Dees_In_October

A lovely day at Casey Fields. Didn’t go home richer in $$$, but richer in Demon delight*. Was the helicopter stunt a success? Will the response (mediocre at best?) see any shift in strategy around playing there? Probably that's a discussion for another time. Anyway, the game itself. Loved our intent to start the game. The Saints would have been riding high after last week, so that tackle pressure right from the start and two early goals was important. And we were pretty much in control from there. Shout outs: Saraid, best game yet! We're doing something right in how we develop players Tayla, one of a kind Hanks 12 tackles Zanker 7 i50s (and yep, we're going to need some midfield options) Pearce and Heath with 12 contested possessions each Combo of Pearce and Campbell working well Hore 14 score involvements Goldie’s “superman” spoil Fitzy always gets the hard stuff done and starting to hit the scoreboard O’Hehir - all the signs are there It took Johnson’s goal (and a nice one it was) for me to realise she’d replaced Lampard as a late change. Anyone know what happened there? The fact that we made fewer interchanges (47/60 to 53/60) despite being a player down for over a half is also telling. Good to see Mick throwing around the magnets in the last; crucial early in a short season to work on Plan B and C and D and so on before it's forced through injury or opposition. * The huge asterisk on any enjoyment of course is the injury to Purcell… I can’t even. Just have everything crossed for some kind of miracle. She’s a gun and though we’re better positioned than last year (barring another injury plague), we simply can’t replace her.

Got the nom. A rollercoaster of a game in terms of hand-eye coordination for Tayla!

Dees in the media ICYMI. Eliza McNamara on the W Show afl.com.au/aflwW Show: Crows ‘complacency’, cross-coder on club radars,...Eliza McNamara joins the W Show to discuss all the biggest topics in the AFLW, how she plays footy despite constant pain from a back injury and the comp’s 74-player gameInteresting to hear how the non-selected players are getting match time during the season (basically, huge scrimmages involving several clubs, with 74 players rotating in and out). afl.com.au/aflwWhy this star Demon's 'other' job is more than a labour o...Eden Zanker worked a full-time job over the off-season that sparked plenty of questions from her teammatesFrom last week: afl.com.au/aflwBatman mask and Nanna Jill: How Demon made it through hor...When Liv Purcell had to decide between wearing a mask or missing a season, the choice was easy

Avg. games experience Melbourne's R2 team: 45.0 games StK's R2 team: 40.0 games Hoping to see Kate's lead extended in this game! Top 5 AFLW all-time leading goalkickers: Hore 83 goals (from 79 games) Ponter 82 (73) Garner 79 (90) Brennan 78 (64) Houghton 77 (75)

Good luck to all attending in winning the 10k! Would be cool if one of us got it. Heaven forbid it's a Saints fan.

I'm just grateful for ANY kind of selection headache. And feeling very wary of the Saints! @Ghostwriter Now that you know the sporting definition of "white line fever", who do you reckon has the worst case for the W Demons? I could speculate a few but hard to say without knowing off-field personalities! The most extreme case I've ever encountered was a school friend's mum who was the meekest, most gently-spoken and kind person, very unassuming. But get her on the netball court and watch out! The niggle, the aggression, the sledging. Then I'd see her in some other context and she was like a differently person again, bizarre. I suspect it's quite common in professional athletes though and might be quite a good thing psychologically to have separation between on and off-field.

Would like to find room for Gall but not sure how...

The eye must be ok if they let her fly that chopper 😁

Yes, and having people working across both programs is also crucial in retaining coaches in our AFLW program. I'm sure Mick is doing ok, but certainly the assistant and development coaches need to supplement their roles elsewhere for it to be financially viable. Ben Brown is an example of someone we lost to the women's team, and the club, because the club couldn't provide that.

This annoyed me so much in those years when we just couldn't quite beat them, and it was like, yeah, we're competing against several other Vic teams for talent. We had to do some creative recruiting, which thankfully our program had good people who went above and beyond to do (certainly there were other Vic clubs at the time that weren't so committed, with long-term effects still apparent). And Adelaide's unfettered access was NEVER talked about as a huge factor in their success. I understand why that was the case, and let's face it, the AFLW has never been the most equalised league, occasionally to our advantage, but still. I did always enjoy how the Dees "waited" until all 18 teams were in before winning a flag, just to do it properly 😉 If we ever get to every team playing each other once, I hope we win that one too.

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