Demonland

The task ahead for the Demons as they wend their way down the Princes Freeway to Geelong on Saturday night will be to skin the Cats. For them to come away with the points from this game would mark an historic occasion for the club as it will finish on top of the ladder for the first time since its last premiership year, 1964. And it was in that year, that a trip to Corio Bay to meet the reigning premiers in Round 12, was one of the catalysts for Melbourne’s surge to the flag. It was a top of the table game that went the way of the visitors and while the Cats remained contenders into the finals series, the Demons had taken away their momentum. They had become the team to beat for premiership glory. They had skinned the Cats. Incidentally, animal lovers need not be alarmed by the expression because it doesn’t mean what you might think it does. According to American lexicographer, Charles Earle Funk (of Funk & Wagnalls fame), the expression refers to a boy's gymnastic trick: "In America, as any country boy knows, this means to hang by the hands from a branch or bar, draw the legs up through the arms and over the branch, …” That’s how I expect it to be done — by the younger but maturing Demons running rings around the aging Cats. As the season draws to an end, those old bodies down at the Cattery are beginning to feel the pinch. A few weeks ago, it was a struggle for them to get over the Kangaroos at Blundstone Arena. Then they lost at home to the Giants while it took most of their most recent game to get the better of 12th placed St Kilda. Despite the heroics of some of their longtime stars and home ground advantage in their last two matches, they seem to be spluttering their way towards season’s end with far too many components on the wrong side of thirty. You sometimes feel that some of them are playing with their eyes on next month’s pension cheque. By way of contrast, the Demons are young, fresh and exuberant, crashing through opponents with the enthusiasm of a team with just the right mix of experience and youth, of players reaching maturity as footballers with a mission. They’ve crunched their last three opponents and the bad news for the Cats is that with the likely return of Steven May, Tom McDonald and Jack Viney for this week’s game, they are looking more potent than ever. I’m not underestimating the Cats and their experience but the demands on players’ bodies this year have made life harder for teams with too many players on the wrong side of thirty. This point was virtually acknowledged a little while ago when Chris Scott called for shorter quarters. The name of the game is the survival of the fittest and I think the Demons’ fitness and talent will go a long way to helping them skin the Cats. Melbourne to win by 27 points. THE GAME Geelong v Melbourne at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday 21 August 2021 at 7.25pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall Geelong 132 wins Melbourne 86 wins 2 draws At GMHBA Stadium Geelong 40 wins Melbourne 18 wins 1 draw The last five meetings Geelong 3 wins Melbourne 2 wins The Coaches Scott 5 wins Goodwin 2 wins MEDIA TV live and on demand on Kayo and live on Foxtel. Check your local guides. Radio - check your local guides LAST TIME THEY MET Melbourne 12.13.85 defeated Geelong 9.6.60 at the MCG in Round 4, 2021 The Cats had a few of their stars missing but they were never really in the hunt on a soggy MCG. The Demons received great drive from Max Gawn’s ruck dominance (41 hit outs, 23 disposals) and he was superbly supported by Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver with 36 and 34 possessions respectively. THE TEAMS GEELONG B: J. Henry 38 L. Henderson 25 J. Kolodjashnij 8 HB: M. O'Connor 42 M. Blicavs 46 J. Bews 24 C: S. Menegola 27 C. Guthrie 29 I. Smith 7 HF: B. Parfitt 3 J. Cameron 5 G. Rohan 23 F: B. Close 45 T. Hawkins 6 G. Miers 32 Foll: R. Stanley 1 J. Selwood 14 P. Dangerfield 35 I/C: T. Atkins 30 L. Dahlhaus 40 M. Holmes 9 S. Simpson 37 Sub: S. Higgins 4 Emerg: Z. Guthrie 39 Q. Narkle 19 E. Ratugolea 17 IN: T. Atkins G. Miers G. Miers OUT: Z. Guthrie (omitted) Q. Narkle (omitted) E. Ratugolea (omitted) MELBOURNE B: J. Smith 44 S. May 1 H. Petty 35 HB: T. Rivers 24 J. Lever 8 C. Salem 3 C: J. Harmes 4 C. Petracca 5 E. Langdon 15 HF: J. Viney 7 T. McDonald 25 A. Brayshaw 10 F: A. Neal-Bullen 30 B. Brown 50 B. Fritsch 31 Foll: M. Gawn 11 C. Oliver 13 T. Sparrow 32 I/C: J. Bowey 17 L. Jackson 6 K. Pickett 36 C. Spargo 9 Sub: J. Jordon 23 Emerg: K. Chandler 37 M. Hibberd J. Melksham 18 IN: T. McDonald S. May J. Viney OUT: M. Hibberd (omitted) J. Melksham (omitted) A. vandenBerg (omitted) Injury List: Round 23 Tom McDonald (back spasms) — Test Marty Hore (knee) — 3 to 4 Weeks Jayden Hunt (ankle) — 3 to 4 Weeks Aaron Nietschke (knee) — Season Adam Tomlinson (knee) — Season

Time to find a new forward coach.

This is interesting

Meanwhile Victorian or NSW-based AFL clubs that win the right to host an elimination or qualifying final will be able to choose where they play the match, but their options will be limited to venues that can have crowds. It may give Melbourne a tricky choice if they were to finish on top as they would need to determine where they had the best chance of winning their first final based on their opponent and the suitability of the ground for their style, with the MCG and Marvel Stadium ruled out. With most top-eight positions undecided leading into the final round it is impossible for the AFL to determine when or where finals will be played until next weekend, however it has opened up sterile corridors to allow teams to play in South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia if the COVID situation in those states remains stable. It is waiting to see whether the Victorian government will allow crowds in regional areas that are not in lockdown for the first week in the finals, which would affect the options available to Geelong, and potentially even the Western Bulldogs, who play occasional home games in Ballarat. There will be no crowds allowed at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night when Geelong host Melbourne. At this stage, if the Brisbane Lions or Port Adelaide win the right to host a final they will play the match at the Gabba and Adelaide Oval respectively, with hopes growing that the Gabba will be able to accommodate a crowd of 75 per cent capacity during finals. League sources said it was unlikely an elimination or qualifying final would be played in Perth between neutral teams as combining quarantine restrictions with travel would be too onerous for the losing team attempting to back-up in the second week of finals. However Tasmania is a serious option for clubs likely to have earned the right to a home final and are unable to host it at their actual home ground, with clubs broadly agreeing that higher-ranked teams would not be forced to play at a lower-ranked team’s home venue in the lead-up to the grand final. That could see Sydney play a final against the Giants in Tasmania, depending on how the final round plays out. The AFL expects to be in a better position after week one of the finals to then consider the preliminary final venues and whether it uses a bye in that week as it will know which teams have won their way into the preliminary final. Meanwhile, the Western Australian government does not have a formal position on vaccinations for sports teams despite the Premier Mark McGowan saying on Monday that he assumed all AFL players would be vaccinated already. “I would expect most footballers, in fact probably all, are already vaccinated. I certainly would’ve thought that would be a wise decision by the AFL,” McGowan said. An education program relating to group vaccinations is being developed for AFL players and staff by the AFL’s head of healthcare governance, Rachel Elliot, in consultation with the AFLPA and clubs, but there will be no policy on vaccinations before the end of the season. The AFL has already stated it will encourage all players and staff working in the industry to be vaccinated, but it has not been in a position to make vaccination mandatory as it adhered to government policy which put frontline workers and more vulnerable members of the community first in line for a jab. Any vaccination among players or staff has been a personal decision in line with the rest of the community rather than based on an industry-wide policy with the Players’ Association not yet having records of how many players have been vaccinated.

The AFL has called a halt to the VFL home-and-away season but plans to play a sudden-death finals series beginning on September 4 after Victoria’s lockdown is scheduled to end. The decision was made to end the home-and-away season immediately and then resume in a fortnight with eight teams, including Collingwood, Geelong, Footscray (the Bulldogs), Casey (Melbourne’s affiliate) and the Box Hill Hawks (Hawthorn’s affiliate) to play off in elimination finals for a spot in a preliminary final. The ladder was finalised on a match ratio basis because teams had played between nine and 11 games during the interrupted season. The elimination games will be Footscray (first) v GWS (eighth), Southport (second) v Collingwood (seventh), Box Hill Hawks (third) v Williamstown (sixth) and Geelong (fourth) v Casey (fifth). If the lockdown continues and elimination finals can’t be played, the plan is then to have a preliminary final weekend involving the top four teams with first to play fourth and second to play third for a spot in the grand final. The VFL grand final is scheduled to be played at Marvel Stadium on September 19, with the game to be played without crowds if the state government does not allow them.

Players that have arrived after 2018 and played finals at other clubs Steven May 0 Jake Lever 5 Ed Langdon 0 Adam Tomlinson 10 Majak Daw 1 Mitch Brown 2 Ben Brown 7

This was after 2018 Angus Brayshaw 3 Bayley Fritsch 2 Max Gawn 3 James Harmes 3 Michael Hibberd 3 Neville Jetta 3 Nathan Jones 5 Tom McDonald 3 Jake Melksham 3 Alex Neal-Bullen 3 Clayton Oliver 3 Christian Petracca 3 Christian Salem 3 Charlie Spargo 3 Aaron vandenberg 3 Jack Viney 3 Sam Weideman 3 Joel Smith 1

I’ll see if I can dig that up but here is a list of each teams total finals experience.

Miller is the one to watch. The Suns got pumped by 11 goals but he got 30 possessions and always seems to poll in their losing games. He could pip Oliver at the post even if the Swans pump the Suns this week.

“He has that awareness that we’ve seen over the years from the (Scott) Pendlebury-types,” Richardson said. “He never wastes the footy, he doesn’t look brilliant with ball in hand technically, but it always works. “If I can give you a quick story that perhaps summarises what he’s like. “When (Max) Gawn went out of the team towards the back end of last year, ‘Jacko’ came in as the main ruck, did his hammy early in the game … it ended up being a pretty significant injury. “He played the whole game out and was just outstanding. In fact, he got the Rising Star nomination on the back of it. So that’s what he’s like. “He’s an ultimate team player. He’ll never get really big numbers because as opposed to pealing off to receive, he’s more likely to go and block or do something that would be for the benefit of others. “He’s a special player. He loves the contest, he’s clean in contest and he executes in contest. “We like the way he’s tracking.”