Dee man

Tomorrow, we move forward into a new era of the Melbourne football club, but let's take a brief moment to reflect on those that could have been. This thread is dedicated to 12 years worth of Demons who never got to represent us in a final.

We could argue until Melbourne's next premiership (23 days and counting) as to why these players never got to represent the Demons in September. Some went on to better careers elsewhere, some were a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, while others just never developed into the players we wanted them to be, either through injury, poor development or situations we'd rather not remember. Alas, there's some handy names in this line-up, and I didn't even have to call on Blease, Gysberts, Maric, Strauss, Tapscott, et al.

Criteria:

• Didn't play in any of our finals games from 2004-2006
• Represented Melbourne between 2007 to 2017.
• Current Melbourne listed players haven't been included in this list
• Selection is based on their contributions from 2007-2017 to the Demons or clubs they joined after playing at the Demons. I considered players like Lumumba, Rodan and Byrnes but their contribution to AFL after being recruited by the Demons was minimal. And I know Mitch Clark only played 15 games with the Dees, but my god they were good. Ditto Daniel Cross' 39 games.

B:   Clint Bartram  James Frawley   Matthew Warnock
HB:  Colin Garland  Lynden Dunn     Joel Macdonald
C :  Jack Grimes(C) Daniel Cross    Jack Trengove
HF:  Jeremy Howe    Mitch Clark     Jack Watts
F:   Ricky Petterd  Liam Jurrah     Austin Wonaeamirri
R:   Stefan Martin  Jordie McKenzie Tom Scully
Int: Chris Dawes, Matt Jones, Kyle Cheney, Cale Morton
Em:  Paul Johnson, Jamie Bennell, Rohan Bail

Coach: Paul Roos

Anyone I missed? 

I think the nominations are based on the player's output during the 2018 season: an All Australian team for under 22 year olds you might say. As such, it would make sense that Lever would miss out as he hasn't played half the season. I think Hogan was young enough last year but didn't get nominated due to being injured.

With Gawn and Grundy both in excellent form, I think they're both on track to make the team - one on the ground, one on the bench.

Hogan is definitely worthy of a forward or bench spot. If he finishes in the top 5 of the Coleman and continues to average 20 touches a game I can't see how they could not reward him, but Brad Green circa 2010 says hi.

While Oliver is having as good as season as he had last year (if not better), I fear he might miss out again. As we saw with Jmac and Jones struggling to get a bench spot during their B+F years, it seems to takes a phenomenal season for someone to get rewarded with All Australia midfield selection. Our even spread may work to his disadvantage.

Hibberd and Jetta have both been down on their 2017 form with glimpses of brilliance (Hibberd last week, Jetta this week) and I don't think either deserve to make it unless they consistently play games like those in the 2nd half of the year. You only need to look at the Demonland leaderboard on the right hand side of the page to see that not even we, diehard fans and members of the Jetta church, have rated those guys that highly this year. At their best, both are no doubt among the best defenders in the game, as is Lever, but I think the All Australian team tends to reward consistent excellence. Furthermore, the All Australian tends to reward guys with great stats and Jetta's numbers are rarely that high.

With that said, there have been plenty of selections based on media hype so if the Demon fugazi continues, the whole 22 should be in with a chance.

My smokies, for what it's worth, are Oscar McDonald - who would surely be high on the reverse Coleman at the moment - and Christian Petracca - who is quietly averaging 21 disposals and 0.8 goals a game playing mainly as a forward. If he can get 30 goals for the season he could sneak into the forward pocket.