Demonland

The Demonland Podcast is LIVE tonight at 8:30pm featuring myself, @Grapeviney & @Supermercado . Listen LIVE & Chat: http://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Last time they met in an Elimination Final Elimination Final Melbourne Cricket Ground Sep 3 2005 (Sat 2:30pm) 5.4 Q1 2.3 12.5 Q2 6.4 16.8 Q3 6.6 18.8 Q4 9.7 (116) Total (61) 242 Kicks 162 111 Handballs 106 353 Disposals 268 136 Marks 79 31 Hit Outs 27 41 Tackles 54 19 Frees For 21 21 Frees Against 19 26 Scoring Shots 16 69.2% Accuracy 56.3% 1 Rushed Behinds 2 19.6 Disposal Per Goal 29.8 13.6 Disposal Per Scoring Shot 16.8 Geelong Player K H D M HO T FF FA G B SC Rat Cameron Mooney 22 4 26 11 2 2 2 2 2 0 12 125 Jimmy Bartel 19 11 30 11 0 3 0 1 0 1 1 122 Cameron Ling 15 8 23 9 0 2 0 0 2 0 12 108 Gary Ablett 16 3 19 3 0 7 1 1 3 0 18 107 James Kelly 14 3 17 9 0 3 0 1 3 0 18 102 Darren Milburn 15 6 21 12 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 98 Steven King 13 4 17 6 25 2 2 3 0 0 0 91 Joel Corey 11 10 21 7 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 89 Kane Tenace 14 1 15 7 0 3 1 0 1 0 6 84 Max Rooke 8 9 17 8 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 76 Brenton Sanderson 11 7 18 6 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 67 Henry Playfair 6 5 11 3 3 4 3 2 2 0 12 65 Josh Hunt 8 9 17 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 63 Tom Harley 10 2 12 7 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 57 Andrew Mackie 9 2 11 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 12 56 Kent Kingsley 8 4 12 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 6 55 Peter Riccardi 9 6 15 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 50 Steve Johnson 5 6 11 2 0 4 2 3 1 1 7 49 Charlie Gardiner 10 2 12 6 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 46 Matthew Scarlett 8 3 11 6 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 44 Matthew Egan 8 3 11 5 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 40 Nathan Ablett 3 3 6 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 6 28 Totals 242 111 353 136 31 41 19 21 18 7 115 1622 Melbourne Player K H D M HO T FF FA G B SC Rat Nathan D. Brown 18 9 27 13 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 114 Matthew Whelan 10 8 18 10 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 100 James McDonald 8 7 15 0 0 9 3 0 0 0 0 77 Nathan Carroll 9 11 20 6 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 74 Brad Miller 6 7 13 9 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 72 Ben Holland 11 4 15 2 3 4 5 3 1 0 6 68 Russell Robertson 8 0 8 4 0 1 1 0 4 2 26 67 Ryan Ferguson 8 5 13 6 4 3 1 2 0 0 0 63 Simon Godfrey 9 4 13 1 0 7 0 2 0 1 1 61 Brent Moloney 10 10 20 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 51 Cameron Bruce 8 8 16 4 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 51 Shannon Motlop 7 4 11 2 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 49 Brad Green 8 6 14 4 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 47 Adem Yze 9 4 13 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 47 Chris Heffernan 4 5 9 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 47 Paul Wheatley 4 2 6 2 0 2 1 0 2 0 12 43 Aaron Davey 9 1 10 1 0 2 0 2 1 1 7 41 Jeff White 3 1 4 2 17 2 2 2 0 0 0 38 Alistair Nicholson 4 5 9 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 29 Travis Johnstone 4 1 5 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 25 Guy Rigoni 3 2 5 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 20 Brock McLean 2 2 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 17 Totals 162 106 268 79 27 54 21 19 9 5 59 1201

Forgot about the good old days when there weren't any seats and they used to cram people on the boundary line.

According to the MCC website they are expecting 94,000 to Thursday's night game between the Tiger and the Hawks and 90,000 for our game. Surely 180,000+ people attending consecutive games has to be a record.

Welcome to Demonland. I'm not sure if the AFL app will work in New Zealand. It certainly doesn't work in other countries around the world. You can however use the AFL's Watch AFL app (https://www.watchafl.com.au/) while overseas. You can either purchase the whole final series for $79 or if you're a little more cautious you can take out a weekly subscription for $25.

REDEMPTION by Whispering Jack Geelong is the ideal opponent for Melbourne to confront in its long-awaited return to finals football. The history of these teams goes back to the game’s very formative years. They were the first two clubs and the rivalry was fierce in the early days; inaugural members of the VFA and then the VFL, they developed rich histories in the last century and together, they took the game overseas in 1963. The Cats won the flag in that year, the Demons prevailed in the next and then it stopped for both of them. It was Geelong that recovered the first - they’ve won three flags and enjoyed regular finals appearances over the past dozen seasons. On Friday night, Melbourne will play its first and only final in that time span. The teams last met in a final in the 2005 Elimination Final, a spiteful game which Melbourne lost amid suffering a stack of injuries including a career-threatening facial injury to Jeff White sustained in a ruck duel when Geelong’s Steven King’s attempt to kick a ball out of mid-air ended with his errant boot striking the ruckman and breaking his jaw. The Cats went on to win by 55 points. The Demons have beaten them once in the interim - a surprise result in 2015 that heralded the long-awaited advent of another ruckman, Max Gawn, into the ranks of the leading lights of his craft. The heartbreak of those contests and their closing moments has been well documented. In both encounters, Melbourne was generally superior in most facets of the game but suffered brief lapses that were pounced upon by a more efficient Geelong combination. The Demons were dominant in the inside 50s and in scoring shots but the Cats’ conversion rate was far superior. It’s hard to beat a team that kicks eight straight goals in a quarter to finish with a score of 16.4.100. Those results, and indeed almost the entire body of the club’s efforts against Geelong over these past dozen seasons has not only been humiliating but they reached their lowest ebb against this club in July, 2011 when they curled up their toes and lost by 186 points at Kardinia Park. To make the recovery complete, it would be fitting for the new Demons and another step towards redemption for the Melbourne Football Club to mark its return to finals football with an emphatic win over the Cats on Friday night. THE GAME Melbourne v Geelong at the MCG on Friday 7 September 2018 at 7.50pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 84 wins Geelong 130 wins 2 draws At the MCG Melbourne 51 wins Geelong 53 wins The last five meetings Melbourne 1 win Geelong 4 wins The Coaches Goodwin 0 wins Scott 3 wins MEDIA TV - Channel 7 live at 7:30pm Fox Footy Channel live at 7:30pm RADIO - Triple M 3AW SEN ABC ABC Grandstand LAST TIME THEY MET Geelong 16.4.100 defeated Melbourne 14.14.98 at GMHBA Stadium in Round 18, 2018 It was a game in which the Cats simply couldn’t do wrong in the second half. They didn’t miss a shot at the goals in the final term slotting in eight goals straight, enabling them to win after the siren. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: Neville Jetta, Oscar McDonald, Jordan Lewis HB: Christian Salem, Sam Frost, Michael Hibberd ? Dom Tyson, Clayton Oliver, James Harmes HF: Jake Melksham, Tom McDonald, Angus Brayshaw F: Bayley Fritsch, Sam Weideman, Alex Neal-Bullen Foll: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney I/C: Mitch Hannan, Christian Petracca, Charlie Spargo, Aaron vandenBerg Emg: Jay Kennedy Harris, Jayden Hunt, Joel Smith, Tim Smith In: Mitch Hannan, Jack Viney Out: Jay Kennedy Harris (omitted) Kent (AC joint) GEELONG B: Jake Kolodjashnij, Lachie Henderson, Tom Stewart HB: Jed Bews, Harry Taylor, Zach Tuohy ? Mark Blicavs, Joel Selwood, Cameron Guthrie HF: Sam Menegola, Gary Ablett, Tim Kelly F: Daniel Menzel, Tom Hawkins, Jordan Murdoch Foll: Ryan Abbott, Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan I/C: Jack Henry Mark O'Connor Brandan Parfitt Scott Selwood Emg: Lachie Fogarty, Quinton Narkle, Zac Smith, Jackson Thurlow No change The last time the Cats played a “real” game of football rather than a practice match against witches hats was about four weeks ago when they lost to the Hawks at the MCG, the same venue at which they also narrowly went down to the Tigers a week earlier. With no hard match conditioning for more than a month and a poor record at the home of football, the question looms as to whether the club stand up to the pressure of finals football which most participants (and certainly Hawthorn after its qualifying final game v Richmond) will tell you, is more than a notch above that of any home and away game. On the other hand, the Demons could not have had a better build up to its finals campaign with every game in the past month seeing a build up in pressure cooker football as it contested three vital must-win contests. In every case, these were promoted as desperate and dangerous struggles against fellow finalists that generally lived up to their billing. The fact that two of those matches were played at the home of football with relatively strong crowd numbers and the other in the hostile environment of a place where the team had never played before, simply added to Melbourne’s cause. In terms of preparation for the last month in September, the Demons have it all over the Cats and that is why, for their long-suffering players and fans, the team’s first finals appearance since 2006 holds no fears. To top it all off, the Demons have fared much better than the Cats in team selection with the inclusions of Jack Viney and Mitch Hannan for the injured Dean Kent and omitted small man Jay Kennedy Harris marking a substantial improvement for the team which mauled the Greater Western Sydney Giants in their last start win. It’s true that Geelong boasts an unchanged line up and has few injury worries - usually a good side for clubs going into a finals campaign - but in this instance, the absence of Rhys Stanley, who was so important in their most recent win over Melbourne in July at GMHBA Stadium, is a major blow to their fortunes. That’s because Stanley’s efforts in that match against All-Australian ruckman, Max Gawn when the two matched it blow for blow in the ruck contests and around the ground and even more so in those vital moments in the vital final term when the Demon big man was twice off the ground with the blood rule, were fundamental to Geelong’s dramatic come-from-behind victory. The Cats are now left with the inexperienced Ryan Abbot (average 27.3 hit outs per game) and the lightly used in the ruck Mark Blicavs to take on the game’s premier big man who uses such a good proportion of his average of 45.5 hitouts per game to such devastating effect in feeding a damaging midfield that plays strong pressure football and leads the AFL in contested possessions. The result is that I expect the Demon midfield to prevail even against their much vaunted and experienced Geelong counterparts. This will in turn translate on the scoreboard for the club that has kicked more goals than any other side in the competition this season. Moreover, their defence is much improved in terms of personnel than was the case at their last meeting when Michael Hibberd was a notable absentee and Sam Frost had yet to hit his current form high. The extra pressure of a stronger defensive unit should ensure that Jack Hawkins won’t embarrass them with anything like a seven goal straight performance and their other forwards will be kept under a tighter rein. All of which adds up to a Melbourne win by 38 points.

Geelong is the ideal opponent for Melbourne to confront in its long-awaited return to finals football. The history of these teams goes back to the game’s very formative years. They were the first two clubs and the rivalry was fierce in the early days; inaugural members of the VFA and then the VFL, they developed rich histories in the last century and together, they took the game overseas in 1963. The Cats won the flag in that year, the Demons prevailed in the next and then it stopped for both of them. It was Geelong that recovered the first - they’ve won three flags and enjoyed regular finals appearances over the past dozen seasons. On Friday night, Melbourne will play its first and only final in that time span. The teams last met in a final in the 2005 Elimination Final, a spiteful game which Melbourne lost amid suffering a stack of injuries including a career-threatening facial injury to Jeff White sustained in a ruck duel when Geelong’s Steven King’s attempt to kick a ball out of mid-air ended with his errant boot striking the ruckman and breaking his jaw. The Cats went on to win by 55 points. The Demons have beaten them once in the interim - a surprise result in 2015 that heralded the long-awaited advent of another ruckman, Max Gawn, into the ranks of the leading lights of his craft. The heartbreak of those contests and their closing moments has been well documented. In both encounters, Melbourne was generally superior in most facets of the game but suffered brief lapses that were pounced upon by a more efficient Geelong combination. The Demons were dominant in the inside 50s and in scoring shots but the Cats’ conversion rate was far superior. It’s hard to beat a team that kicks eight straight goals in a quarter to finish with a score of 16.4.100. Those results, and indeed almost the entire body of the club’s efforts against Geelong over these past dozen seasons has not only been humiliating but they reached their lowest ebb against this club in July, 2011 when they curled up their toes and lost by 186 points at Kardinia Park. To make the recovery complete, it would be fitting for the new Demons and another step towards redemption for the Melbourne Football Club to mark its return to finals football with an emphatic win over the Cats on Friday night. THE GAME Melbourne v Geelong at the MCG on Friday 7 September 2018 at 7.50pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 84 wins Geelong 130 wins 2 draws At the MCG Melbourne 51 wins Geelong 53 wins The last five meetings Melbourne 1 win Geelong 4 wins The Coaches Goodwin 0 wins Scott 3 wins MEDIA TV - Channel 7 live at 7:30pm Fox Footy Channel live at 7:30pm RADIO - Triple M 3AW SEN ABC ABC Grandstand LAST TIME THEY MET Geelong 16.4.100 defeated Melbourne 14.14.98 at GMHBA Stadium in Round 18, 2018 It was a game in which the Cats simply couldn’t do wrong in the second half. They didn’t miss a shot at the goals in the final term slotting in eight goals straight, enabling them to win after the siren. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: Neville Jetta, Oscar McDonald, Jordan Lewis HB: Christian Salem, Sam Frost, Michael Hibberd C : Dom Tyson, Clayton Oliver, James Harmes HF: Jake Melksham, Tom McDonald, Angus Brayshaw F: Bayley Fritsch, Sam Weideman, Alex Neal-Bullen Foll: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney I/C: Mitch Hannan, Christian Petracca, Charlie Spargo, Aaron vandenBerg Emg: Jay Kennedy Harris, Jayden Hunt, Joel Smith, Tim Smith In: Mitch Hannan, Jack Viney Out: Jay Kennedy Harris (omitted) Kent (AC joint) GEELONG B: Jake Kolodjashnij, Lachie Henderson, Tom Stewart HB: Jed Bews, Harry Taylor, Zach Tuohy C : Mark Blicavs, Joel Selwood, Cameron Guthrie HF: Sam Menegola, Gary Ablett, Tim Kelly F: Daniel Menzel, Tom Hawkins, Jordan Murdoch Foll: Ryan Abbott, Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan I/C: Jack Henry Mark O'Connor Brandan Parfitt Scott Selwood Emg: Lachie Fogarty, Quinton Narkle, Zac Smith, Jackson Thurlow No change The last time the Cats played a “real” game of football rather than a practice match against witches hats was about four weeks ago when they lost to the Hawks at the MCG, the same venue at which they also narrowly went down to the Tigers a week earlier. With no hard match conditioning for more than a month and a poor record at the home of football, the question looms as to whether the club stand up to the pressure of finals football which most participants (and certainly Hawthorn after its qualifying final game v Richmond) will tell you, is more than a notch above that of any home and away game. On the other hand, the Demons could not have had a better build up to its finals campaign with every game in the past month seeing a build up in pressure cooker football as it contested three vital must-win contests. In every case, these were promoted as desperate and dangerous struggles against fellow finalists that generally lived up to their billing. The fact that two of those matches were played at the home of football with relatively strong crowd numbers and the other in the hostile environment of a place where the team had never played before, simply added to Melbourne’s cause. In terms of preparation for the last month in September, the Demons have it all over the Cats and that is why, for their long-suffering players and fans, the team’s first finals appearance since 2006 holds no fears. To top it all off, the Demons have fared much better than the Cats in team selection with the inclusions of Jack Viney and Mitch Hannan for the injured Dean Kent and omitted small man Jay Kennedy Harris marking a substantial improvement for the team which mauled the Greater Western Sydney Giants in their last start win. It’s true that Geelong boasts an unchanged line up and has few injury worries - usually a good side for clubs going into a finals campaign - but in this instance, the absence of Rhys Stanley, who was so important in their most recent win over Melbourne in July at GMHBA Stadium, is a major blow to their fortunes. That’s because Stanley’s efforts in that match against All-Australian ruckman, Max Gawn when the two matched it blow for blow in the ruck contests and around the ground and even more so in those vital moments in the vital final term when the Demon big man was twice off the ground with the blood rule, were fundamental to Geelong’s dramatic come-from-behind victory. The Cats are now left with the inexperienced Ryan Abbot (average 27.3 hit outs per game) and the lightly used in the ruck Mark Blicavs to take on the game’s premier big man who uses such a good proportion of his average of 45.5 hitouts per game to such devastating effect in feeding a damaging midfield that plays strong pressure football and leads the AFL in contested possessions. The result is that I expect the Demon midfield to prevail even against their much vaunted and experienced Geelong counterparts. This will in turn translate on the scoreboard for the club that has kicked more goals than any other side in the competition this season. Moreover, their defence is much improved in terms of personnel than was the case at their last meeting when Michael Hibberd was a notable absentee and Sam Frost had yet to hit his current form high. The extra pressure of a stronger defensive unit should ensure that Jack Hawkins won’t embarrass them with anything like a seven goal straight performance and their other forwards will be kept under a tighter rein. All of which adds up to a Melbourne win by 38 points.

Just received this from the club via email.

I find these comments to be extremely accurate except for the fact that they are being used to mock my core beliefs.

I'm sure the Sporting Globe in Richmond will be showing it. Not quite City but close enough. http://www.sportingglobe.com.au/

Training in September? What is this witchcraft? I look forward to any in depth reports from intrepid Demonlanders.

Can't they just leave our AFLX alone? Or better yet bin it altogether.

Always worried when Walls tips us. * * Walls' previous prediction - https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/thewest.com.au/sport/afl/eagles-to-win-the-spoon-fremantle-to-play-finals-in-2018-says-robert-walls-ng-b88779554z.amp

This year’s games against the Cats will haunt us unless we get it right on Friday night. THE TEAMS GEELONG B: Tom Stewart, Jake Kolodjashnij, Zach Tuohy HB: Cameron Guthrie, Lachie Henderson, Jack Henry ? Mark Blicavs, Joel Selwood, Scott Selwood HF: Sam Menegola, Gary Ablett, Brandan Parfitt F: Quinton Narkle, Tom Hawkins, Daniel Menzel Foll: Rhys Stanley, Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan I/C: Jed Bews, Jordan Cunico, Jamaine Jones, Tim Kelly Emg: Ryan Abbott, Jordan Murdoch, Sam Simpson, Jackson Thurlow In: Jordan Cunico, Lachie Henderson Out: Wylie Buzza (omitted), Sam Simpson (omitted) MELBOURNE B: James Harmes, Sam Frost, Neville Jetta HB: Christian Salem, Oscar McDonald, Jordan Lewis ? Dom Tyson, Clayton Oliver, Nathan Jones HF: Jake Melksham, Jesse Hogan, Bayley Fritsch F: Jeff Garlett, Tom McDonald, Charlie Spargo Foll: Max Gawn, Angus Brayshaw, Bernie Vince I/C: Jay Kennedy Harris, Alex Neal-Bullen, Christian Petracca, Joel Smith Emg: Oskar Baker Cameron Pedersen Josh Wagner Sam Weideman In: Joel Smith, Dom Tyson Out: Mitch Hannan (jarred knee), Michael Hibberd (quad)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/melbourne/how-melbournes-golden-era-is-inspiring-the-currentday-demons/news-story/adaa788637dd4a27367fa8aff1267893