Demonland

Progressive Totals 84. Max Gawn 77. Christian Petracca 67. Jack Viney 50. Steven May 47. Clayton Oliver 34. Michael Hibberd 33. Jake Lever 21. Ed Langdon 15. Jay Lockhart 13. Oscar McDonald 12. Angus Brayshaw 7. James Harmes 6. Mitch Hannan Jake Melksham Kysaiah Pickett Trent Rivers 5. Adam Tomlinson 4. Tom McDonald Christian Salem 3. Jayden Hunt Sam Weideman

The Plan actually works except that other clubs have worked it out. The FD are just too stubborn to recognise it. I was in the "We have no Plan B" camp but honestly our issues are so fundamental that they would just transfer from one plan to the next.

Agreed but I don't even think that would have saved us last night.

Fair enough. This will be more of a conversation than an interview.

It will be LIVE tonight and Adrian will join us for the post mortem.

In a dismal display against Port Adelaide, Melbourne showed it had learnt nothing from their previous week’s loss to Brisbane. Port, in contrast, after losing to St.Kilda, addressed their failings, and as a result made the Demons look like a second-rate side. Melbourne failed to score a goal in the first quarter, and the first time it seriously troubled the goal umpire was saved until a minute before half-time. Did it get any better? No with their meagre three goals for the second half scored in the final minutes of each quarter. The Demon fans would be familiar by now with this scenario. Long periods of simply not scoring, despite multiple entries inside 50m, 31 this week with only 4 goals to show for it! The forward line, like the previous week was simply not functional. The forward pressure, to keep the ball in the scoring area is non-existent. Hannan, Melksham, Fritsch, Jackson failed to tackle a single player inside the 50m arc in four quarters of football. Weideman and TMac at least had one each and Pickett two. Four tackles inside 50 for the whole forward line in the game! Small wonder that Port had scored four goals alone from turnovers in our forward 50m up to ¾ time. Melksham’s appalling statistic is that during the 2020 season to date he has tackled twice inside 50 in 8 games! The mids aren’t performing much better. Petracca managed to score a major, but once again the rest of the group didn’t provide any scoreboard output. Compare that with Port, whose mids in Wines, Boak each scored majors, while Westhoff as backup ruck managed two. Even a Port Defender in Mayes, managed to score as well! While Max Gawn dominated the ruck, for the second week in a row, it was to no effect. Hitouts to advantage were evenly matched with Port, but he also managed four clearances on his own. Like the Brisbane match, the Port mids simply sat on the outside and fed the ball out to runners, while Melbourne mids concentrated in a pack on trying to get the ball inside. This also demonstrated the lack of coverage from both the half back and half forward lines, as they watched their Port opponents swarm to the outside to receive the loose ball. Multiple times Melbourne players were left rolling on the ground behind play where the ball used to be. The backs were, in contrast, fantastic. Port’s main target in Charlie Dixon was held to a solitary major, and while Port scored freely throughout the whole game, it was the wave of mids and others coming downfield to do the job. Lockhart cemented his place in the side with his natural football nous putting himself in the right spot on multiple occasions. Also a couple of goal-line finger touches from the backs prevented the Port tally from being even higher than it was. Port sit at the top of the ladder, rightfully so. Melbourne sit in 13th spot rightfully so. Performances like this one indicate that the 13th position might be an overstatement of their capability. That the coaching staff haven’t changed the failings of the previous week in any way shape or form is deeply troubling. The fans have heard the line about “learnings” too often. It is obvious that nothing was learned. With the next game against Adelaide, there is a real danger of being overpowered in the same way, unless multiple serious changes are made to the playing list. It is simply unacceptable to have the same individuals doing the same thing week after week, and expecting a different result. MELBOURNE 0.2.2 1.3.9 3.5.23 4.8.32 PORT ADELAIDE 3.2.20 6.6.42 10.9.69 12.11.83 GOALS Melbourne Weideman 2 Melksham Petracca Port Adelaide Georgiades 3 Rozee Westhoff 2 Boak Dixon Farrell Mayes Wines BEST Melbourne May Salem Gawn Hibberd Petracca Lockhart Port Adelaide Boak Wines Amon Georgiades Mayes Houston INJURIES Melbourne Nil Port Adelaide Nil REPORTS Melbourne Clayton Oliver for striking Peter Ladhams in the second quarter. Port Adelaide Nil UMPIRES Robert O'Gorman Alex Whetton Robert Findlay VENUE The Gabba

Tonight we'll be join by Adrian, the host of the No Merger Podcast to discuss the Podcast and that time in our club's history. We'll also talk about the other dark time in our club's history which occurred last night. Join @george_on_the_outer, @binman & I LIVE tonight 31/7 at 8:30pm Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Your votes for today's game please - 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Let er rip

We love to flirt with the boundary line when kicking to players.

The bath water after the hawthorn win must have been past its use by date.

Harmes loves a bullet pass to the floor.

Another free inside 50.

Why didn’t lever mark that?

That handball by Hannan ....

How many frees inside 50?

Opposition ruckman loves to rove against us.

Hundred percent touched. Robbed if called goal.

Why take Tracc off with a minute to go. Only one having a dip.

Going early but let’s face it ...

What happened to the sliding rule?