Dees_In_October

It does feel like Adelaide have come back to the pack a bit, but sounds like they let that one go. Still, St Kilda could be on the rise, so hopefully our girls will be switched on.

I hate giving votes, but I guess I did start this thread, so: 6 Hanks (just over the line on that scoreboard impact) 5 Purcell 4 Heath 3 Chaplin 2 McNamara 1 Mahony (great second efforts on debut)

In the interests of making this easier for Demonland or whoever to tally at season's end, I'll bring across the votes from the gameday thread. Add yours if you haven't already.

Did you watch? How did the Saints look?

What an uplifting game! The players' pride in the jumper was evident and they work so relentlessly for each other. A little tidbit I heard somewhere, I think in the Hanks and Viney presser a few days back, was that a large majority of our W list paid their own way to a voluntary camp in NZ in the offseason. That's not preseason - that's the uncontracted period where no one's getting paid. Such great commitment from our players and our program. Props to Tyla for making mention of this, in her usual understated way, to show what our team's about. A lot to like about the game itself. Hanks and Purcell - awesome. Heath would be loving the new HTB interpretation. Zanker's flubbed GOTY was a fun moment of levity and to be honest, as ridiculous as it was, I appreciate her moxy in making the attempt. Several players worked their way into it and will be better for the run. Great to get Kate through. Debutants all had their moments and contributed. Especially enjoyed Mahony's forward pressure. Our weakened backline held up well enough, though I wonder about more difficult challenges ahead; hopefully the cavalry will arrive. If you think structurally about the effect of having Gillard, Gall and Harris (for half) out of the game, that's not nothing. Tayla, such rotten luck. I'm sure every care will be taken, and hopefully all is well.

This isn't Ghostwriter-level insight, but I did see Georgia Gall down the local shops a few days ago and my medical diagnosis based on "casually strolling around a shopping centre with a teammate" is that she'll be good to go next week. This is the most intel I've ever been able to contribute and definitely my most random "Demons in the wild" encounter for some time.

Some numbers on Round 1 and the team, for those playing at home... Compared to the last round of 2024 Out: Gall, Gillard, Mithen, Watt, Wotherspoon In: Ebert, Harris, Mahony, O'Hehir, Paxman Avg. games experience Melbourne's S9 R1 team: 41.8 North Melbourne's S9 premiership team: 47.7 Melbourne's S10 R1 team: 41.9 Progression of Melbourne's Round 1 team games experience total 2017: 0 games 2018: 109 2019: 174 2020: 246 2021: 336 2022A: 481 2022B: 638 2023: 839 2024: 878 2025: 880 [The 2023 SF team had 1,018 games experience, likely our most experienced fielded] Our 2025 Round 1 team, as named, is the youngest (and not surprisingly, shortest!) we've fielded in Round 1 since Season 5 (2021), though the margins between some seasons are fairly minor. Half of our Round 1 team is aged 23 or under, including of course, the three debutant teenagers in Ebert, Mahony and O'Hehir. Hampson-Hardeman Cup Round 1 marks the 15th meeting of the Dees and Dogs for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup, named in honour of women's football pioneers Barb Hampson and Lisa Hardeman, who developed the first women's championships in 1992. The two clubs vied for the Cup in four exhibition matches running from 2013-2016, before continuing the tradition in the inaugural AFLW season in 2017. The Hampson-Hardeman Cup win-loss record for Melbourne is 10-4. The Bulldogs' 4 wins came in two exhibition matches and then in 2018 and 2021, respectively. Melbourne currently retain the cup from its victory in 2023, as the teams did not meet in 2024.

I think Goldie is just being eased back in after the Gaelic season - per your previous comment, you might have missed the chat here about that! Of course, if others end up ahead of her, that's a good sign overall.

If you've been crying out for better content from the MFC, if you need a lift to your Demon spirit and to be reminded about the great people behind the scenes at our club, or if you're footy fan at all (if not why are you here!), watch this:

Wow, this was well done.

Western Bulldogs v Melbourne at Mission Whitten Oval, 7.35pm AEST WESTERN BULLDOGSB: I.Grant 3 L.Ahrens 27 HB: E.Georgostathis 17 K.Kimber 28 B.Gutknecht 18 C: R.Wilcox 37 J.Fitzgerald 23 J.Smith 10 HF: S.Hartwig 15 E.McDonald 9 E.Blackburn - C 2 F: L.Stephenson 14 H.Woodley 19 Foll: A.Edmonds 33 D.Carruthers 8 I.Pritchard 4 I/C: C.Buttifant 20 E.Grigg 5 E.Gavalas 25 S.Poustie 1 E.Bennetts 11 Emerg: B.Barwick 12 K.Hardingham 24 A.McKee 26 MELBOURNEB: L.Ebert 19 S.Taylor 28 HB: M.O'Hehir 11 S.Lampard 8 M.Chaplin 13 C: P.Paxman 4 T.Hanks 5 E.McNamara 22 HF: M.Mahony 20 A.Bannan 6 E.Zanker 29 F: K.Hore - C 10 T.Harris 7 Foll: L.Pearce 15 O.Purcell 2 S.Heath 30 I/C: B.Mackin 31 G.Campbell 1 L.Johnson 33 M.Fitzsimon 24 A.Pisano 3 Emerg: R.Wotherspoon 12 A.Dethridge 14 S.Goldrick 23

Knowing the Casey wind, the balls will probably swirl around and change directions a few times on the way down. Good chance of scoring a free footy or yeah, getting sconed.

Of course, let's hope so. And I do appreciate that there's some real effort being made to put that game on people's radar (so to speak). Is two weeks enough time to build momentum? We'll see...

From @binman's post, it's clear what most people will choose - as the people who are mainly men's fans wouldn't forgo the men's to support the women, even in the situation where the women's is much more convenient to home, and even in a situation where the men aren't in finals contention. That isn't a dig at you, binman, it's just illustrative of something the AFL STILL somehow fails to understand when scheduling the W Demons - that many won't go to Casey, so Away fixtures at other Melbourne venues should be scheduled with an eye to picking up that audience. Rather than the approach taken in this case, which I think is, "It's a Bulldogs home game, so the timing with the Dees men's game doesn't matter" as long as it doesn't overlap for TV. It just boils to the same old lack of foresight that has been consistent for 10 seasons now. Hopefully when the men's is over, aside from Casey games, people will look to these more conveniently located matches: Round 3 v Collingwood at Vic Park Round 8 v Essendon at Ikon Park Back to the positives:

melbournefc.com.auInjury Report | Triple test as sights set on Round 1Check out Melbourne’s latest AFLW injury newsInjury list (12/8) Tayla Harris (ankle) – available S.Taylor (calf) – available B.Mackin (hamstring) – available Rigoni (knee soreness) – available Campbell (concussion) – available Hore (knee soreness) – test Chaplin (hamstring awareness) – test Goldrick (dealing with being a champ, round to oval ball transition, jet lag) – “slow approach” Gall (ankle) – 1 week D.Taylor (foot) – 4-5 weeks Colvin (MCL) – mid-season Beasley (ACL) – mid-season Gillard (MCL) – TBA

12th. 4 wins, 7 losses, all wins to bottom 8 sides. Very apt! And great write-up, Meggs. I think Mick Stinear is technically on 86 games, as he did miss one game somewhere along the way, for the birth of his child. Not sure if the records will actually reflect that though! It's going to be a great milestone either way. Haha we’ll see. As far as I can remember, the reason for my name (years before AFLW) was that I wanted to still be talking about the “Dees in October”, rather than getting to the end of the season and wanting to move on to the next year in the never-ending hope of a brighter horizon. Well, I was definitely still talking about the Dees in October in 2021, and October in 2022 on the AFLW side of things was certainly much discussed by me as well. Taking both into account, maybe it should be “Dees_in_December”? “Dees_Year-Round?” If the Hawks fans give you any lip, just remind yourself that we’ve supported women’s footy from the beginning, unlike those Johnny-come-latelies who had to beg for an AFLW licence because they dragged their feet... I have an intricate plan to try to get to both games, but it's going to be tight and the weather makes the prospect less appealing given the wracking cough I currently have. Might have to wait for what I’m calling “The Helicopter Game” at Casey in Round 2, which has some real "elephant at Arden Street" and "batmobile at the Grand Final" energy. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1851810/aflw-round-2-details

Good to see the recognition for Tyla. But Kate? Shoulda been higher.

Latest injury update. Reading between the lines: Harris - ankle (available) Campbell - concussion (available) B.Mackin - hamstring (test) S.Taylor - calf (test) Rigoni - knee soreness (test) Hore - knee soreness (test) Goldrick - wild celebrations (TBA) Gall - ankle (unavailable, TBA) D.Taylor - ankle (unavailable, TBA) Colvin - MCL (mid-season, running next week) Beasley - ACL (mid-season) Gillard - MCL (TBA)

Haven't read everything here, so apologies if this has been posted, but I thought this was a nice reflection on Goody and the evolution of the game, with some points we tend to forget about our dominant few years: Credit to Du BoisHistory doesn’t repeat itself, but often it rhymes — Cred...Simon Goodwin’s tenure as coach can, more than any other, be defined by a rule. Fitting for the coach of the Demons that this rule would be 6-6-6.

Kate also gave some promising comments regarding Tayla Harris's injury and Round 1: "A little ankle sprain. I don't think it's anything too major so she should be fine to go for round one. A little bit of a bump in the road but no doubt she's fine."

Apologies, think I misread what you meant here - yes, the coaching situation on the men's side will probably do a lot of drowning out! Even Kate Hore was asked for comment at the AFLW captains day today, to which she played a straight bat.

The seasons have overlapped since 2022, so it'll be the same as it's been for a while now. And really, when the men are not competing during September, there's less overlap.

Best wishes to Goody, always a premiership coach and no one can take away from that. I guess we'll never know now what a speech from him after winning a premiership would sound like (I'm still annoyed about how they skipped him in 2021!). With all the rumours and the media's relentless pursuit of him regarding off field stuff, he's had a lot to put up with. My overall sentiment at this point is that I have no idea what has actually gone in the club, and the checked out feeling I have about it all might reflect the need for change. We'll find out more about "what really happened" over the next several years, though I can't really say I'm looking forward to it. While I think the timing makes sense, I hope we can pay proper respect to Goody in some fashion in the coming weeks. Of course, he may not have been interested in a farewell game, which is understandable. Or maybe he even had one under the radar last weekend... Strange to think this is our first coach sacking since 2013. All I can hope for at this point is that there has been some planning behind this. I'm sad to see a premiership coach go, but I'll admit there is a part of me that's more excited for 2026 than previously.

Two words: Kozzie Pickett.

Amusingly after missing much of the praccy match, I found myself awake in the early hours and managed to watch quite a bit of Dublin's victory! Like so many others, Goldrick is one of my favourites just for the pure attack she has on the game, and it will surprise no one that this was on show in this game. She plays a very similar role as we see in AFLW, hustling and scrapping then providing lots of bounce off the defensive area. It was apparent why every time she gets the ball in Aussie Rules, the instinct to play on is so, so, ingrained. Weird thought I had while watching, I wonder how many people warned her about the Jimmy running over the mark incident when she first came to Australia? Or maybe it was a "let's not speak about it" situation... Anyway, I must admit as the minutes ticked away, and with Dublin well in front, I was keen for Sinead to maybe just take it easy. Of course, that was never going to happen. You can imagine my consternation when she went down with a leg issue late in the game. Seemed ok though and played out the final minutes despite several other substitutions being made, so nothing to be concerned about. So that's 4 All-Ireland championships for Goldie, to go along with her AFLW premiership. Super effort. Hope the winning feeling continues in Australia.