Demonland

For Fs Sake ... 14. MELBOURNE (11-12, 98.5%) Three word analysis Demise from hell What went right Melbourne’s defence is still incredibly tough to pierce. Led extremely well by Steven May and Jake Lever, the Dees were one of the toughest teams to score against this year. Simon Goodwin’s side ranked first in the competition for scores per inside 50 against percentage and sixth for chain to score against percentage. While there was plenty of adversity in 2024 for the Dees, there were a number of shining lights. The Demons unearthed Trent Rivers as a midfield piece for the future, while defender Judd McVee managed to shut down some of the games most dangerous opposition small forwards. Eastern Ranges product Caleb Windsor had an exciting debut campaign on the wing and Kysaiah Pickett continues to flourish, as does key forward Jacob Van Rooyen. Other youngsters such as Koltyn Tholstrup, Kynan Brown, Andy Moniz-Wakefield and Blake Howes also got some exposure at the top level to give fans a glimpse into what the future might hold. What went wrong Melbourne was always going to face a challenging 2024 campaign after a pre-season from hell. Midfielder Angus Brayshaw had his career cut short due to concussion and the Dees were forced into trying to replace him on the fly. Key position player Joel Smith was accused of drug trafficking while star midfielder Clayton Oliver dominated the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Oliver’s form dip in 2024 has been alarming, having gone from one of the competition’s best players to one of the most heavily criticised. He’s getting less of the ball (he averaged 30 disposals last year compared to 23 this year) and his clearance numbers have almost halved. Experts industry-wide have questioned whether he’s been fit enough to be an AFL footballer this season. Then there’s Christian Petracca. The Demons’ best player had his season cut short when he suffered a raft of nasty internal injuries in the King’s Birthday clash against Collingwood in June. Questions around Petracca’s future have emerged in recent weeks after reports suggested he was angry and disgruntled with the way the club handled his injuries and its poor performances on-field and lack of future direction. Petracca opened up to his teammates last week with Lever sharing it was an “eye-opener” for the playing group. Demons’ powerbrokers have had to repeatedly deny cultural issues and fractures within the playing group throughout the entire season. Those only increased as rumours circulated of senior players, including Petracca, wanting out. Jack Viney was linked to a family reunion with father Todd at North Melbourne but ultimately signed on until 2028 at the Dees, while Oliver and Petracca are others to be linked to other clubs, although it appears both will stay in red and blue. Unheralded star Alex Neal-Bullen has also requested a trade back home to South Australia for family reasons. On the field, What they need It still looks as though the Dees are still thin in their front half. While Jacob Van Rooyen will become a star, he needs a second in command to help lead this attack. Bayley Fritsch has been successful in the past, but he’s more of a third tall, while Harrison Petty, Daniel Turner and Tom McDonald were all trialled in that role to varying success. Can youngster Matthew Jefferson make his mark next year perhaps? Melbourne didn’t have one player in the top 25 for marks inside 50 and they ranked 16th in the competition for score per inside 50 percentage and 14th for points for. They need to find a spark forward and fast. Given their ageing list, the Dees should look to target the draft this season as well to ensure their next wave of superstars can start getting some experience alongside their established leaders. What time is it on the premiership clock? (8pm): The Dees looked like they were well and truly in the premiership window this time last year, but you can’t help but think that time is starting to tick with this current group of players. Captain Max Gawn and star defender Steven May will be 33 when next season rolls around, while Jack Viney (31 next year), Christian Salem (30), Christian Petracca, Jake Lever and Ed Langdon (29) aren’t getting any younger. Can we count this year as a mulligan or was this just the start of the Demons’ demise? We’ll know a lot more a month into the 2025 season. Season grade F — Dylan Bolch

The exodus from the Tigers continues ...

It’s been hard to miss the seismic global momentum happening in Women’s sport of late. The Matildas have been playing to record sell-out crowds across Australia and ‘Mary Fowler is God’ is chalked onto footpaths everywhere. WNBA basketball rookie sensation Caitlin Clark has almost single-handedly elevated her Indiana Fever team to unprecedented viewership, attendances and playoffs in the USA. Our female Aussie Paris 2024 Olympians won 13 out of Australia’s all-time record 18 gold medals. Jess Fox, Nina Kennedy, and Kaylee McKeown are now generational sporting superheroes. After a period of stagnation, will AFLW cash in on this tangible enthusiasm for women’s sport? Well, newly minted AFLW General Manager, Emma Moore, will surely be hoping so. The 2024 AFLW season kicks off 7:15pm this Friday night at the picturesque North Sydney Oval. Taking battle are two of the higher supported teams with superstar Chloe Molloy’s Sydney Swans taking on skipper Bri Davey’s Collingwood Magpies. This season promises to be closer than ever before with more teams realistically having a chance of finals. Encouragingly for spectators, the practice matches noticeably displayed higher levels of skills, speed and scoring. New rules and stuff The games are now 15 minutes plus time on, so expect quarters go for around 19-20 minutes. For the first time in AFLW there will be score reviews with the bunker’s ‘tools’ to include broadcast vision and new smart ball technology, ‘Score Assist’. The AFLW draft in December 2024 will transition to a fully national model. The AFL and players’ union have struck an increased AFLW pay agreement. The 5-year deal includes adding extra rounds to upcoming seasons, subject to attainment of key audience metrics. The Fixture Season 9 is an 11-round season squeezed into ten weeks. In order to create a fixture which produces more even matches, the league handicaps the better teams. The shorter season means teams don’t play 6 of the other 17 teams during the season. The top 8 teams make finals. For the third year, all 18 AFL teams are represented, with Tasmania to enter in 2028. Dees fixture perspective Melbourne has been given a very tough draw. The Dees campaign opens with tough games against three of Season 8’s preliminary finalists: Geelong (at Kardinia Park), Brisbane (Premiers) and North (at Casey Fields). We meet Adelaide in Round 7 (at Norwood). The Dees miss games against Port Adelaide (who looked very impressive in our practice match), Sydney, Gold Coast, Carlton, Western Bulldogs and West Coast Eagles. However, we play away games against Dockers, Bombers (playing for the first time ever) at Windy Hill, the Saints at Moorabbin and the fast-improving Hawks in Cairns. Demons list changes – 9 new players Departures At trade time, the Dees jettisoned four regulars plus a backup defender. Eliza West and Casey Sherriff were traded to Hawthorn, Maddi Gay to Essendon, Libby Birch to North and Charlotte Wilson to Gold Coast. Sammie Johnson and Jordie Ivey were delisted. Georgina Fowler retired without a debut. Trades Grace Beasley comes to the Dees from a successful US college basketball background. Very professional, with toughness and spatial awareness. Expect Grace to play midfield. Lily Johnson from Port Adelaide was injured during preseason, but she could slot in nicely as a small defender with her excellent kicking skills. She impressed during her VFLW matches. Tall defender Grace Hill via GWS Giants and utility Denby Taylor via Geelong’s VFLW team are the other additions. Draft Pick 5: Alyssia Pisano, is a 162cm crafty small forward who kicked 38 goals from 11 games in the Talent League Girls using her dynamite left foot. Pick 12: Ryleigh Wotherspoon, is a 170cm powerful, athletic utility who has a cricket, soccer and softball background. Ryleigh impressed in both practice games so pencil her name in for Round 1. Pick 24: Jacinta Hose is a 185cm agile tall. She has done ACLs in both knees and will rehab in 2024. Pick 29: Jemma Rigoni, is a father-daughter selection.She is 172cm and lightning quick. The talented left-footer will proudly wear her father Guy’s No. 43. Pick 55: Delany Madigan, is a 174cm tall defender with strong marking and kicking skills. Rehab Exciting Gaelic star Aimee Mackin has done her ACL and is out for season 2024. Unfortunately, courageous midfielder Olivia Purcell suffered nasty facial fractures and concussion in the Port Adelaide practice game. Liv will be sidelined for some time. Season 9 predictions Premiers: North Melbourne - The last 3 AFLW premierships have been won by the preceding season’s runners-up. If the trend continues, North will be premiers. Expect Brisbane, Adelaide and Geelong to be thereabouts. League leading goal kicker: Eden Zanker to go back-to-back. League Best and Fairest: Jasmine Garner finally wins. Kate Hore the best Dee. Most improved team: Hawthorn. Their practice match form looked hot. Finals bound. Meggs will be back with a preview of Melbourne’s Round 1 Season 9 opening match starting 7.15pm on Saturday 31 August at GMHBA Stadium.

DEMON ‘SET TO LEAVE’ AS POSSIBLE DESTINATION PRESENTS Melbourne key defender Adam Tomlinson is expected to call it quits with the Demons this year amid a lack of chances at senior level, according to SEN reporter Sam Edmund. Tomlinson, who played a key role in the club’s 2021 dominance before missing out on its premiership due to injury, holds unrestricted free agent rights this off-season. The 31-year-old has played a combined 32 AFL games in the past four seasons, and he hasn’t played more than 13 senior games in a season since 2019. Edmund floated a rival Victorian club as a possible landing spot this October. “(He is) set to leave Melbourne as an unrestricted free agent,” Edmund told SEN. “(He) wants more opportunity ... Is St Kilda the home as his third club?” With in-demand defender Josh Battle widely anticipated to depart Moorabbin for Hawthorn this off-season, adding Tomlinson as further depth behind All-Australian Cal Wilkie and Dougal Howard could be wise.

Here we go

Still Deliberating and they still have the Owies Case.

Days Since Last Finals Win.

CHANGES 2024 Part 1: Early doors in a season of turmoil by The Oracle The changes came early for the beleaguered Demons in 2024. In February, before the first football had been kicked in anger, the bombshell of Angus Brayshaw’s retirement hit the Melbourne Football Club like a sledgehammer. The popular Demon premiership player was medically retired after a concussion suffered in 2023 qualifying final when he was hit front on by a Brayden Maynard bump that was controversially cleared by the AFL Tribunal. The retirement of the much-loved and respected Demon after a 167 game career rocked the club that drafted him with the No.3 pick, one selection after Christian Petracca at the 2014 AFL National Draft. The pair were outstanding for a number of years in the lead up to the club’s drought breaking 2021 premiership at Optus Stadium. Brayshaw had 25 disposals and kicked a goal in the win. The club was already reeling in the wake of the suspension of Joel Smith following the return of a sample provided by the player during an in-competition doping control test after last year’s Round 23 Melbourne vs Hawthorn game which indicated the presence of prohibited substances, cocaine and its metabolite Benzoylecgonine being a Prohibited Substance under the Code. The son of former player Shaun, Joel Smith played 14 of his 42 career matches for Melbourne in 2023, including the Demons' two narrow finals losses against Collingwood and Carlton. Additionally, it was reported in February that Smith was facing four new anti-doping rule violations from Sport Integrity Australia — three for trafficking cocaine and one for possession. As a consequence, Smith’s suspension has remained in place to this day, leaving the club short of two senior list players for the whole season, although Brayshaw was replaced on the club lists by Western Australian rookie Luker Kentfield who played out the season with the Casey Demons in the VFL. As a consequence, the club’s lists looked like this from the end of May until the club’s season came to an end in the wild and woolly conditions of last Friday night against Collingwood. PRIMARY LIST: — Jed Adams Jack Billings Jake Bowey Ben Brown Kade Chandler Tom Fullarton Bayley Fritsch Max Gawn Blake Howes Lachie Hunter Matthew Jefferson Ed Langdon Bailey Laurie Jake Lever Shane McAdam Tom McDonald Steven May Alex Neal-Bullen Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Kysaiah Kropinyeri Pickett Trent Rivers Christian Salem Josh Schache Joel Smith Charlie Spargo Tom Sparrow Koltyn Tholstrup Adam Tomlinson Daniel Turner Jacob van Rooyen Jack Viney Caleb Windsor Taj Woewodin ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Kynan Brown Marty Hore Luker Kentfield Judd McVee Jake Melksham Oliver Sestan Will Verrell ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Kyah Farris-White Andy Moniz-Wakefield RETIRED Angus Brayshaw By the time the shutters had come on Melbourne’s disappointing 2024, veteran forward Ben Brown had announced his retirement after a long career from 2014 at North Melbourne and Melbourne where he played 175 games and kicked 360 goals. Brown joined the Demons in late 2020 and played a pivotal role in their premiership success the following year. Injuries in his later seasons kept his tally of games at the club to 45 for 72 goals. In addition, another premiership player, Alex Neal-Bullen, who is still in contract, requested a trade home to South Australia at season's end after playing 174 games for the club since being drafted in 2014. And finally, the disquiet from injured superstar Christian Petracca surfaced when it was recently reported that he also wanted out, despite having five years left on his contract. That scenario is still to be played out with the club insisting that it requires the terms of that contract to be honoured. The reports have unleashed a media circus which has done little good for the club or the image of the player. My perspective is that that there is no doubt that Petracca suffered a horrible injury and equally, there's no doubt that the last thing he needs for his health and his welfare is for this circus to be played out in the media. If those around him, truly care for his well-being they would declare a halt to these goings on and stay away from the media until such time as Petrracca is in a good headspace and able to make considered rational decisions about any change to his current playing situation. Today, the club announced its first delistings - Josh Schache and Category B rookie Kyah Farris-White who I will cover in the next installment of this series.

I'll kick it off.