DEE fence

Having lost two in a row at Gather round I am not going early, but I have quite enjoyed some of the Essendon observations about us on their forum, posted here. It is quite enjoyable that Essendon fans are jealous of us.

Bomberblitz

Having endured the 2000 GF, I have plenty of hate left in my heart for this rabble, although I do appreciate Herbitron’s videos.

Watching different game

Kozzie was like a rapier, you don’t realize you’ve had a dozen holes poked in you.

I also think you need to watch Windsor and Langdon again ther were better than you give them credit for.

5 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Oh, that is tantalising. Would be great for him to kick a bag, but otherwise, we really need to make sure we get the win done for him.

I have a mate who goes for the Jabbers, who when they traded him claimed that Melksham was 'just a player' and nothing much. I'd say he's the sort of player they would have loved to have had over the past 10 years. Be great to show them what they missed out on and really rub it in.

I must admit I thought he was the Ginsu knives of the Hibbered deal, for which I am sorry. I also think he has benefitted with some maturity. He is a lethal quick decision maker who has his body right and that makes up for being a tad slow on the defensive pressure he can apply.

Melbourne has finally built the Very Fast Train, our transition is BOOMSHAKALAKA, the speed we move the ball is insane. I personally am glad I lived to see this, we (the club) have really gone and built something special. The club has a 2018 feel about it, not perfect but very exciting.

The May conference call disappearing into the rear view mirror of the media.

And best of all, we still have gears to go through, is not like we have peaked early, we have injuries and key players out, there is still capacity for more improvement.

I had a call from a Hawks mate (merde stirrer extraordinaire but astute judge of cattle) who watched ElJeffe in the Magoos , and he had high praise for how Jeffo was hitting the contest, said he has the game, and Luker seems to be building as well, the fight for spots is on.

5 hours ago, layzie said:

6. Steele - The man of.

5. Gawn - Had his way at centre bounces and made it look easy. I rate Witts highly but Max handled him.

4. Kozzie - Watching him play brings the same sensation as eating BBQ sauce

3. Sparrow - Watch him. He does not stop tackling

2. Melksham - Can he play forever?

1. Salem - Tidy tidy game

The whole side was great today. I was close to giving Howes a vote for his 1v1 work I thought he was great. Sharp keeps running, Lindsay, Lever everyone

This 6 for me too, to be clear everyone deserved votes

I’m still another ten years from even thinking about sympathy for the Blues, and twenty for their supporters. That said, Carlton did a power of work and didn’t get the rewards, this not fit enough is not right I saw real effort from the Blues, but they have some albatrosses that need murdering. For every great thing Cripps does, he murders momentum with his turnovers, McKay [censored] the guy is an oversized witches hat. These ‘leaders’ are the NQR, I’ve posted before that when our leaders wouldn’t take their set shots etc it undermined the confidence of the young blokes, I think that same thing is happening at Carlton. Happy enough for North, Parker having a real Indian summer in his career such a weapon when he is on. Curtis just added some dollars to his contract, some big game moments there.

Time to start the relocate Carlton to NZ/NT rumour I reckon, they’re a blight on the competition..

Petty is on a hiding to nothing, bloke has a go, great set of hands and brave as, far too many ready to sink the slipper in for my money. He plays a super tough position that magnifies any mistake, and he never drops his head even if he gets it wrong, he’s not perfect but he’s the best heavyweight defender we have.

7 hours ago, Macca said:

You have to wonder why Lyon would let a player like Steele go? (so easily) Doesn't make sense

I have no evidence for this, useless conjecture to be honest, but my sneaky suspicion is that Steele gave some feedback to Lyon he didn’t like.

6 - Kozzie

Gawn

Steele, very nearly 2nd, his tackling was enormous.

Chandler

Lever

1 - Fritsch, hardest player to rate sometimes, when he was flat footed it killed me, when he kicked it he was a superstar.

Apologies Langdon and Sparrow

10 hours ago, Waverley said:

If Every clubs dropped every sponsor for doing things the supporters don't like, then there will be no more sponsors left

There has to be a line otherwise we’d have Gazprom on our jumper, for me the line is effing over a great club servant.

On 26/03/2026 at 12:01, biggestred said:

Ive cracked. I'm putting tape over their logo when I whack on my guernsey on Sunday.

Yes I'm 42 and wear a footy jumper to the footy. What of it

If every Melbourne supporter did that… Media would probably edit it, but 100% it would get noticed.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/mar/25/afl-max-gawn-interview-250-games-talking-footy

Epic player, I particularly like the part of the article that mentions the mania of Demonland, 😁😁😁.

10 hours ago, bluey said:

Long knives out for “Captain Jack Sparrow” a premiership player who’s been working at the coal face for five years, whilst club heroes, Petracca, Oliver and Viney have been counting the members money.

Not every game can be bang, bang, bang.

Wash your mouth out, Viney has earned every cent.

Gawn

JVR

Brody M

Steele

Petty

Windsor

Lots of others worthy of one or two votes

@Demonland when you post the tally does that mean you’re done counting and votes are closed, what is the deadline?

Really happy with the game, but was surprised by some of the comments on players most agreed with but I saw some things differently.

Langford looks great on the wing, started with some good touches then drifted out of the game but not a nightmare. I think he’s Kouta like or will be, on the wing. I thought Ross made some moves and he lost that ability to run onto the ball on the wing.

Brody is a godsend for Roo, played the perfect foil role and looked really invested, his hard scrambling on he deck much appreciated, and I know his game was burning the Pie fans which is a double joy.

Sparrow looked like he was debuting, seemed very lost. Was thinking with him being trimmer he would be at more contests, maybe he was playing a role or a tag I didn’t understand?

Could not have been more surprised about Sharp, I really had marked his cards, am happily sorry.

Salem had a good game for his 200th, was on his bike a lot more too which was good last year I thought he picked and choose when he went, yesterday was full commitment.

Lever had a huge amount of rust but was cooking by the end of the 3rd, he’ll be ok, still very invested. (Just quietly I would have still liked to have May for that game, I am nervous about our defense, even considering changing my handle to DeeAttack.)

Disco was also a bit rusty but never dropped his head, and things came good.

Windsor could be in AA squad discussions by the end of the year, if he doesn’t get tagged people are really going to start noticing him, someone will tag him though and it will fall apart.

St Kilda roved Gawn’s taps well, was so frustrated about this, would have spanked them way more but we are not where I hoped we would be with roving to Gawn, who as has been said, is one for the ages. It’s just merde about TDK having a virus, they are trying to preserve his confidence, Gawn just melted the bloke. I reckon every coach in the AFL who is not King would be having words with their rucks about increasing their endurance. Gawn trained this, he wasn’t born on the side of Mt Kenya.

JC, his loopy kicks are not fun, but he ran hard and halved contests and his ability to move through traffic is nice, overall a positive and a lovely bloke, I don’t know how he doesn’t break though, the guy is made of vapour.

Petty should be getting more praise for his ruck cameo, his taps were effective and his leap brilliant at the Centre throw (god I miss the bounce) has a great leap. He was on yesterday, looked happy too.

Fritsch had a slow game but I didn’t see it like the 1st half of last year where effort was a question mark, the aints played him well.

Chandler had small cameos as well but they were all worthwhile.

Kozzie didn’t kick many but it really seemed to me like he was trying to embrace the game plan, he wasn’t doing things for himself, he was playing a team game. Also that he was doing things on the park after the week he had, made me really bloody happy. He has a lot going on but there is definitely love for the club and that says mountains about this coach and the last, and a big thank you to Wheels and Aaron who are keeping a deadly vibe going at the club.

Lindsay nothing much to say, will get better.

Langdon, most of the comments seem that people are taking him for granted, I thought he played a fine game, what he did worked.

Howes, not enough but he’s a defender and maybe I didn’t see how well he was working, is much harder to read defensive efforts off the ball watching on a TV.

Happy for Steele, it must really grind the aints he’s playing for us.

Fair Dunkin’ I thought we were going to see a coach killing margin. Lazy in a season where you will be able to throw a blanket over 10 teams, you can’t play Essendon every week. Feel sorry for them? Ef no, I know too many smug EFC supporters.

Essendon need Paul Roos for the rebuild.

That last play by the Hawks Weddle goal was brilliant

22 hours ago, The Cult of Disco Turner said:

Went to grad school with Darcy, was always a smart and well spoken guy—glad to see he’s in a position to make use of those traits.

Just curious but what is Grad school? I did VCE a 1000 years ago, he does present well though doesn’t he, still hate Collingwood though.

23 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Kane's criticism of Lamb is fair albeit with a few facts incorrect (like the Petty for first rounders). The decision to extend Viney made absolutely no sense and I think that will burn us in the end.

Clayton's deal at the time seemed completely reasonable but the due diligence by the club (not sure if that's Lamb's accountability or a shared one) was clearly not done properly.

There are times when we would have been effed without the hope and heart VINEY has given us, how do we know the extension wasn’t part of a handshake deal to reward a player that might have taken unders across the journey to allow some other fat contracts. VINEY has put himself through hell to be on the park and played like a lion, he is in the same category of heart as a Selwood, not pointing at you in particular but anyone going at the VINEY contract, pause and consider and maybe allow that there was more going on here. Rant over.

Just imagine if we had a resource tax on hydrocarbons similar to Norway… especially with a barrel hitting USD100, every sports team in the country would have elite facilities, and the arts, education, health, hell we could even build our own nukes and tell the seppos to nick off.

Butters or Bailey, I read that a lot of folks are very keen on the Gold Coast kid, personally I love Butters berserker nature, who do we go hard for ? I think we have done well with high end draft talent, I think we could do with another Lever / May type recruiting effort for some ready to go talent and bridge the rebuilding time. I also want insurance for Viney.

18 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I agree with Sam about not having Kozzie in the side.

A player that just got selected in the All Australian and had three x 5 goal/24 possession games isn't A grade worthy.

20 possessions and 2 goals a game across a season says different.

Harvey, Caleb, & Kozzie will all be very close to this mark. There is a reasonable chance Turner joins them and Xavier and Lindsay have the potential as well, the rest of our list has some really solid B’s. I think our list apart from forward 50, has as much promise as Richmond.

52 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Probably one for another thread, but something that really stood out to me today wasn’t just the younger/newer players coming into view — it was what they bring and how well we’ve managed to set ourselves up for the future.

It’s not as if we’ve got just one future star mid or a single key player to build a team around. It genuinely feels like we’ve got every position covered with emerging talent ready to take us forward for the next 10 years.

People talk about rebuilds - it looks like we had one without even noticing.

No offense but I noticed ;-P, but seriously, it’s a good point, there are some guys whose ceilings are unknown, I count 8 as either A or probable A listers and some very solid B’s, our worst 6 are not that shabby either

2 hours ago, Go Ds said:

Are intra club games better than these games?! Of course those 2 minutes simulations have nowhere near the same gravity as in a Home and away or final s game. But s surely it's better we can go allout in any simulation against another club then against teammates. While I wouldn't be happy to watch 20 of these two minute simulations in a row but why would anyone be bothered by them??

Considering how we merde the bed last year against St Kilda, I am more than happy to practice never ever doing that again.

I approve of the tone of this thread and am warmed by the melancholy that resides in my fellow demonlander’s hearts for other teams. Long live the death ride!

Note I say this after seeing JUH running around in a practice match, must admit to feeling bloody sorry for the doggies, that must burn as much as Trac/Oliver etc.