Demonland

A good comeback at the G.

PRETENDERS SENT PACKING by George on the Outer Fremantle, the Perth pretenders at sixth on the premiership table should have easily accounted for the Demons, sitting barely a game off the bottom of the ladder. And for the majority of the game, it certainly looked that would be the case, until the final quarter, when the Demons stopped giving the Dockers easy chances, or making plain, dumb decisions. Not that their situation was helped by some simply appalling umpiring during the match, that kept gifting Fremantle easy scores. The Demons chances were boosted in the first quarter, when former player, Jesse Hogan went down with yet another foot injury, and despite what Ross Lyon has said post game, this is looks very muck like a repeat of his previous ongoing issues that were a contributing factor in his trade back home. Still, Melbourne has missed his presence up front for 2019, as its own forward line is still utterly dysfunctional. At ¾ time it was the same old story, many more inside 50’s and marks in that zone than the Dockers, and yet they trailed on the scoreboard. Tom McDonald couldn’t get into the game early, Sam Weideman barely had a touch, and only for Tim Smith and Jay Lockhart the scoreboard barely kept ticking over. Then whatever they put in the refreshments in the ¾ time break worked a treat. McDonald went berserk, and after struggling to kick more than 35m in the first half of the season, he nailed a long outside 50 set shot, and the Demons were away. He followed up with a brilliant snap along the ground from the pocket and the game was as good as over, especially with James Harmes marking and scoring from the goal square, that followed a series of accurate and precise kicks started in the backline. That in itself represented a first for the Demons in this game, as time and time again, they had squandered chances. Finally they hit targets and the game was over. The addition of Stephen May to the backline was one of the big positives. He generalled the players around him, and provided a rock solid wall to Fremantle attacking moves. Ably assisted by Sam Frost, with some telling intercept marks and dashes out of defence, which he has become famous for, the backline is starting to look composed. Even so, we have to remember that up to this point in the season we have been missing Nev Jetta, Michael Hibberd, Jake Lever, Jordan Lewis, May himself and Christian Salem from defence at some point or other. Now we are seeing stability and none more so than Marty Hore, who just keeps popping up with those telling marks at critical points in the game. He reads the ball and the play beautifully, and when the fully contingent of players become available, it will be hard to overlook him. As usual, Max Gawn dominated in the middle and around the ground. Even with 46 hitouts, his opponent managed 31, but it was Max’s 20 disposals to Darcy’s 8 and his 8 contested possessions with 7 clearances that was telling. Assisted in the middle by Clayton Oliver with 28 touches (16 contested) and Jack Viney also with 28 (15 contested), they provided plenty of drive. Unfortunately, Nate Fyfe gave James Harmes a bath, with 31 touches, but it would have been a job that nobody could have done better, as Fyfe was in as good form as he has been since his Brownlow season. Jay Lockhart was a brilliant promotion into the side, and with a 21 possession, 10 contested, two goal game, he has cemented a spot in the side as that small forward that we have been lacking since the season started. He simply has “football smarts” and knows where to be, when to go and when to sit off the pack. Harrison Petty did his job again, and while not exemplary, this is what development of young players is all about. He is finding his feet when surrounded with older, wiser heads, and hopefully by season end he will have a dozen games to his name, and be a more regular fixture in the backline. Tim Smith likewise did his job on his return, and contributed three telling goals to keep the side in the hunt in those poor first ¾’s. He at least provides a target and takes a strong defender, especially when Weideman is so far off contributing in a meaningful way. We probably will persist for the remainder of the season, just to get games and valuable experience into him, but he doesn’t read the ball well in flight, and is too slow to react to movement of the ball at the moment. Before this game Melbourne was four points off the bottom of the ladder, and this win probably keeps it away from this position. To be sitting three games and percentage outside the top eight is unfortunate, and once again a season of lost opportunities is looming. But the second half of this season also gives plenty of those opportunities to build and showcase and provide hope and expectations for the future, something that was lacking with the horrible injury situation the Demons found themselves in for the first half. Melbourne must prove that it isn’t just making up the numbers, that we are not pretenders after a Preliminary final position last year - unlike Fremantle which on Saturday’s effort will struggle to make it to September. Melbourne 2.1.13 5.4.34 9.6.60 13.7.85 Fremantle 4.1.25 6.4.40 10.5.65 11.5.71 Goals Melbourne T McDonald T Smith 3 Lockhart 2 Gawn Harmes Oliver Petracca Weideman Fremantle Matera Walters 3 Brayshaw Cox Darcy Langdon Tucker Best Melbourne Oliver Gawn T McDonald Viney Lockhart Brayshaw Fremantle B Hill Fyfe Matera Walters Conca Langdon Injuries Melbourne Nil Fremantle Stephen Hill (hamstring) Jesse Hogan (foot) Reports Melbourne Nil Fremantle Michael Walters (Fremantle) reported for headbutting Umpires Deboy Dore Findlay Foot Official Crowd 20,211 at MCG

Fremantle, the Perth pretenders at sixth on the premiership table should have easily accounted for the Demons, sitting barely a game off the bottom of the ladder. And for the majority of the game, it certainly looked that would be the case, until the final quarter, when the Demons stopped giving the Dockers easy chances, or making plain, dumb decisions. Not that their situation was helped by some simply appalling umpiring during the match, that kept gifting Fremantle easy scores. The Demons chances were boosted in the first quarter, when former player, Jesse Hogan went down with yet another foot injury, and despite what Ross Lyon has said post game, this is looks very muck like a repeat of his previous ongoing issues that were a contributing factor in his trade back home. Still, Melbourne has missed his presence up front for 2019, as its own forward line is still utterly dysfunctional. At ¾ time it was the same old story, many more inside 50’s and marks in that zone than the Dockers, and yet they trailed on the scoreboard. Tom McDonald couldn’t get into the game early, Sam Weideman barely had a touch, and only for Tim Smith and Jay Lockhart the scoreboard barely kept ticking over. Then whatever they put in the refreshments in the ¾ time break worked a treat. McDonald went berserk, and after struggling to kick more than 35m in the first half of the season, he nailed a long outside 50 set shot, and the Demons were away. He followed up with a brilliant snap along the ground from the pocket and the game was as good as over, especially with James Harmes marking and scoring from the goal square, that followed a series of accurate and precise kicks started in the backline. That in itself represented a first for the Demons in this game, as time and time again, they had squandered chances. Finally they hit targets and the game was over. The addition of Stephen May to the backline was one of the big positives. He generalled the players around him, and provided a rock solid wall to Fremantle attacking moves. Ably assisted by Sam Frost, with some telling intercept marks and dashes out of defence, which he has become famous for, the backline is starting to look composed. Even so, we have to remember that up to this point in the season we have been missing Nev Jetta, Michael Hibberd, Jake Lever, Jordan Lewis, May himself and Christian Salem from defence at some point or other. Now we are seeing stability and none more so than Marty Hore, who just keeps popping up with those telling marks at critical points in the game. He reads the ball and the play beautifully, and when the fully contingent of players become available, it will be hard to overlook him. As usual, Max Gawn dominated in the middle and around the ground. Even with 46 hitouts, his opponent managed 31, but it was Max’s 20 disposals to Darcy’s 8 and his 8 contested possessions with 7 clearances that was telling. Assisted in the middle by Clayton Oliver with 28 touches (16 contested) and Jack Viney also with 28 (15 contested), they provided plenty of drive. Unfortunately, Nate Fyfe gave James Harmes a bath, with 31 touches, but it would have been a job that nobody could have done better, as Fyfe was in as good form as he has been since his Brownlow season. Jay Lockhart was a brilliant promotion into the side, and with a 21 possession, 10 contested, two goal game, he has cemented a spot in the side as that small forward that we have been lacking since the season started. He simply has “football smarts” and knows where to be, when to go and when to sit off the pack. Harrison Petty did his job again, and while not exemplary, this is what development of young players is all about. He is finding his feet when surrounded with older, wiser heads, and hopefully by season end he will have a dozen games to his name, and be a more regular fixture in the backline. Tim Smith likewise did his job on his return, and contributed three telling goals to keep the side in the hunt in those poor first ¾’s. He at least provides a target and takes a strong defender, especially when Weideman is so far off contributing in a meaningful way. We probably will persist for the remainder of the season, just to get games and valuable experience into him, but he doesn’t read the ball well in flight, and is too slow to react to movement of the ball at the moment. Before this game Melbourne was four points off the bottom of the ladder, and this win probably keeps it away from this position. To be sitting three games and percentage outside the top eight is unfortunate, and once again a season of lost opportunities is looming. But the second half of this season also gives plenty of those opportunities to build and showcase and provide hope and expectations for the future, something that was lacking with the horrible injury situation the Demons found themselves in for the first half. Melbourne must prove that it isn’t just making up the numbers, that we are not pretenders after a Preliminary final position last year - unlike Fremantle which on Saturday’s effort will struggle to make it to September. Melbourne 2.1.13 5.4.34 9.6.60 13.7.85 Fremantle 4.1.25 6.4.40 10.5.65 11.5.71 Goals Melbourne T McDonald T Smith 3 Lockhart 2 Gawn Harmes Oliver Petracca Weideman Fremantle Matera Walters 3 Brayshaw Cox Darcy Langdon Tucker Best Melbourne Oliver Gawn T McDonald Viney Lockhart Brayshaw Fremantle B Hill Fyfe Matera Walters Conca Langdon Injuries Melbourne Nil Fremantle Stephen Hill (hamstring) Jesse Hogan (foot) Reports Melbourne Nil Fremantle Michael Walters (Fremantle) reported for headbutting Umpires Deboy Dore Findlay Foot Official Crowd 20,211 at MCG

Understood. Good to see you nonetheless.

Cast your votes please 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Welcome back @Drunkn167. Stick around.

Also a Bluey Truscott winner.

These stats tell me is that things would not have transpired differently in 2019 had we kept Hogan.

Just for reference. The 2018 Injury thread was 24 pages and 584 posts. The 2019 Injury thread (up to pre-Round 14) is 41 pages and 1010 posts. The Jesse Hogan (Proposed Trade/Farewell) Thread was 471 pages and 11,774 posts. These numbers include deleted posts.

Simon Goodwin has just spoken to the media ahead of tomorrow's clash with Fremantle. As a coaching group we wanted to look at ways that we could improve as a footy club. We think development is a really big part of our footy club and we are going back to the core of what we think really drives the development of our team. Goodwin on Lever: He’ll hopefully only miss one week, he’s got some bone bruising from the incident in the Collingwood game. It’s not his ACL so that’s a real positive for us. Goodwin on Hibberd: That plate that he had surgery on just lifted off the bone, he had that operated on straight after Queen’s Birthday so he’ll miss this week but be back next week. Goodwin on Hogan: Steven May will play on him, which we are looking forward to seeing. Two really good players, I think that’s going to be a great matchup for all of our supporters to watch. Goodwin on McDonald: He’s an important player for us, he’s a leader, we play him as a forward because we have a very inexperienced forward half. We need our experienced players out there, we need Tom McDonald to stand up for us and that’s what we are looking for him to do. We asked our players to take responsibility and look at the opportunities. They have looked at their opportunities individually and collectively as a team. We are not going to wait until the end of the year to reset and get better. We’ve tried to use the break as an opportunity to reset and say, how can we get better? We have implemented some things and the proof will be in the pudding. That’s all from Goody. MFC Twitter: https://twitter.com/melbournefc/status/1141850586762977281

Your best bet is https://www.watchafl.com.au/ Depending on how long you are away take out a weekly or monthly subscription. I do this anytime I go overseas during the season.

And the pain of watching finals and then the long summer. At least there won't be any of that evil sweet tasting bathwater on offer.

Time for your long service leave.

Cursed I tells ya.

Do we know what ailments Hibberd and Garlett are suffering from?

Take the discussion to the PreGame Thread:

Which results aid our storming home to pinch the final spot on the 8?