Matt Rowell GCFC 40 Jordan Dawson ADEL 40 Clayton Oliver MELB 39 Jack Sinclair STK 38 Toby Greene GWS 38 Tim Taranto RICH 37 Darcy Moore COLL 37 Callum Wilkie STK 35 Noah Anderson GCFC 35 Connor Rozee PORT 35 Chad Warner SYD 34 Jeremy Cameron GEEL 33 Caleb Serong FRE

Everyone is challenging the dangerous tackles this week.

That's the get out of jail free card.

Is Oliver doing everything the rest of the group is doing? If you didn't know he was in injured would you suspect anything?

Live footage from AFL House

Of course they are ... Paging @Jaded No More

A friend of mine saw Oliver doing run throughs at about 75% pace at Gosch's on Saturday before the game. Said he looked unhampered and looked like he could play next week. Just a random observation though.

The Narrm Football Club found a second way in the space of 12 months less a day to unexpectedly lose a home game against Walyalup on Saturday afternoon. The equivalent match of last year has been described as Melbourne’s “ground zero” of 2022 where things went wrong for the club after a long run of wins that included its 57 year drought-breaking premiership triumph. Unfortunately for the Demons, the 2023 version was a case of deja vu with the Dockers overcoming a half time deficit and running over the home team in the decisive third quarter. During that term last year, the visitors won the centre clearances 7-0 to shock the reigning premiers and end their 17-game winning sequence. This time our Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca was healthy enough to hold up his end and Tom Sparrow did as good a job as any human can do in filling the cavernous hole left by the absence of Clayton Oliver but the Demons still fell apart badly in the middle of the ground. This was especially so even after Walyalup’s Sean Darcy was subbed off the ground with a hamstring injury leaving Narrm’s All Australian ruck duo Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy to contend with previously out of form former Demon premiership ruckman Luke Jackson. It should have been a ruck mauling to lead the team to a big massacre but, once again, there was a major deficiency in the engine room that led to an anomalous statistic in take always from stoppages. How does a side that dominates the ruck hit outs by 56 to 28 lose the clearance battle by 37 to 39? Simple answer (for the second week in a row). The Walyalup midfield had enough talent and was prepared to work a damn sight harder than its counterpart to get their hands on the football. The consequence was that like Butters and Rozee of last week, Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong busted the Demons open and won the day for the Dockers. It wasn’t all the fault of the Demon defence which battled manfully to stem the tide in the first half but the dam wall broke in the third term, ironically when Jackson split the middle to put his team ahead by more than a goal, after which they were never headed. The problem was that the attack was horrible, bordering on dysfunctional once again. The powerful defensive pressure that this line once applied was missing and Walyalup’s defenders were able to out position their small foes, outmark the talls, worry them with their own persistence and eventually get out of their backline methodically where, in the past, the ball would have been retrieved and returned without much trouble. The writing was on the wall last week when Narrm succumbed to Yartapuulti. The selectors ignored the signs and the team lost. NARRM 3.2.20 4.5.29 6.8.44 10.12.72 WALYALUP 2.0.12 4.3.27 9.5.59 12.7.79 GOALS NARRM Fritsch Pickett 2 Grundy Harmes McDonald Sparrow van Rooyen Viney WALYALUP Amiss 3 Banfield Treacy 2 Aish Frederick Jackson Schultz Serong BEST NARRM Petracca Gawn Brayshaw Pickett Sparrow Grundy WALYALUP Jackson Brayshaw Serong O'Meara Young INJURIES NARRM Nil WALYALUP Sean Darcy (hamstring) REPORTS NARRM Nil WALYALUP Nil SUBSTITUTIONS NARRM James Jordon (replaced Kade Chandler in fourth quarter) WALYALUP Sam Sturt (replaced Sean Darcy in second quarter) UMPIRES Chris Donlon Leigh Haussen Mathew Nicholls Andre Gianfagna CROWD 29,154 at the MCG

Remember when the Demons could get out of tight spots and come from behind to win the close ones? MELBOURNE 1.2.8 4.6.30 7.11.53 11.13.79 CARLTON 1.3.9 3.4.22 7.8.50 10.14.74 THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B:T. Rivers 24 J. Lever 8 H.Petty 35 HB: T. Sparrow 32 S. May 1 J. Jordon 23 C: C. Salem 3 C Oliver 13 E. Langdon 15 HF: A. Brayshaw 10 B. Fritsch 31 A. Neal-Bullen 30 F: C. Spargo 9 B. Brown 50 K. Pickett 36 Foll: M. Gawn 11 J.Viney 7 C. Petracca 5 I/C: M. Hibberd 14 J. Hunt 29 L. Jackson 7 J. Melksham 18 Sub: J. Harmes 4 Emerg: B.Laurie 16 A. Tomlinson 20 J.Van Rooyen 21 No change CARLTON B: A.Saad 42 J.Weitering 23 S.Docherty 15 HB: C.Marchbank 22 M.McGovern 11 L.Young 33 C: L.O'Brien 4 P.Cripps 9 J.Newnes 32 HF: Z.Fisher 25 H.McKay 10 J.Silvagni 1 F: M.Owies 44 C.Curnow 30 C.Durdin 19 Foll: M.Pittonet 27 W.Setterfield 43 S.Walsh 18 I/C: M.Cottrell 46 J.Martin 21 J.Motlop 3 L.Stocker 13 Sub: P.Dow 2 Emerg: T. De Koning 12 B.Kemp 17 In: M.Pittonet L.Stocker Out: A.Cerra (adductor) T. De Koning (omitted)