Demonland

We’ve seen it all before. Club in turmoil. Coach under pressure. Club President caught up in a tax scandal. Club board not seeing eye to eye with one board member resigning amid questions about whether he was pushed or did he jump? Unrest bordering on hysteria among the supporters. Team dropping from undefeated after four rounds to 13th after ten. Allegations of favoured treatment of players. Players out of form, forwards with the kicking yips, a bruising injury list with some facing the knife while another up before the AFL Tribunal. The media camped waiting on the club’s doorstep with those furry microphone things, pointed at every employee who comes out for some fresh air or a smoko, ready to pounce with some of the most inane questions imaginable. Yes, it’s crisis time at Carlton, the club designated by the AFL as its Friday night favourite playing the Melbourne Football Club at the home of football to kick off the first bye round on … checks, yep … Friday night. Right on cue, the AFL comes to the rescue. The MRO decided that Blues player Adam Cerra has a case to answer for a dangerous tackle on Swans’ ruckman Tom Hickey but for the first time this year, a dangerous tackle charge is thrown out by the AFL Tribunal. Instead of the requirement being on the alleged perpetrator to do something to avoid the collision of the head, it’s the victim who had the onus of using one of his arms to break the fall. Anyway, it was allegedly Hickey’s bouffant hair arrangement that actually banged the SCG turf and not the head he was rubbing in pain after the incident, so justice AFL style prevailed again. And in an ominous move for the Demons, the Blues’ legal team will make up their half forward line on Friday night at the MCG to ensure that the free kick count sits at 24 to 9 in their favour. Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, the Carlton skipper is expected to make a surprise appearance for his team in a game against Melbourne. This time it comes after making a miraculous recovery from having his ankle stepped on late in the game against the Swans. When someone steps on anything remotely near that part a Demon player’s anatomy it usually escalates rapidly from nothing to a 4 to 6 week injury. But the Blues’ medics are almost as good as their lawyers. Still, I’m not really paranoid and I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, there would have be something seriously wrong with Melbourne that even the world’s best team of doctors, lawyers and administrators can’t fix if it can’t overcome an ailing Carlton at the MCG on Friday night. After all, this is a team that embarked upon season 2023 boasting about being the fittest team in the competition, with great depth in every position on the football field, and focused on regaining lost prestige from last season’s finals stumble. They couldn’t possibly lose to that rabble. Surely? I’m confidently tipping them to win. By a point. THE GAME Melbourne v Carlton at the MCG Friday 2 June 2023 at 7.50pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 96 wins Carlton 117 wins Drawn 2 At the MCG Melbourne 55 wins Carlton 50 wins Past five meetings Melbourne 5 Carlton 0 wins The Coaches Goodwin 1 wins Voss 0 wins THE LAST TIME THEY MET Melbourne 11.13.79 defeated Carlton 10.14.74 at the MCG Round 22, 2022 The Blues looked to have had this game won as the clock wound down with less than two minutes to go. Then Jake Melksham* took a great contested mark in the middle of three Carlton defenders and his fourth goal for the match gave the team hope which translated into a win when Kozzie Pickett converted truly with seconds to go. * Melksham was given a two week suspension (reduced to one for an early plea) by the VFL Match Review Panel for a striking offence against a Werribee player in the fourth quarter of the match last Saturday. Nothing suspicious about the timing of the suspension of the hero of last year’s clash against the Blues, is there? THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B A. Tomlinson S. May J. McVee HB J. Bowey J. Lever C. Salem C T. Sparrow J. Viney E. Langdon HF K. Chandler Fritsch Pickett F C. Spargo Grundy Neal-Bullen FOLL M. Gawn C. Petracca L. Hunter I/C A. Brayshaw T. Rivers J. Smith J. van Rooyen SUB J. Harmes EMG B. Brown D. Turner T. Woewodin IN L. Hunter J. Smith A. Tomlinson OUT M. Hibberd (managed) J. Jordon (omitted) T. McDonald (ankle) CARLTON B A. Cincotta J. Weitering B. Kemp HB L. Young M. McGovern A. Saad C S. Walsh P. Cripps B. Acres HF J. Motlop C. Curnow J. Silvagni F Z. Fisher H. McKay M. Owies FOLL T. De Koning A. Cerra M. Kennedy I/C J. Boyd M. Cottrell S. Docherty L. O'Brien SUB P. Dow EMG E. Curnow L. Fogarty L. Plowman IN A. Cincotta P. Dow Z. Fisher L. O'Brien J. Silvagni L. Young OUT C. Durdin (knee) E. Curnow (omitted) G. Hewett (concussion) O. Hollands (collarbone) N. Newman ((hamstring) M. Pittonet (hand) Injury List: Round 12 Clayton Oliver - Hamstring | 1 Week Luke Dunstan - Knee | 1 - 2 Weeks Harry Petty - Foot | 2 - 3 Weeks Kye Turner - Groin | 3 - 4 Weeks Will Verrall - Pelvis | 3 - 4 Weeks

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