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I sit huddled in near darkness, the only light coming through flickering embers in a damp fireplace, the room in total silence after the thunderstorm died. I wonder if they bothered to restart the game. No point really. It was over before it started. The team’s five star generals in defence and midfield ruled out of the fray, a few others missing in action against superior enemy firepower and too few left to fly the flag for the field marshal defiantly leading his outnumbered army into battle. One of his loyal foot soldiers, Tom McDonald deserves a medal for bravery under fire. Kade Chandler was a defiant David but faced too many Goliaths and Kozzie took one down with a football act but, as they say, the victor gets to write the story when the battle’s won, particularly if the Match Review Officer is from the same side. On the ground, no eyes on the football, plentiful fumbling, indecisive movement and little or no pressure applied on opponents. The brothers Daicos cut swathes like butter through enemy lines in the tradition of their forebear, history's greatest and most successful military commander, Alexander the Great of Macedonia. The troops they led into battle was no rogue’s army although judging by the way the crowd bayed for the blood of the mastermind of a past defeat, you would have been forgiven for thinking he was an alleged war criminal sitting in chains awaiting judgement at The Hague. Well done Collingwood. They were brilliantly coached. The purpose of cutting off the Demons’ few main remaining strengths was achieved. Sidebottom stopped Jack Viney. Max won his battle in the ruck but the combined height of their two big ruckmen was ironically a counterpoint to that advantage. Brodie Grundy sits in Sydney triumphantly mocking both sides awaiting the glory of the finals to come in a future that includes former teammates lazing in the sunshine of Ibiza or some island in the Caribbean at the very same time. It was at the 20 minute mark of the third quarter with the Magpies defending a 21 point lead, that my mind wandered to a similar stage of the Demons’ final home and away game played in an empty stadium three years ago. Melbourne stormed home that evening, willed to win by an enormous reservoir of self-belief that ended in a goal-after-the-siren victory. Melbourne had that magic ingredient in 2021; the ability to win against all odds with teeth gritted firmly, something sadly missing in 2024. No come-from-behind victories this year. As the 60th minute of our last quarter slowly ticks away, I sit here in silence wondering if they restarted the game and whether we made our comeback. MELBOURNE 1.1.7 4.4.28 7.5.47 8.9.57 COLLINGWOOD 5.4.34 8.5.53 12.8.80 15.13.103 GOALS MELBOURNE Pickett Tholstrup 2 Billings Chandler Turner van Rooyen COLLINGWOOD Cameron N Daicos Hill Lipinski 2 Allen Crisp Elliott Hoskin-Elliott Parker Richards Sidebottom BEST MELBOURNE McDonald Gawn Chandler Pickett Billings Rivers COLLINGWOOD N Daicos J Daicos Lipinski Allan Hill Sidebottom INJURIES MELBOURNE Jake Bowey (knee) COLLINGWOOD Darcy Moore (concussion) LATE CHANGES MELBOURNE Jake Lever (illness) replaced by Taj Woewodin COLLINGWOOD Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil COLLINGWOOD Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie (replaced Jake Bowey at half-time) COLLINGWOOD Finlay Macrae (replaced Darcy Moore at half-time) UMPIRES Leigh Fisher Brett Rosebury Ray Chamberlain Simon Meredith CROWD 53,957 at the MCG

The wind and the hot unseasonable temperatures together with lights turned on mid game at People First Stadium conspired to leave many Suns players and supporters red faced and gasping for air as the Demons proved a number of points on their way to a nine goal triumph on Saturday afternoon in the Carrara sunshine. Melbourne is the only non-Queensland team to taste victory at this venue in 2024. This surely leaves a number of journalists and media mavens red faced after they rushed to pass judgement about a club in crisis when it dropped out of finals contention. The win doesn’t answer all the questions they raised but it does question their own knowledge and understanding of the club’s situation. The problem in the main being that while sporting clubs in the public eye always come under scrutiny when they perform below expectations (and deservedly so), the conflation of on and off field issues at the club to a level where it was allegedly suffering a seemingly self-administered and terminal curse was more than somewhat over the top. The fact of the matter is that the display put on by the Demons at People First Stadium on Saturday afternoon was not that of a team one would expect to be hemorrhaging from some alleged rotten culture as painted by the pundits. The Suns were touted as firm favourites to win, particularly after Clayton Oliver was ruled out after undergoing surgery on one of the multiple ailments that affected his performance this year. With superstar Christian Petracca already out half a season with a ruptured spleen, champion ruckman Max Gawn affected by a problem ankle, Jack Viney favouring his shoulder, running machine Alex Neal-Bullen leaving for family reasons and Tom Sparrow injured early in the match, the on-field issues highlighted in the media suggested the Sun’s favouritism was fully justified. Mind you, someone forgot that the team in question had just lost to second placed Port Adelaide by 2 points and by the same margin a fortnight before to third placed GWS to add to previous narrow defeats at the hands of Brisbane away and Carlton. As it turned out, Melbourne’s new midfield problem area being an inability to win at clearances, was illusory. The on ballers won the clearance battle 45 - 36 aided by another Gawn masterclass (how does he do it?) to rattle the home side from the outset and then finish all over them with a brilliant seven goal final-quarter surge in the sun that crushed them mercilessly. And the architect behind the success of a winning performance that the football world thought unlikely because it accepted the premise of the media lynch mob was Jack Viney who some had written off as North Melbourne bound. He shrugged off the early physical blows and beat a handy opponent in Matt Rowell, willed and heroically crashed his way through stoppage after stoppage to provide nine clearances, managing also to kick a couple of nice goals in the swirly conditions. Viney was the guardian angel. Alongside him, Ed Langdon floated tirelessly on a wing notching up 37 possessions to put his team in the van to set up the victory. Under Viney’s wings, Trent Rivers continued his role as an emerging presence in the middle of the ground left vacant by the team’s injured superstars while Judd McVee promisingly began his own apprenticeship in the midfield boiler room. The Demon defence was solid and held together by Tom McDonald, Adam Tomlinson, Marty Hore and Christian Salem but it was the forward line that finally gelled with Daniel Turner (four), Harrison Petty (three) and Jacob van Rooyen (three) all among the goals. Tucked away amid the excitement and interest of an intriguing end to the AFL home and away season, the win might not count as a famous victory in the scheme of things. It might not mean much at all but then again, it might be the portent to a revitalised Melbourne in 2025 and beyond. MELBOURNE 3.2.20 8.5.53 11.5.71 18.9.117 GOLD COAST SUNS 3.2.20 7.5.47 8.6.54 9.9.63 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 4 Petty van Rooyen 3 Melksham Viney 2 Fritsch Langdon McPhee Tholstrup GOLD COAST SUNS Flanders King Witts 2 Davies Holman Weller BEST MELBOURNE Viney Langdon Rivers Turner Howes Salem GOLD COAST SUNS Anderson Flanders Uwland Weller Witts INJURIES MELBOURNE Tom Sparrow (ankle) GOLD COAST SUNS Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GOLD COAST SUNS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jake Melksham (replaced Tom Sparrow in the second quarter) GOLD COAST SUNS David Swallow (replaced Ben Long at three-quarter time) UMPIRES Nicholas Brown Tom Bryce Harrison Birch Cameron Jones CROWD 13,026 at People First Stadium

History will probably not remember Melbourne’s Round 22 loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday night at the MCG. After all, what was there worthy of retaining in the memory banks for supporters to take away from a game where the sides found it a struggle to find the goals and their combined score barely passed 100 points? Perhaps, the meagre attendance of less than 18,000 at a Melbourne game against a finals-bound opponent at the MCG for the second time in a fortnight that saw so many embarrassing gaps in the stadium’s sitting areas and a singular lack of crowd participation to cheer the team home in a close finish? Or, if one AFL club coach is to be believed, to provide sufficient noise of affirmation to draw a favourable umpiring decision for the home side at a crucial moment late in the game? Or the efforts of Kysaiah Pickett, who scored four of his team’s seven goals (including the goal that put Melbourne back in front at the eleven minute mark of the final quarter) in a best on ground performance which almost singlehandedly won the game for his team? On top of those four goals, Pickett who has been criticized recently for not contributing enough in matches, put together a classy display of 21 disposals, four marks, six tackles, eight score involvements and multiple high pressure acts. Or the number of opportunities squandered after Pickett’s final term goal that could have seen an unlikely Demon victory in light of Port’s demolition of league leader Sydney by almost 19 goals a week earlier? Squandered opportunities that led to the club’s fourth defeat this season by less than a single goal. Let that sink in - an extra goal per game could have seen the club still vying for a qualifying final appearance. As Melbourne Simon Goodwin said afterwards: “I thought certainly through the middle part of the (last) quarter we had some dominance where we could have hit the scoreboard a little bit more and I think that was probably the story of the night.” Or the heroic effort of injury-stricken leaders Max Gawn and Jack Viney as they constantly willed themselves into a contest that each could be excused for having given a miss altogether? The Demons had far too few consistent four quarter contributions in the game although honourable mentions should go to Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Salem who played their hearts out and a number of others who tried and kept Melbourne in the game against a hard-working and more motivated opponent. After all, the Demons won the contested possession count 160 to 130 - an area in which they have been deficient for a good part of the season. Or the possibility that illness within the group soured the team’s last ditch stand to maintain credibility among the competition’s middle tier? Perhaps one memorable highlight might be that Max cemented his All-Australian credentials because he is far and above every other contender for that post in this competition? The best that can be said of Melbourne is that it ends the round as one of the better sides to ever sit in thirteenth place on the ladder - a fact that is not one that will ever provide a lasting memory to many Demon fans.  MELBOURNE 2.3.15 4.5.29 6.5.41 7.9.51 PORT ADELAIDE 2.4.16 3.8.26 5.8.38 7.11.53 GOALS MELBOURNE Pickett 4 Fritsch
 Langdon Neal-Bullen PORT ADELAIDE Dixon Horne-Francis 2 Butters Byrne-Jones Narkle BEST MELBOURNE Pickett Gawn Viney Neal-Bullen Salem
 Petty PORT ADELAIDE Horne-Francis Butters Rozee Houston Boak Burgoyne INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil PORT ADELAIDE Marshall (concussion) LATE CHANGES MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (illness) replaced in selected side by Jack Billings Jake Bowey replaced in selected side by Blake Howes PORT ADELAIDE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil PORT ADELAIDE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jake Melksham replaced Jacob van Rooyen in the fourth quarter
 PORT ADELAIDE Quinton Narkle replaced Todd Marshall at half-time UMPIRES Hayden Gavine Andrew Heffernan Brent Wallace Nicholas McGinness CROWD 17,867 at the MCG

Melbourne fell out of the premiership race after producing a half-hearted effort against Footscray on Friday night. The team was barely recognizable from the one that, earlier in the season, established a 6/2 win-loss ratio that included a 55-point thumping of the Bulldogs in Round 1. It was a poor effort from a team that had its entire season on the line and the blame falls almost squarely on the midfield which has collapsed from being a peerless premiership-winning combination to the level of bumbling incompetence, this despite having a valiant leader in the form of skipper Max Gawn winning the ruck duels. Given the Demons were playing against a team on a five day break, it was important that they came out, played competitively and remained in the game, forcing the Bulldogs to expend energy and wilt later in the game. None of that happened and, instead it was the Demons who presented as a sinking ship, tired and listless. From the opening bounce, it was obvious that only one of the teams had come out to play. The hungry Bulldogs relishing the occasion of returning to their Footscray roots, carved up their opponents all over the ground but it started at in the boiler room where they hunted the ball, made space, created multiple avenues to goal and used their height advantage to perfection. The Demons were routed at the stoppages early in the game. They conceded the first ten clearances to the Bulldogs (a fortnight ago it was the first 15 against the Dockers) and it was only the errant kicking of the Footscray forwards that prevented it from being a massacre of Alice Springs proportions. The team looked disorganized and inept, there was little run and spread, the use of handball was poor and too many kicks went high in the air which suited an opponent with a significant height advantage. Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney were well down on their best with neither looking fully fit. To add to the disarray, Steven May was off before the main break with a recurrence of his early season rib injury. There was no Christian Petracca to conjure up goal scoring opportunities like Marcus Bontempelli and no Kozzy Pickett magic to replicate the way Cody Weightman created chaos in their attacking zone. Gawn stood tall as usual but the Bulldogs overwhelmed the Demons with their tall timber. His lieutenant Jacob van Rooyen continues to make inroads as does Trent Rivers while Tom Sparrow responded to his recent omission with a solid performance. The overreaching feeling from the game was how apparent it was that the Bulldogs are building towards a promising month or two ahead while Melbourne has lapsed and run completely out of puff at the business end. MELBOURNE 1.1.7 5.1.31 7.3.45 9.5.59 FOOTSCRAY 4.7.31 6.13.49 11.17.83 15.20.110 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch Pickett Sparrow 2 Gawn Rivers Woewodin FOOTSCRAY Bontempelli Naughton Treloar Ugle-Hagan Wightman 2 Darcy English Poulter Richards Williams BEST MELBOURNE Gawn Bowey Rivers Sparrow Langdon van Rooyen FOOTSCRAY Bontempelli Treloar Dale Lobb Weightman Liberatore INJURIES MELBOURNE Steven May (ribs) FOOTSCRAY Tom Liberatore (right ankle) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil FOOTSCRAY Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Daniel Turner (replaced Steven May at half time) FOOTSCRAY Caleb Daniel (replaced Tom Liberatore at three-quarter time) UMPIRES Brett Rosebury Matt Stevic Jamie Broadbent Brent Wallace CROWD 33,000 at Marvel Stadium

Melbourne fans were put through the wringer on Saturday and ended the night with a sinking feeling as their team suffered a two-point loss to the GWS Giants at the MCG in front of their ailing coach and fell to 11th on the AFL ladder, a game and percentage outside of the top eight. With only four rounds left to play, they must now win every game to advance to the finals. The Demons welcomed back skipper Max Gawn and were off to a flyer as they kicked five goals to one to take a quarter-time lead of 27 points. In the cut throat game that football has become in a year when so many teams are in line for September action, you need to take advantage of every opportunity and whilst they had a handy lead at the first break, it could have been greater with one or two opportunities lost through poor disposal when going forward. The Giants had come back from an even worse position three or four weeks ago against the Blues and they repeated the dose this time kicking 12 of the next 15 goals. They did it by taking control of the midfield, and breaking the Demons’ defensive structures with plenty of run and spread. They kicked with greater accuracy both in front of goal (65% to 52% in scoring shots) and disposed of the ball better in general play where they led by 74% to 66% in effective disposals. GWS also had some luck with a clear 50m penalty missed that could have given away a goal early and a clever drop of the knees by Toby Greene that drew a free kick in front of goal. You need these things to go your way in close results but the visitors earned the victory by taking their chances against a more predictable opponent. They did that to good effect in coming back to within three points at the main break and then weathered the Demons’ storm in the arm wrestle that ensued until time on in the third quarter when held goalless during a period when they were on the back foot. They then changed gears, applied the heat and kicked three goals to one to take the lead by three points at the final break. With former Demon Jesse Hogan on fire, taking marks at will and kicking goals with his stuttering run up, the Giants stunned the embarrassingly small crowd of 16,246 with four goals in the first seven minutes of the final term to open up a 27-point lead, marking a 54-point turnaround since quarter time. The following 25 minutes of time to the final siren were excruciating for Demonkind as their team made a late surge that fell short by two points, their third defeat by less than a goal for the season. Imagine, an extra goal in each of those games, would have put them in second position on the table at this stage. Although the team was beaten in the middle, Clayton Oliver responded to his critics (as if he had to) and Trent Rivers and Jack Viney plugged away for their team. Jake Lever was a stout defender and Ed Langdon added with his drive from the wing. Max Gawn was clearly not at his best after a two week absence with his ankle injury but there were too many others who failed to apply themselves for the full hundred minutes. The irony of Hogan’s match winning goal kicking was not lost on the fans who missed out on similar heroics at their end of the field. The Demons return to action on Friday night when they take on the rising Western Bulldogs who look likely finalists after occupying Melbourne’s current place just a few weeks back. That will give coach Simon Goodwin some pause for thought as he makes his recovery to good health and considers the way to prevent his team from sinking out of the finals picture. We wish him well. MELBOURNE 5.5.35 6.7.43 8.9.57 12.11.83 GWS GIANTS 1.2.8 6.4.40 9.6.60 13.7.85 GOALS MELBOURNE Chandler Fritsch 2 Gawn Langdon Melksham Neale-Bullen Petty Pickett van Rooyen Viney GWS GIANTS Hogan 4 Greene 3 Daniels 2 Bedford Green McMullin Ward BEST MELBOURNE Rivers Viney Lever May Oliver Langdon GWS GIANTS Green Greene Hogan Daniels Callaghan Whitfield INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil GWS GIANTS Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GWS GIANTS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Daniel Turner, replaced Jack Billings at three-quarter time GWS GIANTS Joe Fonti, unused UMPIRES Nick Foot Justin Power Hayden Gavine CROWD 16,246 at the MCG

Melbourne’s worst fears about the absence of Max Gawn were realised when it received a shellacking from Fremantle’s ruckmen Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson who dominated the hit out tally in their game at Optus Stadium on Sunday by a massive 47 to 19. As a result, the 50-point deficit at the end of the game proved to be a loss that was long foreseen that was two years in the making and demonstrated a complete lack of hindsight and planning from the club. To add insult to injury, Jackson was a Demon ruckman two years ago and the club had plenty of time to find a backup ruckman for its skipper when he departed. The first attempt to do so netted Brodie Grundy and that was a failure. The club knew well before the end of the 2023 season that Grundy would not be playing for it this year but its attempt to supply with a big man capable of providing a contest in the ruck against one competent ruckman, let alone two, was another abject failure. Without the teeming rain of the previous Saturday night to give a helping hand, it sent two key forwards in Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen. who might be a decent size for that role but not when the task is to curb two influential big ruckmen with size and skills. The result was predictable and what made it worse was that by moving two strong key forwards to other duties impaired the operation of the forward line which failed to function with any effect. Again, we saw a goalless quarter – this time in the first. Melbourne was thrashed in the very area where from which play starts, conceding the worst first half clearance figures since the statistic was first recorded late last century. Fremantle led clearances 24-3 at the main break with both Caleb Serong and Hayden Young having five by that time. This, on the same ground that the Demons had that many in a three-minute patch late in the third term of a grand final not so long ago. By game’s end, the Dockers mids had the upper hand in clearances by 47-15, 13 more forward entries and significant victory at a crucial time when a top four and finals eight appearance was on the line. As coach Simon Goodwin said: “There was a lot more to the game than just hit outs. Our midfield’s ability to win the ball, defend contest areas with the right method, stop allowing the ball to get to the outside – there are things that we’ll look at. True, they were well beaten in contests and when the opposition win 40 more than you do, then it’s game, set and match but it’s made immeasurably worse when, on the occasions, you get your hands on the footy, you can’t hit your targets. It doesn’t help when premiership midfielders Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney are in struggle mode because your younger brigade relies heavily upon them for inspiration . Trent Rivers was the best of a beaten midfield. Despite being well beaten in the ruck, Jacob van Rooyen worked hard and was the Demons best player in his home State. Steven May was strong in a losing defence and Judd McVee, another local did his best under strong enemy fire. A special mention to Jack Billings who has copped a bit off flack in recent times. He returned as a sub and made such a difference when he came on in the third term that I named him in the best players for his team although on this week, that’s not such a big deal. However, it is a big deal on limited game time to finish with 18 touches and a goal, seven marks, most inside fifties and third in metres gained. More from the coach: “We’ve got six days playing the Giants at home, we just get back to work, and work on our game, and get our contests game back. That’s the first thing that needs to come back and come back really quickly.” He’s not kidding because unless they come back quickly, the worst of our fears will be realised. MELBOURNE 0.2.2 3.3.21 6.5.41 10.6.66 FREMANTLE 3.5.23 7.9.51 11.11.77 17.14.116 GOALS MELBOURNE Chandler van Rooyen 2 Billings Langdon Melksham Petty Turner Windsor FREMANTLE Amiss Walters 4 Sturt Treacy 3 Clark Jackson Serong BEST MELBOURNE van Rooyen May McVee Rivers Billings Petty FREMANTLE Brayshaw Treacy Serong Darcy Young Walters Clark INJURIES MELBOURNE Salem (tight hamstring) FREMANTLE Jackson (corked calf) Pearce (arm) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil FREMANTLE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jack Billings (replaced Koltyn Tholstrup in the third quarter) FREMANTLE James Aish (replaced Alex Pearce in the third quarter) UMPIRES Brendan Hosking Simon Meredith Nathan Toner Andre Gianfagna CROWD 42,215 at Optus Stadium

Who said the football gods and scoreboard attendants at the MCG don’t have a sense of humour? The gods spent a whole week teasing Demon and Bomber fans alike about Saturday night’s game. About how the entire match would be dominated by the hulking, brooding figures of 205cm Sam Draper and his 2IC Peter Wright lapping it up in the absence of Melbourne skipper and the club's No.1, No 2, No 3 and No 4 ruckman Max Gawn in the wake of that ankle injury. They painted pictures of Simon Goodwin nervously sending a bevy of undersized makeshift ruckmen out into a gunfight with a defective Swiss Army knife. The end result in this scenario would be painful for the ailing Demons already without another superstar in Christian Petracca and with Clayton Oliver well down on form while the Bombers’ own newfound midfield gods were propelling them into the stratosphere of a potential top two finish. For Demon fans, the script provided for more doom and gloom in an already derailed season that spelled an end to its mini “dynasty” of one flag, the hopes of seeing more premiership success on their beloved home of football at any time soon. But the gods were about to have their laugh by moving the goalposts somewhat. The MCG scoreboard attendants were in on the joke. They put it up there on the big screens for all to see in the form of Australian band when they played the 1983 hit of legendary Antipodean rock band Dragon, simply titled “Rain”. It was already coming down in buckets before the game started and Bayley Fritsch managed to allay some early fears when he spun around for the first goal but it didn’t take long for Draper to stamp his dominance in the ruck. This soon became panic stations when Melbourne’s defensive structures fell down and Essendon began to pick free targets at will to kick three goals in quick succession. The doomsday script was seemingly on track. It took two goals late in the term to all but even things out at the first break … and then the gods and Goodwin had their laugh. The heavens opened again. It teemed down and the Demons teamed up, playing good old fashioned contested football with acting skipper Jack Viney, Trent Rivers (who was already having a good game), Clayton Oliver (coming out of his shell) and Alex Neal-Bullen going in heads down, bum up winning the clearances and rattling opponents while Harry Petty and Jacob van Rooyen nullified the Bombers’ height advantage to the point where Brad Scott was forced to dispense with Two Metre Peter altogether in the third term as he was becoming a liability. You can’t underestimate the value provided by van Rooyen in the heat of the battle. Nor the work rate of Ed Langdon (31 disposals and a goal) and Caleb Windsor who was not as prolific as his team mate on the other wing but he was so polished. Then there was Kozzy Pickett in his 100th game who shone out in the difficult conditions with some sublime passages of brilliance which put the fear of god whenever he was thereabouts. Melbourne kept its two to three goal buffer throughout the third term, adding marginally to its lead and then went on a scoring spree in the first half of the last quarter when it jumped out to a 41-point lead on the back of some goal kicking accuracy and heroics from Jake Melksham, Fritsch and Turner. Whether it was the six-day break, the younger bodies or a surge of umpiring decisions that went against them, it’s hard to tell but once again they leaked goals at the end, losing valuable percentage in what will remain a tough race to make the final eight. Until that late Bomber surge, the Melbourne defence was virtually impenetrable with its key players Steven May, Jake Lever and Tom McDonald holding sway and Judd McVee acting ever so coolly as the smiling assassin of the Bombers attack. In the end, the big figure was Melbourne’s +12 advantage in clearances and not the -16 deficit in hit outs. It remains a mystery as to how the final margin was so close but even this was probably the result of some Demons up in the heavens having a laugh. MELBOURNE 3.2.20 6.6.43 8.6.54 13.6.84 ESSENDON 3.3.21 4.5.29 5.7.37 10.7.67 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch Turner 3 Melksham Pickett 2 Chandler Langdon Windsor ESSENDON Martin 4 Duursma Langford 2 Durham Jones BEST MELBOURNE Rivers Oliver Langdon Melksham Windsor Pickett ESSENDON Ridley Martin Merrett McKay Shiel INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil ESSENDON Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil ESSENDON Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Andy Moniz-Wakefield in the fourth quarter) ESSENDON Nick Hind (replaced Peter Wright in the third quarter) UMPIRES Nick Foot Andrew Stephens Nathan Williamson Cameron Dore CROWD 52,866 at The MCG

Things have changed in the more than ten years since the West Coast Eagles decimated Melbourne by 93 points on the MCG early in the 2014 season. The two sides had not met at the home of football in the interim until yesterday when Melbourne won by a comfortable 54 points to remain in contention for this year’s finals series. Back in those days, the Demons were in the midst of their Great Depression but they have since tasted premiership glory and experienced a long enough period among the top echelons of the AFL that their fans became spoiled. A few weeks ago however, all that changed and for the first time since the early days of the Covid epidemic, we were all challenged by the prospect of the team being pushed off the top shelf and relegated to a place among the also rans. A win against a team that is well down the ladder, out of form and traveling across the continent is no big deal. The Eagles are young but the Demons are younger. The visiting team looked jaded at times and played as if they might have checked out on the season already. However, the way in which the win was achieved provides scope for optimism for Demon fans because this was a Melbourne team so different to the one that has spoiled its fans in recent years. The overriding theme is youth and the scene was set early in the opening five minutes when fourth gamer Koltyn Tholstrup scored his AFL goal before repeating the dose a minute later. His enthusiasm over the rest of the game was infectious and while it’s early in his career, he’s living in the moment. It might be a long way from here to the Christian Petracca stratosphere but it’s a space worth watching. Enter the multitasker Jacob van Rooyen who played two separate roles to perfection. He was particularly dangerous in front of the big sticks in the first half with his strong marking and four goals. He missed a couple of easy ones in the second half but he could be excused because he was also engaged in playing second ruck to Max Gawn, a role that was expanded in the final quarter when the skipper was subbed off with what was explained as a right ankle niggle. Daniel “Disco” Turner added to the pressure up forward and kicked a nice goal as well as playing a role in the transition of the ball forward. Meanwhile, 22-year-old Trent Rivers who is approaching his 100th AFL game was relishing his long awaited elevation from defence into the midfield. In a best on ground performance, the long-kicking Rivers managed to accumulate a career high (and game high) 29 disposals along with seven clearances and nine score involvements. Rivers told the media after the game: “Goody (Simon Goodwin) threw me in there for a little bit last year, but to be (in there) full-time, I’m loving it.” “I was nagging at him a little bit, but I’m grateful that he’s given (me) the opportunity, and hopefully (I can) repay him for the favour.” With Petracca out for the year, Jack Viney playing well and applying the pressure whilst not prolific in gathering the football and Clayton Oliver being heavily tagged, Rivers was a standout but he had a couple of rivals around the middle stratas of the MCG in Ed Langdon and another first year wonder in Caleb Windsor. The former returned to his best form for a while but the latter had some stellar patches with his 25 touches and a lovely goal. Then there was Kozzie Pickett who finally took that hanger but failed to convert with the ensuing kick but, along with Alex Neal-Bullen, they certainly kept the Eagle defence on its toes. And speaking of defence and youngsters, Judd McVee and Andy Moniz-Wakefield each applied themselves to the task. The infusion of youth has seen a team with more run and more confidence to take the game on – something that was lacking during the recent midseason slump. Of course, it wasn’t all youth that did the damage. Max Gawn was strong in the ruck and around the ground until injured and Christian Salem’s return was most welcome. The Melbourne defence works much better now that Jake Lever has been reunited with Steven May and Tom McDonald, the only survivor from the 2014 debacle playing in the same position at centre half back ten years after, was relishing the fact that he’s fit, injury free and playing like a youngster once again. It was also good to see Bayley Fritsch getting among the goals again and on an emotional level, Jake Melksham’s two goals on return from his ACL injury was a real fillip for the team. The real test for the new young Demons is coming over the next month and a half. Every game from hereon is against a contender and the greater bulk of them must be won, starting with Essendon on Saturday night at the MCG. MELBOURNE 7.3.45 11.5.71 14.9.93 17.10.112 WEST COAST EAGLES 1.2.8 3.4.22 6.8.44 8.10.58 GOALS MELBOURNE van Rooyen 4 Fritsch 3 Melksham Pickett Tholstrup Gawn Langdon Turner Windsor WEST COAST EAGLES Allen 4 Waterman 2 Darling Ryan BEST MELBOURNE Rivers Windsor van Rooyen Langdon Pickett Viney WEST COAST EAGLES Yeo Kelly Allen Hutchinson B Williams INJURIES MELBOURNE Gawn (ankle) Pickett (finger) WEST COAST EAGLES Allen (ankle) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil WEST COAST EAGLES Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Max Gawn in the fourth quarter) WEST COAST EAGLES Jack Williams (replaced Tyler Brockman at three-quarter time) UMPIRES Robert O'Gorman Simon Meredith Andrew Adair Nick Jankovskis CROWD 32,000 at The MCG

Somehow, the Melbourne Football Club managed it twice in the course of a week. Coach Simon Goodwin admitted it in his press conference after the loss against the Brisbane Lions in a game where his team held a four goal lead in the third term: "In reality we went a bit safe. Big occasion, a lot of young players playing. We probably just went into our shell a bit. "There's a bit to unpack in that last quarter … whether we go into our shells a bit late in the game." Well … actually … that’s exactly what happened on the previous Saturday night when his charges went far too early into a save the game mode after leading by 39 points in the shadows of three quarter time. Admittedly, the Demons’ line up is very young and missed the experience of premiership defenders in Christian Salem and Jake Bowey (not to mention the other Christian at the club) but, really, you have to learn from your mistakes in this caper and the way things unfolded, it all seemed like insanity (and no offence intended here to the mentally ill). The same tactic when the team’s energy was sagging and some extra run was needed, and the same, very, very late decision to bring on a fresh speedy substitute in Kynan Brown. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The above words have been attributed to theoretical physicist and genius Albert Einstein but fact checkers say there is no evidence he ever said this. There’s no doubt however, that he developed the theory of relativity and my thought patterns didn’t have to travel at the speed of light when I saw the repeat of last week happening in slow motion as the final quarter unfolded. Not to mention that a more attacking disposition in those two games might easily have seen Melbourne sitting in fifth place and breathing right down the necks of a couple of top four sides. The Lions’ comeback was assisted by their midfield lifting its work rate in the second half as well as some generosity and largesse from the umpires. Certainly, it could be argued that the vital decisions that went their way were there to be paid but others of similar ilk were not and it hurt Melbourne this week, as it always does in such close games. Earlier, the Demons did well to control a strong start from the Lions in the opening quarter. In the second term, they overwhelmed their opponents with new-found ferocity around the ball through Jack Viney, Clayton Oliver and emerging midfielder Trent Rivers. Thanks to some great finishing work from the unstoppable Kozzie Pickett and the accuracy of Jacob van Rooyen, they added 8.2 for the quarter. Ironically, they managed only 2.8 for the rest of the game with a few of those shots coming tantalisingly close in the game’s final moments. The Lions were also inaccurate in front of goal all night but a lot of that can be attributed to the Demons’ pressure. Unfortunately, the team also had its offenders in front of goal with Harry Petty’s 0.4 and Bayley Fritsch’s 1.3 contributing to the mess. Petty, in particular, missed some sitters that might have resulted in icing the game by the early stages of the final quarter. And speaking of icing, one wonders at the strategy of having a player with a recent history of foot injuries, going up in ruck contests. You might think this is a bit insane, but I would not be surprised if Petty earns the title of mystery injury of the week next Thursday night and ends up among the missing for a little while. Along with the spirit of the second quarter, there were still a number of encouraging signs from the game. In particular, the younger brigade. Caleb Windsor continues his fine early work and remains well up there among the competition’s rising stars. Koltyn Tholstrup is moving up the ranks as he gains confidence and looks to be a real prospect who should not take very long to progress through to a midfield berth and there was first gamer, Andy Moniz-Wakefield. The young man with the hyphenated name has been forced to bide his time in his three seasons at the club after his selection as a Category B Rookie, via the club’s connection to its Next Generation Academy. The knock on him was his disposal and decision-making but he did himself proud on Friday night and fully justified his selection. They say that Melbourne’s season is hanging by a thread but there’s still time for Goodwin to unpack things and make the changes that will help the fans and the club restore their sanity. They should all be sufficiently rested by Sunday afternoon when they take on the Eagles in a rare contest with them at the MCG. That would be their time to make a start. MELBOURNE 1.5.11 9.7.61 11.11.77 11.15.81 BRISBANE LIONS 3.7.25 5.8.38 8.14.62 11.20.86 GOALS MELBOURNE Pickett 5 Van Rooyen 2 Chandler Fritsch Oliver Turner BRISBANE LIONS Cameron Daniher Rayner 2 Ah Chee Berry Hipwood Lohmann McLuggage BEST MELBOURNE Pickett Viney Oliver van Rooyen Petty Rivers BRISBANE LIONS McCluggage Neale Dunkley Hipwood Starcevich Zorko INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil BRISBANE LIONS Nil LATE CHANGES MELBOURNE Jake Bowey (back) replaced by Kynan Brown BRISBANE LIONS Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil BRISBANE LIONS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Kynan Brown (replaced Harrison Petty in the fourth quarter) BRISBANE LIONS Jaspa Fletcher (replaced Logan Morris in the third quarter) UMPIRES Matt Stevic Andrew Stephens Nathan Williamson Cameron Dore CROWD 29,617 at the Gabba

With Melbourne’s season hanging on a thread, Saturday night’s game against North Melbourne unfolded like a scene in a hospital emergency department. The patient presented to the ward in a bad way. Doctors and nurses pumped life-saving medication into his body and, in the ensuing half hour, he responded with blood returning to his cheeks as he stirred back to life. After a slight relapse, the nurses pumped further medication into the bloodstream and the prognosis started looking good as the next hour ticked by. The patient even sat up momentarily. Suddenly, without warning, the vital signs displayed on his bedside screen went haywire and the patient was again in peril. It took all of the skills of the experienced ER ward surgeons, helped by a team of young interns, to step in and save the day. At last report, the patient was resting in a stable condition but still on life support. There’s a long way to go but he’s hanging on … for the time being. Speaking of hospitals, welcome to Melbourne’s 2024 campaign in the post superstar phase. But it’s not just the fact that Christian Petracca‘s internal injuries will keep him out of the game for at least the rest of this home and away season that are keeping coach Simon Goodwin up at night. Leaving aside the usual media swarm and the naysayers who smell blood when a team’s going through hard times, Goody’s facing attack from all sides in the football world and not just about the unenviable task of mending the midfield in his star player’s absence and the fact that another of his superstars in Clayton Oliver is in a career slump. There’s the potential problem of overworking his skipper and champion ruckman who battles on with little support, the occasional defensive lapses and then, there’s the long-running matter of connection when going into attack which refuses to be resolved and rears its head with too many goalless (and scoreless) quarters and with most of the forwards also in a form slump. Add to this, the fact that a quiet rebuild is going on in the background. Of the teams competing in Round 15, Melbourne fielded the most players aged 22 and under with ten, compared to North Melbourne’s eight. Geelong had only four players in this category; Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, Sydney and West Coast had five. It’s great to see so many young faces in the team working manfully but having plenty of youth and inexperience in the group also poses challenges in the heat of a tight battle. Granted that you can’t fix all of the issues surrounding a major form slump overnight, there are still some positive vibes out of all of this. The impending return of Jake Lever who is so important in the defensive structure, will help. Steven May kept Nick Larkey goalless in a peerless defensive performance and the return of his partner in crime in defence is timely in light of the do or die contest coming up on Friday night in Brizvegas. Despite the fact that North’s up and coming midfield won the clearance battles, Goodwin’s first effort on the work in progress in this area produced some promising signs. Jack Viney was an absolute beast as he worked hard under the skipper’s gaze and while Oliver was shut out under the close watch of Will Phillips. Into the breach came Trent Rivers who had plenty of time and a reasonable return lining up in centre bounces. Tom Sparrow had some good moments as well and second gamer Koltyn Tholstrup was promising at half-forward. It will be a while before he can be considered in the same light as Petracca but there were some really great signs. And how about that great lifesaving cameo run down by Kynan Brown that virtually ensured the win for his team? Despite the continuing relative dysfunction of the forward line, there was some signs of a pulse with Disco Turner kicking a couple and Harry Petty taking six marks and scoring a goal. Some more consistency and a return to goal scoring form from the likes of Bailey Fritsch, Kozzie Pickett and Kade Chandler are hopefully just around the corner. Indeed, a return to form of the likes of Oliver, Fritsch and co on the big stage up north next week is exactly what the doctor ordered. MELBOURNE 5.2.32 6.4.40 11.4.70 11.4.70 NORTH MELBOURNE 1.2.8 3.7.25 5.7.37 10.7.67 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 2 Chandler Gawn McDonald Petty Pickett Rivers Sparrow van Rooyen NORTH MELBOURNE Zurhaar 4 Ford Sheezel 2 Davies-Uniacke Simpkin BEST MELBOURNE Viney May Rivers Gawn Sparrow Neal-Bullen NORTH MELBOURNE Davies-Uniacke Wardlaw Sheezel Zurhaar Phillips Simpkin INJURIES MELBOURNE Christian Salem (knee) NORTH MELBOURNE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil NORTH MELBOURNE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Kynan Brown (replaced Christian Salem in the fourth quarter) NORTH MELBOURNE Dylan Stephens (replaced Toby Pink in the third quarter) UMPIRES Donlon Haussen Heffernan Wallace CROWD 28,774 at The MCG

Who would have thought? Collingwood had a depleted side with several star players out injured, Max Gawn was in stellar form, Christian Petracca at the top of his game and Simon Goodwin was about to pull off a masterstroke in setting Alex Neal-Bullen onto him to do a fantastic job in subduing the Magpies' best player. Goody had his charges primed to respond robustly to the challenge of turning around their disappointing performance against Fremantle in Alice Springs. And if not that, to make a statement to the player who ended a teammate’s career with a crude (but absolutely legal according to the AFL Tribunal) bump to the head. This was the setting for what should have been an emphatic Melbourne victory except for one minor matter. The majority of Goody’s team froze up as if they had spent their time preparing for the game going up and down the MND slide into the ice bath. From very early in the game, the signs were not good. A couple of simple errors from the Demons and a lack of pressure in the first fifty seconds of the game saw the opening goal kicked by Magpie Will Hoskin-Elliott who was coming back from injury. Of course, he slotted it straight through the middle of the big sticks. By way of a first response, Melbourne was hesitant and fumbly as it struggled to get the ball into attack and three minutes after Collingwood's opening gambit, Max Gawn's shot hit the post. The scene was set for the day. One team made the most of its chances while the other showed little urgency, fiddled around, turned the ball over, didn't chase hard enough and disposed of the ball at an efficiency rate well below the other. As it happens so often in those circumstances, you don't get the rub of the green either. In that way, Kozzy Pickett's shot in the first quarter was given a goal by the goal umpire and eventually overturned by faceless score review just before the ruckmen were about to go up at the bounce. (Not that I dispute the decision, but it would have been nice to see it on the big screen to judge for myself). Assuming the decision was that the ball brushed the post, it was one of five times during the game that a Melbourne shot for goal hit the woodwork. All were chances to gain the favour of momentum while the Pies just couldn't miss. And when the siren sounded for quarter time, the Demon's major match winning prospect Christian Petracca was keeled over in the hands of the trainers with four broken ribs and a number of associated injuries. It took more than another half hour of game time for him to be subbed off (and that's another big question mark coming out of the match) but, as I wrote, the die was already cast. The team was frozen in time. None of this stopped a Demon comeback in the second quarter when the team got going and, in the search for an unlikely hero, found one in Jacob van Rooyen who worked hard, marked a couple, and put the team back into the game with two goals in that term and the first in the second half. After he kicked his second and, with the team down by only seven points, JvR marked on the half forward flank and had the opportunity to take the game on and shoot from a long way out into a vacant goal square. I surmise that had he worn black and white, the kick would have rolled through making it game on. He chose however, to wait, the Pies intercepted and moved the ball on. In the moments that followed, the Pies regained their composure, the Dees dropped their guard and leaked three goals including one from a mark after the siren. Things were suddenly grim at the halfway mark. And the second half was pretty much more of the same with Melbourne falling down by 38 points despite their advantage of two scoring shots for the match. When your shooting accuracy is 29% against your opponent's 74%, there is no chance in the world that you're going to win. But as I wrote, that was obvious from early doors. To add to the Demons' woes, two of its veterans in Max Gawn and Tom McDonald were among its best, alongside Neal-Bullen, Kozzy Pickett worked hard but was wasteful in front of goals, Caleb Windsor was lively. The defence was a shadow of itself and lacked the organisation it normally has when Jake Lever is around. Apart from van Rooyen (and he spent some time in the ruck) the forward line was dysfunctional. Clayton Oliver worked hard but needs to be given more midfield responsibility and Jack Viney couldn't get into the game. Without Petracca for the obligatory four to six, the Demons look like a team that will be frozen out of finals calculations after the break ... unless they can find something like Carlton and the Giants found at about this time last year. MELBOURNE 0.4.4 2.6.18 4.11.35 6.15.51 COLLINGWOOD 3.1.19 7.3.45 11.3.69 14.5.89 GOALS MELBOURNE van Rooyen 3 Pickett 2 Fritsch COLLINGWOOD Harrison Kreuger 3 Hoskin-Elliott 2 Cameron N Daicos Frampton Lipinski Macrae Schultz BEST MELBOURNE Neal-Bullen McDonald Windsor Gawn van Rooyen Pickett COLLINGWOOD Crisp J Daicos Maynard Howe Noble Kreuger INJURIES MELBOURNE C. Petracca (ribs) COLLINGWOOD N. Daicos (corked calf) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil COLLINGWOOD Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jack Billings (replaced Christian Petracca in the third quarter) COLLINGWOOD Jack Bytel (replaced Nick Daicos in the fourth quarter) UMPIRES Jamie Broadbent Justin Power Matt Stevic Andrew Stephens CROWD 84,659 at the MCG

I got the word on Saturday from someone who knows someone inside the Fremantle camp that the Dockers were pumped and supremely confident about getting the W the next day against Melbourne at TIO Traeger Park in the red heart of the country. I was informed that the Dockers were extremely confident for a number of reasons. They had beaten the Demons on their home territory at the MCG at their last two meetings so they didn’t see beating them at Alice Springs as a problem. They believed they had figured out the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents well. In particular, they felt that their two ruckmen had the competition’s overworked but leading exponent of the craft covered, that their midfield was more versatile and could beat the combination that swept all before them when the premiership was played off for the first and only time in their neck of the woods. Moreover, the Freo one wood was a defence they backed to hold anyone to a meagre score and that their attack was lean, hungry and primed to score heavily. My mail came from a reliable source but at the time, I dismissed it as fanciful and over optimistic on the part of a club that had, after all, struggled through 2023 to finish in 14th place, managed only four goals at home against the Swans a few weeks ago, had just fallen in against the Saints and managed to grab a last gasp draw against a wounded and faltering Magpie team, again on home turf. This was not the sort of form that was sufficient to warrant such boastfulness. And seven minutes into the game at Alice Springs with the scoreboard showing Melbourne leading by 2.1.13 to 0.0.0, I was feeling pretty confident that the Dockers were on the wrong track and that the Demons were about to secure their place in the top four. But … alas … they were right and I was wrong. From that time, Melbourne managed only one more goal to half time and by the time the game was over, a number of records had been smashed to pieces. It was a complete demolition with the 92 point defeat, the club’s biggest under coach Simon Goodwin. Fremantle's 22.9.141 was the highest score it has conceded since he took over as coach in 2017. By the time, it was over, his team was outside the top eight for the first time since the 2021 premiership season began and when the round ended, they were tenth on the ladder. What happened? The Dockers’ pre-match predictions were all spot on - that’s what happened! Apart from that opening seven minute period, the pressure they applied was far too much for Demons who were beaten all over the ground allowing the marking power of Luke Jackson, Josh Treacy and Jye Amiss to overpower the much vaunted Melbourne defence without Jake Lever as the glue that holds them together. At the other end of the ground, there was not a pulse to be found in its attack. For a coach, the post match conference is the most difficult task on earth after a flogging. Goodwin described the performance as "completely unacceptable" but … alas … if he was directing his comments to the playing group, he was wasting his time. They had completely switched off much earlier in the day MELBOURNE 2.3.15 3.3.21 5.4.34 7.7.49 FREMANTLE 5.2.32 11.5.71 18.7.115 22.9.141 GOALS MELBOURNE McDonald 2 Gawn Oliver Petracca Petty Viney FREMANTLE Amiss 4 Jackson Treacy Walters 3 Frederick 2 Clark Darcy Fyfe Serong Sturt Switkowski Young BEST MELBOURNE Petracca Salem Gawn McVee Viney Neal-Bullen FREMANTLE Clark Serong Brayshaw Amiss Young Walters INJURIES MELBOURNE Hunter (left calf) FREMANTLE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil FREMANTLE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Lachie Hunter at half-time) FREMANTLE Corey Wagner (replaced Michael Frederick at three-quarter time) UMPIRES Johanson O'Gorman Williamson Mollison CROWD 6,109 at TIO Traeger Park

… meanwhile, at about the same time that Narrm was putting its feet on the accelerator to obliterate the long-suffering Euro-Yroke combination, I heard someone mention in passing that Kuwarna was leading Waalitj Marawar by a whopping 46 to 1 halfway through the second quarter of their game over in Adelaide. “What is football coming to?” I asked myself. In front of my eyes, the Demons were smashing it through the midfield, forcing turnovers and getting the footy to their forwards who were converting with ease while elsewhere on this wide and beautiful continent, their tormentors from last week were meekly turning up their toes. Was some spirit from the Dreamtime using this year’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round to play tricks with our collective minds? Whatever trickery there is in the air at this time of the year that can turn the conquerers of the Demons into 99 point losing pussycats in the next week, it seems that something was afoot when rumours began to spread that Narrm’s ruck giant was looking pale and wan as he underwent at a surprise fitness test at the MCG. However, the Demons’ skipper who was one of the team’s in last week’s loss, wasn’t going to be left out and he not only made it to the starting gate, but he also turned in one of the season’s great indivudual performances against Rowan Marshall who is no slouch himself. Max Gawn’s final match stats demonstrated the importance of his game - 27 disposals, ten clearances, eight hit outs to advantage, seven marks, ten score involvements, two score assists and a goal. The rest is commentary. … meanwhile, after conceding the first goal of the match, Narrm was dominant for the better part of the opening half without having that much to show for it due mainly to poor conversion when going for goal. Two majors for the Saints in the dying moments of the half had lifted them back to within two goals of sharing the lead at the main break. The Demons had been well in control in defence with Steven May and Tom McDonald holding steady and Adam Tomlinson doing a sterling job filling in for Jake Lever. The midfield was purring along nicely as well. Christian Salem was getting back in his pre injury groove and Narrm was seemingly in control but there remained a shadow of doubt and they really should have been much further in front. It was only after the main break that Narrm broke the banks of the dam wall. Goals came regularly. Christian Petracca was at his unstoppable best and Jacob van Rooyen showed his versatility and value, chopping in with the relief ruckwork and adding valuable goals. The return of Ed Langdon, fully rested after a week elsewhere on the planet was certainly noticed. A comprehensive blow out was on the cards when van Rooyen goaled to put the team ahead by 54 points at the twenty minute mark of the final term but they put up the shutters and allowed a few goals in junk time at the end. As it was, Euro-Yroke booted more than half of their goals in the time on period of the second and fourth quarters respectively. It was good to win but all was not sweetness and light as a handful of players struggled to get their hands on the football. Yet, premierships are not won in May and there is still time for adjustment in terms of positions, personnel and performance at peak fitness. … meanwhile Narrm is back in the top four and, for the moment, back in town although when it reverts back to its identity of Melbourne, it will be fulfilling its out-of-town duties in beautiful Alice Springs when it takes on the Dockers for a different taste of Dreamtime Magic in a place where this year, the forecast is for fine and clear conditions … no rain! I have a feeling that the spirits are much happier there now than they were last year. NARRM 4.7.31 5.9.39 11.10.76 14.16.100 EURO-YROKE 1.0.6 4.3.27 5.5.35 9.8.62 GOALS NARRM van Rooyen 3 Fritsch Petracca Viney 2 Chandler Gawn Hunter May Pickett EURO-YROKE M King 3 Higgins 2 Owens Steele Sinclair Wilson BEST NARRM Gawn Petracca Salem Viney Tomlinson May EURO-YROKE Steele Wanganeen-Milera Sinclair Wood Dow Higgins INJURIES NARRM Harry Petty (foot) EURO-YROKE Nil REPORTS NARRM Nil EURO-YROKE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS NARRM Taj Woewodin (replaced Harrison Petty in the fourth quarter) EURO-YROKE Cooper Sharman (replaced Lance Collard in the third quarter) UMPIRES Curtis Deboy Nicholas Brown Brendan Hosking John Howorth CROWD 37,403 at The MCG

Narrm’s finals prospects took a crushing blow after the team’s insipid performance at Optus Stadium against a confident Waaljit Marawar in the first of its Doug Nicholls Round outings for 2024. I use the description “crushing blow” advisedly because, although the season is not yet at it’s halfway mark, the Demons have now failed abysmally in two of their games against teams currently occupying bottom eight places on the ladder. The manner in which these losing games were played out would be most disturbing to Coach Simon Goodwin. The team went down in the most lacklustre manner without giving a whimper and that is unacceptable given they had premiership aspirations a week and a half ago. And please don’t point to the club’s defeat at the hands of lowly Adelaide at a similar time of the 2021 season because that was a loss by a single point which could easily have gone the other way. The Demons can’t say that it came without warning because the pundits were already pointing before the match to the Eagle’s much improved form on their home turf. And let’s not talk excuses such as the loss before the game of young key talls in Jacob van Rooyen and Daniel Turner and the team’s running man in Ed Langdon or in form key defender Jake Lever early in the match. The later was certainly a blow given the marking dominance of West Coast key forwards Jake Waterman and Jack Darling who combined for half of Waaljit Marawa‘s goals, but Narrm still had plenty of opportunities to win back the initiative. However, the team blew its chances every time an attempt was made to put pressure on the Eagles’ lead and to come back into the game. Kudos to last week’s “almost” hero in Christian Petracca for his cameo in the second half of the second quarter but the home side was good enough to repel the Demons on this and every other occasion they showed a glimmer of a prospect of revival. Bayley Fritsch, who was unsighted in the first half when the ball rarely found itself inside 50 metres from the team’s goal, was an instrumental player in the second half with three goals, but Narrm squandered its opportunities in the third term with 3.7.25 to 5.0.30 so badly that it actually went backwards in the “premiership quarter”. And that was it. Ironically, on the evidence of this match, the Eagles who lost miserably last week in Melbourne by 11 goals, appear closer to a premiership than the Demons. This was demonstrated by the star of the match Harley Reid and to a lesser extent in their midfield by another youngster Reuben Ginbey who showed up their more experienced rivals in the game’s engine room. It’s not hard to see why every recruiting officer in the land was salivating over Reid last November. Forget about him being the rising star - he’s got that wrapped up already as well as such other accolades as the recruit of the century and possibly more coming up. That goal of his (and it needs no further explanation) was goal of the year - a game breaking match-winner that completely blew the game up in Narrm’s face. There’s nothing much more to say. NARRM 2.1.13 6.1.37 9.8.62 10.10.70 WAALITJ MARAWAR 4.3.27 7.8.50 12.8.80 16.9.105 GOALS NARRM Fritsch 3 Brown Chandler McAdam Neal-Bullen Petracca Pickett Windsor WAALITJ MARAWAR Waterman 5 Darling 3 Reid Ryan 2 Cripps Ginbey Hunt Maric BEST NARRM Neal-Bullen Pickett Fritsch Gawn Oliver Petracca WAALITJ MARAWAR Reid Waterman Kelly Darling McGovern Ginbey Duggan INJURIES NARRM Jake Lever (concussion) WAALITJ MARAWAR Nil REPORTS NARRM Nil WAALITJ MARAWAR Nil SUBSTITUTIONS NARRM Taj Woewodin (replaced Jake Lever in the first quarter) WAALITJ MARAWAR Tyrell Dewar (replaced Luke Edwards in the fourth quarter) UMPIRES Jeff Dalgleish Brendan Hosking Alex Whetton Harrison Birch CROWD 43,408 at Optus Stadium

Our game is one where the result is often decided by centimetres; the touch of a fingernail, a split-second decision made by a player or official, the angle of vision or the random movement of an oblong ball in flight or in its bounce and trajectory. There is one habit that Melbourne seems to have developed of late in its games against Carlton which is that the Demons keep finding themselves on the wrong end of the stick in terms of the fine line in close games at times when centimetres make the difference. Ironically, the match was lost yesterday when they allowed the Blues to avoid a close contest scenario until the very end when it was just about too late. After Ed Langdon failed to score with the first shot at goal for the game, Carlton added five goals to nothing for the remainder of the opening stanza, leaving the gap of a bridge that was literally less than a centimetre too far for a Melbourne victory. Supporters of the Bluebaggers were pinching themselves with delight as their team piled on the goals, many of them scored by Demon errors such as the simple failure to cover spaces from which the opposition could score easily. The failure to apply sufficient pressure was palpable. Melbourne had equal opportunities, even early to hit the scoreboard. They went into attack often enough but the entry was poor, the forwards were sluggish and the Carlton defence stood firm against a forward line in disarray. Was it the curse of the five day break - or something else? It took until ten minutes into the second quarter when they were trailing by six goals to nothing, for Melbourne to register its first score for the night through the man who was it’s “almost” hero in Christian Petracca who had been sent forward to enable a change in the mix. It was one change that worked although it also meant that for a large part of the game, the Carlton midfield, led by Cripps and Walsh had the upper hand. When you have that upper hand - in this case thanks to a head start and efficiency in front of the big sticks, then you force the other side into pushing it uphill in an arm wrestle, particularly when the rain comes down making a comeback even more difficult. Petracca persisted, Alex Neal-Bullen worked his butt off, Steven May was a tower of strength in defence but most of the side battled and, in the final analysis they just failed to reel in a deficit which, at one stage in the third quarter was as substantial as 38 points. But they never gave up. In the final term, they dug deep and their superior fitness, notwithstanding the shorter break between games, saw them fall short by a single point, making it the third time in as many games against Carlton that Melbourne lost a game, despite having more scoring shots. After the game, coach Simon Goodwin reflected: "We gave a really good side a 6-goal start but our responsibility as a footy club is to rock up and compete in a way that keeps you in the game." All of that is true. The team can take some solace from the fact that they refused to lie down and supporters should take that away from the game instead of lamenting about the general run of the umpiring, dodgy score reviews, a deliberate out of bounds not picked up, a late shot that hit the behind post and even the Petracca surge forward that resulted in him being brought down when a few centimetres could have made all the difference and allowed one last move forward to at least tie the score (important in an 8-point game). None of those things matter when you concede so much in the opening third part of a game against a team that’s more effective in front of the goals. What does matter is that you fight it out to the last second and the very last centimetre. MELBOURNE 0.0.0 3.1.19 7.6.48 11.10.76 CARLTON 5.0.30 8.2.50 11.4.70 12.5.77 GOALS MELBOURNE Petracca 5 Fritsch Gawn Pickett Turner van Rooyen Windsor CARLTON Owies 3 Curnow 2 Cripps De Koning Hewett McKay Martin Pittonet Walsh BEST MELBOURNE Petracca May Neal-Bullen Viney Gawn Langdon CARLTON Cripps Walsh Weitering Kennedy O Hollands Curnow REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Nil INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil CARLTON Pittonet (finger) Cerra (hamstring) SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Bowey in the fourth quarter) CARLTON George Hewett (replaced Cerra in the third quarter) UMPIRES Matt Stevic Curtis Deboy Nathan Williamson Jacob Mollison CROWD 58,472 at the MCG

Throughout history various philosophers have grappled with the meaning of life. Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and a multitude of authors of diverse religious texts all tried. As society became more complex, the question became attached to specific endeavours in life even including sporting pursuits where such questions arose among our game’s commentariat as, “what is the meaning of football”? Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin must be tired of dealing with such a dilemma but, in doing so, he mocks his detractors. On Saturday night, his Demons, laden with some promising young talent, made a powerful statement against the previously unbeaten and older Cats. Their 8-point victory saw them strengthen their place among the league leaders and they now hold a 6/2 record after the passage of a third of the season. It sent out a message to all and sundry — don’t mess with us or you’ll soon learn the meaning of football. In case you hadn’t noticed, football pundits have been pumping up Geelong’s tires of late. The Cats were going through something of a revival thanks to an opening seven game winning streak after last year’s disappointing fall from grace. Jeremy Cameron was the latest big thing: his place in the game was touching on the stratospheric. Careers were being reinvented in many different ways. You had the “The Swarm”, which is another name for their bevy of small forwards like Miers, Stengle and Close who, by their deadly efficient ball movement, have been a revelation so far in 2024. With the ascendency of Cameron and Hawkins, they formed a formidable forward line capable of racking up remarkably accurate score lines such as their 17.4 (106) in their Easter Monday demolition of the Hawks. Last week, the Cats overcame the Blues in an exhilarating shootout, with victory secured as a result of some dead eye kicking for goal. Carlton came at them late with a barrage of goals to post a century plus losing score and it was that precise scenario which provided Goodwin with the ways and means of overcoming his own critics as well as the competition’s most accurate attack on a cold autumn night just seven days later. With defensive pressure. The game was a played out as a dour arm wrestle which suited Demon defenders Jake Lever, Steven May and Tom McDonald who went about applying the sleeper hold on Cameron and Hawkins who both ended up goalless. At the same time, the smaller and medium defenders put the clamps on the Geelong swarm. Thanks to the young brigade headed by Trent Rivers and including Judd McVee and Blake Howes, they sucked the breath out of Geelong’s much vaunted straight shooting attacking machine. They put them through the wringer after the opening break with the first goalless quarter in two years, resulting in a score line of 2.8 (20) at half time. Melbourne’s score was little better but the winning plan had already been put into place. The premiership quarter turned out the Cats’ best and the one that proved their most accurate while the Demons were badly off target. Enter Goodwin’s critics who were seething with disgust about the cheek of putting on a style that was depriving fandom of the thrills and spills of a circus. Why on earth should the producers of this drab unforgettable contest have the temerity to command bulk primetime viewing at the AFL table? Simon’s answer came in an absorbingly entertaining, see-saw of a final quarter with eye-catching highlights provided by the skipper and by far the competition’s best ruckman in Max Gawn, the unstoppable Lever and May and an energised Clayton Oliver who somehow willed his way in and out of packs with ease. Finally, let’s not forget the forward line brilliance and magic of Bayley Fritsch and Kozzie Pickett who filled the game’s highlights package. Nearing the end, at the 26 minute and 22 second mark of the term, the former dribbled through a spectacular goal from the boundary line to deliver homeward those vital four premiership points. At that very moment, the meaning of football was revealed. MELBOURNE 3.2.20 3.7.25 5.14.44 10.14.74 GEELONG 2.4.16 2.8.20 6.10.46 9.12.66 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 3 Pickett 2 Chandler Gawn Langdon Petty Windsor GEELONG Henry Stengle 2 Clark Close Dempsey Z Guthrie Holmes BEST MELBOURNE Lever Gawn Oliver Fritsch May Pickett GEELONG Holmes Z Guthrie Atkins Stewart Miers INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil GEELONG Bruhn (shoulder) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GEELONG Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie, replaced Jack Billings in the fourth term GEELONG Gary Rohan, replaced Tanner Bruhn in the third term UMPIRES Justin Power Hayden Gavine Simon Meredith Andre Gianfagna CROWD 51,795 at the MCG

Two weeks ago, when the curtain came down on Melbourne’s game against the Brisbane Lions, the team trudged off the MCG looking tired and despondent at the end of a tough run of games played in quick succession. In the days that followed, the fans wanted answers about their team’s lamentable performance that night and foremost among their concerns was whether the loss was a one off result of fatigue or was it due to other factor(s) of far greater consequence. As it turns out, the answer to the major question is still blowing in the wind after the traditional Anzac Day Eve clash between the Demons and the Tigers with the fans forced to wait a little longer for the big reveal. Not surprisingly, the match up between teams in different stages of development was never going to be a definitive guide to those perplexed by the team’s reversal of fortune after such a good week in Adelaide. There were however, some encouraging signs of work in progress towards resolving some of the puzzles presented lately to Simon Goodwin and his coaching panel. Admittedly, they only came later in the game. Circumstance made this event one that most of the 72,840 fans who turned up to the MCG would rather forget. Given the plight of the Richmond Football Club and its ever-expanding injury list and the fact that new Tiger coach Adem Yze was intimately familiar with the way the Demons play, it was inevitable that the game would turn into a slog which is precisely how the first half turned out. The crowd was treated to congested play, skill errors in abundance and a low scoring battle of the defences. A single point favoured the Tigers when the major break delivered us all to twenty minutes of respite. There was nothing more to say other than that Demon fans were entitled to feel a little despair. They had come to the football after a fortnight reflecting on a truly abysmal effort from its much vaunted midfield engine room and even worse from its forwards. Skipper Max Gawn had again been solid and key defenders Jake Lever and Steven May, their usual dependable selves as they marshalled the backline but overall, the team was faltering. Leaving aside the final term against the Lions who slammed on the brakes with the game well and truly won, scoring had seemingly stopped to a trickle. The line of attack was once again looking helpless and impotent. Whatever Goodwin said or did at half time, it worked to great effect. Or perhaps, it was simply his regular game style finally forcing the Tiger hand. The team was suddenly imbued with something - call it the Anzac Spirit if you like - but they lifted their intensity and produced an inspirational ten goal to two second half that witnessed the arrival in football terms of a new key forward. Daniel Turner will definitely be one of the few who will remember this match, along with Jason Taylor who recruited him with a late selection in the midseason draft almost three years ago. The man they call “Disco” announced himself with his three goals on a night when both his side and the opposition managed just three each in the first half. He could hardly be described as an overnight sensation. His progress since he was drafted mainly as a defender has been slow and painful, marred by injuries and a measure of disappointment along the way. And he was almost there when the club prepared him to go forward on the eve of last year’s finals but, alas, others were preferred. Then came another injury setback in the month before the start of this season. Fans will be hoping that he’s not going to be a one hit wonder. The Melbourne cause was aided by two goals each from Bayley Fritsch, Kysaiah Pickett and another newcomer to the club’s goal kicking ranks in the tactical sub, Bailey Laurie, who also will likely not forget the night. Suddenly, there was some versatility in the forward set up adding to the undoubted talent of Fritta and Kozzie. Now for a repeat of that for the full four quarters against the big guns! What we witnessed after half time was a bolder Melbourne emerging upon Max Gawn’s Frank 'Checker' Hughes medal-winning performance in wearing down Toby Nankervis and thereby, the rest of the brave Richmond line up who were by now constantly turning the ball over under pressure. Gawn finished with 23 disposals and 10 marks to go with his 26 hit outs and a goal when it really mattered to start the scoring with the match still an arm wrestle six minutes into the second half. Jake Lever’s game in defence built up to a crescendo and his 26 disposals, 11 marks and 15 intercept possessions were sublime. There’s also a lot to like about how Trent Rivers is maturing into a player of high quality. The Demons got out of the night with a percentage booster and now sit on a 5 - 2 record. They hold a much happier disposition than the one they had at half time. The midfield is still nowhere near its best but no injuries were reported either, which augurs well for their next two matches against two of the competition’s best performed clubs. Perhaps then, supporters will finally discover the answer to the big question troubling them since that problematic game against the Brisbane Lions. Bring it on! MELBOURNE 2.3.15 3.5.23 8.7.55 13.7.85 RICHMOND 1.3.9 3.6.24 4.8.32 5.12.42 GOALS MELBOURNE Turner 3 Fritsch Laurie Pickett 2 Gawn Petracca van Rooyen Windsor RICHMOND Rioli 2 Bolton Lefau Martin BEST MELBOURNE Lever Gawn Turner May Langdon Oliver RICHMOND Lefau Broad Dow Hopper Baker INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil RICHMOND Jacob Hopper (hamstring) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil RICHMOND Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie (replaced Caleb Windsor in the final quarter) RICHMOND Kamdyn McIntosh (replaced Jacob Hopper in the third quarter) UMPIRES Fisher, Stevic, Broadbent, Adair CROWD 72,840 at the MCG

The writing was on the wall from the very first bounce of the football. The big men went up, Max Gawn more often than not, decisively won the ruck hit out and invariably a Brisbane Lions onballer either won the battle on the ground or halved the contest and they went at it repeatedly until they finally won out. Melbourne managed the first goal from Alex Neal-Bullen but after that the visitors shut out every area of Demon presence around the ground except in the ruck duels. It was a mauling. However, even Gawn’s herculean dominance throughout the night in that division worked to the advantage of the Lions. There, the numbers told the story of the game in stark detail. For the night, Melbourne won 58 hit outs to Brisbane’s 27, a figure that might at first brush indicate a thrashing in favour of the Demons. The clearance figures had them down by 35 to 44 (it would have been worse, but Brisbane released the pressure valve near the end). The Lions were so successful at brushing off the Dees and sharking Gawn’s hit outs that I found myself at times hoping that McInerney would win the tap out so that the rhythm of the game would be disrupted sufficiently to afford a clearance opportunity to Melbourne. The match had been dubbed as “season defining” for the Lions, one that could spell the end of their 2024 top four hopes even this early in the season. On the other hand, a win would have them in the frame to getting their season back on track. And given that it was dual Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale's 250th game, they had a further purpose in their plans to unseat the Demons and put to bed their Melbourne hoodoo after last year’s narrow defeat in the Grand Final and in the last encounter between the two sides in Round 18 2023 when they were monstered in the midfield late in the game in an epic come-from-behind thriller. This time, it would be different. Cam Rayner was on fire in the midfield from the very beginning. He dominated the game inside and out with 12 first quarter disposals, seven of them contested, six clearances and seven inside 50s. By the end of the game, his count was 25 disposals, 14 contested possessions, ten inside 50s, nine clearances, and seven score involvements. Josh Dunkley finished with 30 disposals and nine marks while Neale himself knocked up 24 disposals and eight clearances. To put it simply, they were first to the ball. I place emphasis of these numbers because Brisbane left Melbourne in their wake with the much-vaunted trio of Christian Petracca, Jack Viney, and Clayton Oliver notching up a mere 61 disposals and 10 clearances combined for the game – also improved late by the release of the Lions’ pressure. So dominant were the Brisbane mid-size brigade in the first half that Neale, who usually leads this group numerically, had the only sixth highest number of team possessions with 12 which equalled Melbourne’s best, namely Kade Chandler and Max Gawn. The latter’s figures were exemplary, he finished equal top in possessions with Jack Viney and accumulated 149 Dream Team points which was 57 points greater than Ed Langdon who was next in his side. The Demons were clearly flat after their successful trip to Adelaide where fans could have noticed that writing on the wall when they were goalless in final quarter against the Crows. This was their fourth match in 19 days, the third in 12 days but the fans were expecting so much more after the success of their business trip to the City of Churches. Before they left Adelaide, the team should have stepped into one of those churches and prayed for more strength and energy because the first three quarters of last night’s game were emblematic of a group that was perilously low on petrol tickets. It left them with an aggregate of three goals over their past four quarters, a figure they exceeded in the final term when the Lions had well and truly taken their feet off the pedal. At half time, the crowd was treated on the MCG screens with a magic act from Magic Mike, a Demon fan. The club would have done better employing him to work some magic and remove the wall that the team was about to hit because the mounting pressure on the field and on the scoreboard induced a sense of panic that left supporters frustrated. Two examples of the panic were Petracca’s attempt to goal from well outside range that was easily mopped up by a Brisbane defender and Caleb Windsor’s blistering run of three bounces which ended similarly. A more measured approach in both cases would almost certainly have resulted in a score, most likely a goal. Petracca should have done better in the circumstances; Windsor will learn from his experience. It was a bad night for the many young players in the team including first gamer, Koltyn Tholstrop who looked a little overawed but did show some good signs for the future. Like Windsor, he will also learn from the experience. The failure to win clearances clearly added pressure on the team and made it harder to score. Moreover, Melbourne struggled to move the ball from its defensive fifty throughout the game with 28 of 47 chains intercepted by Brisbane and only six going inside fifty for a single goal. All of this reflected in the embarrassing statistics in terms of possessions and marks for the likes of Ben Brown, Bayley Fritsch, Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen (at least he was giving Max a chop out in the ruck) – again made to look better in the last half of that final stanza when the Lions went for a well-earned end of game nap. Of course, the Lions’ midfield dominance added to the pressure on the defence which did well in the circumstances to hold the opposition to 82 points for the night. At times, Brisbane was able to use pace to slice through Melbourne’s defences with ease, but credit should also go to Steven May, Jake Lever and Tom McDonald in holding them to that score, and in the end, the difference of 22 points, was enormously flattering to the club. Melbourne simply couldn’t take a trick. The loss of Christian Salem early to a hamstring injury was compounded by the injury to Jake Bowey and retirement of Angus Brayshaw. By way of contrast, the Lions so comfortably negotiated the evening that they didn’t bother employing the tactical sub, so James Tunstill sat on the bench for 100 minutes. The bye could not have come any sooner. MELBOURNE 2.0.12 2.4.16 3.7.25 8.12.60 BRISBANE LIONS 4.2.26 7.4.46 10.8.68 12.10.82 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 2 Brown Chandler Gawn Lever Neal-Bullen van Rooyen BRISBANE LIONS Cameron 3 Daniher Hipwood McCluggage 2 Bailey Fletcher Lohmann BEST MELBOURNE Gawn Chandler Viney Rivers Langdon McDonald BRISBANE LIONS Rayner McCluggage Dunkley Neale Andrews Bailey INJURIES MELBOURNE Christian Salem (hamstring) BRISBANE LIONS Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil BRISBANE LIONS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Christian Salem in the first quarter) BRISBANE LIONS James Tunstill (unused) UMPIRES Findlay Gavine Nicholls Power CROWD 43,098 at the MCG

One of the ideas behind the Gather Round concept is to give life to the host city, which is something of a challenge for a town like Adelaide where the mid-week entertainment usually involves nothing more exciting than watching the traffic lights change their colour in Rundle Mall. Fortunately, the powers that be gave the Demons the opportunity to help open the show at the Adelaide Oval against the Crows and they duly responded by bringing some bright lights and brilliance to the place with another decisive win against the hometown side. With Melbourne coming off a five-day break from a game against the team from the less salubrious and desirable part of the city, and with Steven May returning from rib and back injuries, surely this was a chance for Adelaide to shine? However, it was not to be, and for a side that missed playing finals in 2022 courtesy of a dodgy AFL non score review, they were shown up by the benchmark side that Melbourne has become for the competition this year. The Dees now have four wins on the trot after playing three of their five games at interstate venues. With the parochial home crowd behind them, and umpires heavily under the influence of the same vociferous baying horde, the going was always going to be tough, and it turned out to be exactly that in the first quarter. The home team had to make a statement early to give themselves any sort of hope by getting in front of, and indeed on top of, the Demon juggernaut. The trouble was that the juggernaut’s defences simply kept denying the Crows thrusts forward. Led by the tough Steven May, with Tex Walker as an opponent, he just kept marking and intercepting the ball. Normal humans would have struggled to lift their arms above their heads with similar rib injuries. May did it with aplomb - nineteen disposals for the game, including an incredible five marks in the first quarter alone. Alongside May, young Judd McVee was the main man repelling Adelaide attacks, and with his eleven first quarter disposals, he also recorded an incredible seven intercepts in the same period at 100% efficiency. Amazingly, he has played just thirty games and is a mere 20 years of age. With the standards down back set by these two in the first stanza, it was a repeat of the scoreline for the Crows from their previous week, as they could only manage 2.5. A solitary goal conceded in the next quarter, reinforced the strength of the Melbourne defence, as others like Jake Lever, Tom McDonald, Blake Howes, Trent Rivers and Christian Salem chipped in to hold them at bay. There were no leading lights in the Crows forward line, and like their Rundle mall counterparts, the signs were flashing “caution” in the Adelaide coaching box by half time. What they failed to see was the “Go” sign that signified the Melbourne third term blitz, led by Bayley Fritsch, who despite having barely contacted the Sherrin in the first half, booted three majors in the third, to effectively put the game to bed. Little was left for the Crows to do, other than throw everything they had at the Dees in that final quarter, but despite closing the gap by two goals in the dying minutes, Melbourne had already put up the shutters to block out any light. In the end the scoreline of 63 - 78 was emblematic of two tired sides coming off five- and six-day breaks, respectively. Many players went for extended periods without any impact on the game, but the Melbourne players know what is required at the business end of the season. And it was interesting to hear Steven May at the end of the game, saying something like “ we came over here on a business trip.” In other words, this “Gather Round” was not a weekend celebration, but rather, part of the job description for a professional team with a strong culture. Another shining light for the Demons this week was a player in only his fifth game for the Club – Caleb “The Duke” Windsor. Normally a young player at the dawn of his career can be a little overwhelmed by the intensity and strength required at AFL level, but not so for Caleb. We all know that he is lightning fast, but he uses his speed, not only to break away, but also as a closing weapon as well. He fears not tackling or the in-and-under stuff. With 461 metres gained from sixteen touches in this match playing as a wingman, it is easy to see why comparisons are being drawn with the great Robbie Flower. Oh, and while we are mentioning the brilliance of others, then the skipper with an incredible eighty-six ruck contests attended, four contested marks and five clearances, simply outshone anyone who Adelaide could muster to compete against him. Equally, it is easy to not notice the standout supernova of Christian Petracca and the extraordinary ability he has to extract the ball, burst through tackles that would impede others and so strongly impact the game, both in possession and on the scoreboard. With the Demons’ shining lights showing the way to finals football, the broken-down Adelaide Crows Camry was left at the Rundle Mall lights with steam emitting from the bonnet, out of business and suddenly realizing it was in a dead-end street! It’s something that Melbourne does these days as part of its business plan. MELBOURNE 2.0.12 6.7.43 10.13.73 10.18.78 ADELAIDE 2.5.17 3.8.36 6.9.45 8.15.63 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 3 Pickett van Rooyen 2 Chandler Petracca Petty ADELAIDE Fogarty 2 Dawson Keays Laird Rachele Rankine Walker BEST MELBOURNE Petracca May Gawn McVee Sparrow Viney ADELAIDE Soligo Dawson Laird Keane Rankine INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil ADELAIDE Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil ADELAIDE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Ben Brown in the fourth quarter) ADELAIDE Sam Berry (replaced Chris Burgess in the third quarter) UMPIRES Simon Meredith Nathan Williamson Craig Fleer Martin Rodger CROWD 48,020 at the Adelaide Oval

A seven-point victory to the Melbourne Demons over Port Power at Adelaide oval, saw the real power tools on the inside of the fence, as opposed to those versions on the other side, around the ground. Their pre-game chant of “never tear us apart” obviously didn’t carry any weight with the Melbourne players, as that was exactly what happened during the course of the game. This was a most ”un-Melbourne like game” in the way it was played. At various times during the match it all came down to individual efforts. This was a game where BOTH teams had ten goal kickers. It wasn’t about a dominant area of the ground for either side, it was, in a way a return to the old fashioned one on one type football. Often we hear the coaches speak of “moments’ in the game. Well in this game it was one moment, followed by another as each side traded blow for blow and the lead swung back and forth with the maximum margin being only 18 points during the match. Scarily, for opposition sides, the Demons showed that if that is the way you want to play, we will beat you at that game as well. We have often heard the phrase “a captain’s goal” and certainly that happened when Max Gawn managed to kick straight after the ¾ time siren to bring the game back to near level pegging. But that effort which tore the hearts of the Port fans out, was repeated time and time again by other Melbourne players during the game. Led by Jack “hammer” Viney in his 200th game for the Demons, it was him against the Port mids, particularly in the first quarter, but he just kept willing himself to contest, and despite the Power breaking out to a 3 goal lead early on, the team just pegged it back, as Jack hammered the opposition into submission. When needed it was Ben “the drill ” Brown who nailed shots from long range, that never looked to deviate from straight and true. It was Alex “reciprocating saw” Neale-Bullen who kept coming back and forth to the contest, and probably playing his best ever game for the side, at a time when that was exactly what was needed. Then it was the turn of Caleb “ buzz-saw” Windsor who sped past the floundering Port defenders to record his first ever major for the Demons. Another was when Bayley “Polisher” Fritsch calmly went back with only a couple of minutes to run on the clock and split the big sticks from on the boundary line. Down in defence the “Fire extinguishers “ of Jake Lever and Trent Rivers, kept blanketing any potential outbreaks coming from the Port forwards. But this was also about the whole fire crew of Tom McDonald, Blake Howes, Marty Hore and Christian Salem coming just in time to put paid to any spot fires which might develop. Even more impressive was that despite an incredible 66 inside 50s and the Fire Chief of Steven May being absent, all these individual saves simply denied Port a winning score. In the middle it was the “grinders” of Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Tom Sparrow alongside Jack Viney who had the job to just wear down the Port mids. Make no mistake, they had a seriously good combination, and by all statistical measures, they were ascendant. But like last week against the Hawks, the stats just don’t matter, when the quality is what is being sought. To reiterate what Simon Goodwin said “we are comfortable with that, unless it has scoreboard impact”! So the Demons power tools all over the ground did indeed “tear them apart” . The toothless voices heard before the match, like their black and white counterparts in Melbourne were seen streaming from the ground before the match finished. Perhaps they realised their team didn’t have wings, but was never going to fly like the Power of the Melbourne Demons. MELBOURNE 3.2.20 7.3.45 10.4.64 15.6.96 PORT ADELAIDE 4.1.25 7.3.45 10.8.68 13.11.89 GOALS MELBOURNE Brown 3 Fritsch Neal-Bullen Sparrow 2 Gawn Langdon Oliver Pickett Viney Windsor PORT ADELAIDE Byrne-Jones Finlayson Rioli 2 Dixon Evans Houston McEntee Marshall Rozee Soldo BEST MELBOURNE Neal-Bullen Gawn Petracca Rivers Viney Oliver PORT ADELAIDE Drew Houston Rozee Wines Butters Soldo INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil PORT ADELAIDE Boak (head knock) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil PORT ADELAIDE Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin, replaced Jack Billings in the fourth quarter PORT ADELAIDE Jase Burgoyne, replaced Francis Evans in the third quarter UMPIRES Hayden Gavine Alex Whetton Robert Findlay Martin Rodger CROWD 38,105 at Adelaide Oval

For too long in the past, Demon fans became habitually sick and tired of watching the Hawks hand out thrashings to their side. But Melbourne’s empahtic 55-point win at the MCG on Saturday has truly put a fork in the Hawk and turned that history well and truly on its head. The Demons have now won nine of their last ten encounters with the other result, a draw. And like a fork, it was the multi-pronged options that Melbourne had all across the ground. It certainly helped that Hawthorn was playing a game style emblematic of ten years ago, as they tried to play possession football by constantly chipping the ball backwards and forwards to one another. Despite the Hawks amassing a whopping 52 uncontested marks in the first quarter, it was all for nothing as the Demons piled on five goals with the Hawks managing only one point. Mitchell’s men were playing more of a soccer match with their game of keepings off. The result demonstrates how statistics are only a measure of what happens in a game, rather than an indicator of the effectiveness of those actions toward producing success. Well, the game was as good as over come that first siren, and having punctured any hope the Hawks had to be competitive, they simply had to stop the bleeding. To that end, they put up to two extra players at the contest which resulted in an AFL version of a rugby match. So the scoreline only advanced by three goals between the two sides in the second stanza. Tragically, for the Demons, Steven May was sent to hospital with an injury to his ribs/lung area and not long after Jake Lever did some sort of damage to his knee. Not many teams would be able to recover from the loss of both key defenders with half a game of football to play, but Melbourne is a different case in point. So the fans had been treated to game of soccer, followed by rugby, but from there on in Melbourne played AFL, and piled on another eight goals in the second half, despite the loss of their full back and centre half back. Fortunately, Marty Hore was substitute and he fitted in to admirably hold his spot in the backline as a replacement. Tom McDonald assumed the full back position, while Christian Salem moved into the backline to assist and Harry Petty swung back to fill the gap left by Lever. The defensive machine never missed a beat and allowed Hawthorn to kick only three goals in the second half. Yet again the Hawks tried to target Clayton Oliver, but once again those tactics from ten years ago failed to cover the rest of the Demons mids. Centre clearances were a phenomenal 14 to 5, as they simply left other Melbourne mids unattended at the bounce. Once again while the stats were heavily in favour of the Dees, it was the ease and damage that those free flowing possessions from the middle that put yet another fork in the Hawks game plan. Up forward, Bayley Fritsch put another fork in the Sicily bubble, who despite 27 touches (of which 22 were uncontested), allowed Fritsch to kick five goals. Again, it is of little value keeping the stats people busy while your opponent is keeping the scorers even busier. The Melbourne coaches played the game style to force the Hawks until they made mistakes. All game long it was just a case of rinse and repeat, as the Hawks simply could not penetrate the Demons all ground defence. And when they made the inevitable error, it was always costly since Melbourne move the ball so quickly and open up the field. The Hawks just kept looking sideways or trying to switch without any success whatsoever. With the Hawks being forked, Melbourne now travels to Adelaide for their next two matches including a short turn around of only five days between Port Adelaide and Adelaide. That certainly won’t help with the injury concerns being experienced in the defence. Having used the forks to damaging effect in this game, the brains trust might have to use the steak knives to carve up the opposition in the coming matches. MELBOURNE 5.3.33 6.5.41 10.7.67 14.9.93 HAWTHORN 0.1.1 2.3.15 4.6.30 5.8.38 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 5 Pickett 3 Chandler 2 Billings Petracca van Rooyen Sparrow HAWTHORN Breust Lewis McDonald Weddle Watson BEST MELBOURNE Petracca Fritsch Neal-Bullen Salem Gawn Pickett HAWTHORN Sicily Weddle Amon Scrimshaw, Worpel INJURIES MELBOURNE Jake Lever (knee) Steven May (ribs) HAWTHORN Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil HAWTHORN Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Marty Hore replaced Steven May at half-time. HAWTHORN Jack Gunston replaced Luke Breust in the third quarter. UMPIRES Williamson Heffernan Wallace Adair CROWD 43,960 at the MCG

For the second week in a row, the Demons had to endure some particularly oppressive match conditions — this time, playing in 30 degree temperatures at the MCG, following the humid sticky Sydney atmosphere of last week. The warmer conditions didn’t seem to worry the Dee’s since the ball was so much easier to handle, and handle it with surety they did in handing out a 45 point drubbing to the much fancied Western Bulldogs. After a slow start that saw the Dogs out to a 14 point lead early in the opening quarter, the gears of the Demon machine clicked into action and by quarter time the margin was a solitary point in favour of the Demons. The initial bite of the Dogs was cauterized by the relentless Melbourne defence led by Steven May, who finished the match with 25 disposals, 13 marks and 607 metres gained. The Demon defender handed out another drubbing to an opposition full forward, this time in Aaron Naughton who could only manage six disposals and a single mark. It’s a good thing for him that he recently was signed up for the next eight years, otherwise, based on that performance, he might well be standing in line at Centrelink come Monday morning. For Melbourne, the game also saw the return of Tom McDonald to the backline. Whether through necessity or rejuvenation, it was a delight to see him at his best following what has essentially been two years away from the game with continuous injuries of some sort or another. His 18 touches including eight telling interceptions and ten marks, helped to make the backline virtually impenetrable. Jake Lever of course, chipped in with ten intercepts and Trent Rivers did likewise. And to top it all off, Marty Hore returned from an even longer break (1,667 days to be exact) away from the AFL and cemented a spot in the future for himself, more than ably filling the gap left by Jake Bowey’s injury last week. Oh, and second gamer, Blake Howes finished with 16 disposals, while another youngster in Judd McVee finished with 20 touches. It was remarkable that the Dogs scored at all, given their much vaunted talls structure in front of goal. Up forward, the Demons witnessed another Lazarus-like performance from Ben Brown, who has been on the injured or rehab list for the best part of two years as well. While not dominant, despite two goals, he just doesn’t get any shorter during the game, and on a number of occasions brought the ball to ground to advantage the smalls. Not surprisingly Kade Chandler kicked three goals, Alex Neal-Bullen and Kozzy Pickett pressed home two apiece with and Jack Billings and Christian Salem also took advantage of the big man’s presence. Equally as important was that Brown took the pressure off young Jacob van Rooyen who had to double up in the ruck role again. And BBB’s three contested marks out of six were truly telling for the side, just when needed. Bayley Fritsch unfortunately had a “mare” of a game, and seemed right off the pace when he has been so reliable with both marking and kicking in the past. Hopefully, this is just a blip, but maybe someone who played at Coldstream and Casey in the winter doesn’t adapt well to the hotter conditions that were witnessed in this match. So with the forward structure back to something dangerous, the calls about “bombing” or “lowering of eyes” seem so meaningless now. The battle of the mids in all honesty was a draw between the two sides. Bontempelli, Liberatore, Treloar and English v Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Gawn. Just about all the statistics were matched, although Max had a slight advantage in the ruck contests and marking. Not really unexpected, as the Bulldogs’ midfield is seriously good, but they are nearly totally dependent upon that quartet of players to generate wins for the team. Melbourne learned the lessons from last week about the interchanges, and managed Max much more favourably in this game. Likewise the other mids, who with Salem now playing time in the middle, just gave more options and breaks in the hot conditions. When English and Bontempelli had their break in the final quarter, and Max and Oliver came back in, the Demons just took over and finished with six majors for the quarter, handing out the drubbing that had been long coming. It was good to get the win on the board for the Dee’s, just to level the ledger. The up and coming Hawks next week will provide a challenge, but theirs is all based on the enthusiasm of youth. But with the structures that Melbourne put into place today, they will be squeezed until they break, providing they are not given too much rub of the green to start with. Without that, the Hawks will also face a Dee-rubbing. MELBOURNE 4.4.28 8.5.53 10.8.68 16.13.109 WESTERN BULLDOGS 4.3.27 6.5.41 7.7.49 9.10.64 GOALS MELBOURNE Chandler van Rooyen 3 Brown Neal-Bullen Pickett 2 Billings Petracca Salem Viney WESTERN BULLDOGS Ugle-Hagan 2 Bontempelli Bramble Gallagher Lobb Naughton Weightman West BEST MELBOURNE Oliver Gawn May Billings Petracca Chandler WESTERN BULLDOGS Bontempelli Liberatore Treloar English Johannisen INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil WESTERN BULLDOGS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Taj Woewodin (replaced Caleb Windsor in the fourth quarter) WESTERN BULLDOGS Caleb Daniel (replaced Ryley Sanders in the third quarter) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil WESTERN BULLDOGS Nil UMPIRES Hayden Gavine Robert Findlay Nathan Toner Andrew Adair OFFICIAL CROWD 44,100 at The MCG

There was much fanfare about the Demons featuring in Round Zero or whatever the AFL has deemed it. Plenty of exclusive TV coverage, a full house at the SCG, the anticipated Grundy v Gawn match up, what could possibly be a better build-up to Season 2024? Well after all the hype, all the Demons could manage was a whimper, as they were blown away by the Swans who had planned immaculately and utilise all their advantages, ground, weather & tactics superlatively. This was a game where the Demons were simply out-coached, by the old fox, John Longmire. Surely the Melbourne coaching panel (it’s not all down to the senior coach) would have realised the following:- • The SCG is small, so a style of play which employs fast running, open spaces, looking for outside run and carry simply does not work. The ground itself is conducive to contested, all bodies to the ball, flooding tactics. And this is exactly what Longmire employs, same as his predecessor, Paul Roos. • The weather was forecast to be humid, warm and even a chance of showers. The ball in those conditions is going to be slippery, so players must be instructed to play “wet weather” type football. Sydney did exactly that, but Melbourne just kept trying to string together handball chains which inevitably failed when the ball was fumbled or mis-directed. Similarly, just kick the ball … any kick will get substantial territory on such a small ground, and it just moves to the next contest, simply because there is no space without bodies nearby. • Why would they select Charlie Spargo who hadn’t been on the training track for the past month with an Achilles injury, and then get him to stand Blakey at 195cm while Spargo is a mere 172cm. Baffling to say the least. But Longmire was even smarter, as he knew Max Gawn would be a deciding factor, especially since he was missing three of his first choice mids in Mills, Parker and Adams. So nullify Max became the instruction. Bump, harass, block or simply belt him at every opportunity and from any player on the field. It worked brilliantly, as there wasn’t much defence of the captain from other Melbourne players, and by the final quarter he was truly battered and bruised. To top it off, Grundy adopted new tactics of blocking Max in the ruck once the ball was bounced, and there should be questions about whether it was legal, since it would attract a free kick in any other part of the ground. Frustratingly, the coaching staff couldn’t see the obvious effect until the final quarter by which time, the damage was done. As Grundy backed into Max, the ball was only ever going to go in one direction, no matter which ruckman hit it. And that was to the Sydney side of the circle. Surely, our mids would have been told to load up that side and shark the ball. But no - it continued virtually all night. Max cannot play the whole game. Grundy was given breaks throughout for long periods especially in the third, where as Max played 82% game time. Then Grundy was not used exclusively in the ruck, and certainly in the final quarter spent most of it a kick behind play. The Sydney style of play also guarantees no freedom for the opposition forwards as they flood the defensive 50m arc profusely. At one point there were 16 red and white players inside, so please give me relief from people who say “lower the eyes”. There is no space provided by the ground firstly and most of it is covered by Swans players. The result was Bayley Fritsch was the only forward to trouble the goal umpire more than once, and he recorded four goals from just six touches. That shows how hard it was for all forwards, but even the Sydney forwards in McDonald with eight touches for the game and Amartey with three (and then being subbed out) demonstrated it wasn’t a night for ANY forward. At least they competed, and Longmire again saw the disadvantage of having non performers up forward with his timely sub in Wicks who had 5 touches in a quarter and provided more input to their success. Any hope the Demons might have had, and they even got a point in front at one stage, was thrown away by fumbling, and even more sadly by a raft of individuals who provided little to nothing for the whole game. The backs held up particularly in the first half, but the constant onslaught eventually wore them down. New boy Blake Howes acquitted himself well in his first game and needed to after Bowey left the ground with a shoulder injury. That was another critical error for the coaching staff, who then took Salem from the middle to sit at HBF, when we needed to clear the ball from the middle and stop it getting there in the first place. On the wing Caleb Windsor – “the Duke” also impressed and while yet to adapt to the physicality of AFL level football, certainly showed plenty and will be called upon for a regular spot in the coming weeks. I won’t go through the individual failures since it was obvious to anyone who watched the game who was at fault. Unfortunately, there were a good number, and those who have been tried, tried and tried again. Give me a Kynan Brown or a Will Verrall fairly soon to replace them, as our circumstances would not have been any worse. We got nought from this game, and probably finished in negative territory. This despite the return of Clayton Oliver, who was obviously a bit underdone, but still managed 30 touches. If others had put in similar efforts to his, the balance sheet would definitely be in the positive. MELBOURNE 1.6.12 2.8.20 7.8.50 9.10.64 SYDNEY SWANS 3.3.21 4.3.27 7.12.54 12.14.86 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 4 Viney 2 Langdon Petracca van Rooyen SYDNEY SWANS Hayward McLean 2 Florent Fox Heeney McDonald McInerney Papley Warner Wicks BEST MELBOURNE Viney May Salem Petracca Oliver Gawn SYDNEY SWANS Heeney Grundy Blakey Warner Papley Florent Rampe INJURIES MELBOURNE Jake Bowey (shoulder) SYDNEY SWANS Nil SUBSTITUTIONS MELBOURNE Jack Billings (replaced Bailey Laurie in the third quarter) SYDNEY SWANS Sam Wicks (replaced Joel Amartey in the third quarter) UMPIRES Donlon, Gavine, Findlay, Mollison CROWD 40,012 at the SCG

Congratulations to the Brisbane Lions. Undefeated in all 6 matches against the top teams (North Melbourne, Adelaide, Geelong, and Melbourne). They are worthy winners of the 2023 AFLW premiership. Our ambition for a Season 8 back-to-back premiership was derailed. In round 6 Adelaide spilled the beans on the template to outplay us. From there news spread fast to other top teams who applied similar intense physical pressure at the source which crushed our gameplan to execute via quick hands to runners. We had moments of competitiveness against Adelaide and Geelong, but both the 2023 Grand finalists had our measure at the pointy end of the season. Finishing 2023 Top 4 and exiting in straight sets was an unhappy outcome for supporters, especially given the men’s team finished the same way. But MFC Chair Kate Roffey reminded members that no one will be more disappointed in how we finished the year than the players themselves, they will be determined to bounce back. For Mick Stinear, his football department, Kate Hore and the playing group, it will be back to base camp in 2024, fitter and stronger, and the introduction of some new faces to get excited about. Meggs is optimistic. At the beginning of the season, Demons supporters were regularly posting how much they were enjoying watching women’s footy. It was true, we were playing some really entertaining and skillful football, our best footy is super exciting. Following are reflections on Season Eight 2023: What went right For any team to win a back-to-back premiership, almost everything has to go right. Offence Finishing 2nd with 8 wins and a percentage of 222.9, our ‘points for’ of 653 is the highest in AFLW competition history. Our forward stars Eden Zanker and Kate Hore jointly shared the AFLW Goalkicking Award with a record 20 goals for the Home and Away Season. Edo also snagged three goals in the final against Geelong to finish with 23 for the season, another league record (equal with Brisbane’s Dakota Davidson). One Club - McLelland Trophy Winners = $1 Million MFC Chair Kate Roffey praised how competitive our Club’s men’s and woman’s programs are when highlighting the honour of accepting the revamped and relaunched 2023 McClelland Trophy. She said that while the $1 million prize money is welcomed, the real value is the recognition of the ‘extraordinary commitment it takes across the entire Club to field and support two extremely high performing teams each weekend’. The Daisy replacement No one was surprised about the Club’s appointment of Kate Hore as Captain of the Melbourne Football Club as she was the standout candidate. From the outset of her captaincy tenure our Number 10’s leadership was evident. Her teammates see her as an inspiration on and off the field. Kate does everything well yet appears so humble. Statistically 2023 was her best ever year. She led the league for average score involvements with 6.5 a game, was an equal league-leading goalkicker and averaged 4 marks and 4 tackles per game. External recognition of Kate’s outstanding year came from her peers as the AFL Player’s Association’s Best Captain for 2023 and from the media for by being selected as a forward and captain of the 2023 AFLW All-Australian Team. Last Quarter Bandits New AFLW rules for 2023 included 17-minute quarters and a 60 interchange-limit and these changes advantaged the Dees with our deep fleet of seasoned midfield runners able play out quarters and matches and kick higher scores. Our extended run of unbeaten last quarters ran from Round 4 of Season 7 until North undid us in the Qualifying final, an AFLW record of 19 games. Some exhilarating 4th quarter footy was witnessed by the Demons faithful during the season: Eden Zanker mesmerised the highly rated Crows defence at Casey in Round 6 and then repeated that with three last quarter goals in the losing semi-final against the Cats. Other notable last quarter efforts include seven goals against the Giants in Round 2 and four goals against the Cats in Round 5. Irish Eyes Are Smiling Goldie and the Mackins add so much run and competitiveness and are vital cogs in our gameplan. Blaithin had a tremendous second season, a big improver. Goldie always rises to the challenges of big games and lifts her teammates. Aimee looks a natural forward so injury free and with a full pre-season we have found a footballer. All-Australians Other than the aforementioned great seasons of Kate and Edo, our generational key defender Tahlia Gillard and our uber talented Vice Captain Tyla Hanks also made the All-Australian Squad. Tahls is building an impressive CV of big-name scalps while Tyla, our most skillful playmaker, is now widely recognised for her week in, week out, football genius. What went wrong (the excuses) All was going swimmingly until quarter time in Round 6 against Adelaide at Casey Fields. The Draw Was our draw too soft? In six games against bottom eight teams we had a percentage of 323% whereas in the six games against the top eight teams our percentage was 96.4%. Why were we out of form at the wrong time of year? Mick, this is really a question for you. Did being the hunted, not the hunter, eventually weigh us down? Injuries didn’t’ help Maddi Gay, Aimee Mackin, Tayla Harris and Paxy all missed multiple matches. Lampy broke her wrist in Round 7, Sherriff re-injured her forearm in Round 10. Gabby Colvin only played 2 games. The unspoken illness that swept the team during the finals, was this truly a factor? List composition and game plan Improvement by other teams relative to us? Yes, definitely. Exposed at the source by stronger and more willing bodies. North laid 104 tackles (Dees 80) in the final and Brisbane 81 (Dees 57) in Round 10. Brisbane dominated uncontested possessions 133:75 and marks 51:27. Adelaide dominated us for two quarters in Round 6 but we were able to fight back but not so against Brisbane or North. In the Geelong final it was all going the wrong way until a last quarter hurrah. All four teams exposed not only our lack of midfield physicality but our leg speed and depth in defence. By not being able to exit the contest skilfully we coughed up the footy and back it came. Being 2022 reigning premiers, we already have an excellent core playing group, but all successful teams must renew and refresh their list. Premiers Brisbane lost Bates, Bodey and Wardlaw in 2022. Our shopping list should include some bigger bodies for the midfield and a strong key defender. All new recruits must be runners and competitors who come with established core footy skills. Do we know whether Casey girl Claudia Whitford would consider rejoining the Dees? She has starred for Gold Coast this year. Player movements The Trade Period opens on Thursday 7 December 2023 and closes 14 December. AFLW is reporting that Casey Sherriff, Libby Birch, and Eliza West may be off the Hawthorn. Gold Coast are apparently chasing Charlotte Wilson. We have another Father-Daughter selection in young speedster Jemma Rigoni which is exciting. In other news Georgina ‘Chook’ Fowler has retired from football and leaves the Dees without making her debut. The Draft is being held on Monday 18 December 2023. Speculation Meggs speculates that some end-of-season player reviews will be interesting. Fitzy, the ultra-skilled pressure forward, failed to kick a goal in her 8 games this season. She did have a career-high 15 disposals in the qualifying final against North and a career-high 10 tackles against Fremantle in Round 9. Could Fitzy play on the ball where she has done well in VFLW or even a defensive role? You want the ball in her hands because she has good skills and makes good decisions. Her housemate, the highly talented Alyssa Bannan, had some fine moments in 2023 including a 5-goal haul against the lowly West Coast Eagles. However, Alyssa was unable to consistently assert herself in the 6 key matches against the Top 4 teams, kicking just the one goal. Maybe play her on the wing? Getting fitter and stronger must be a focus for Banno in 2024. Best and Fairest In the AFLW Best and Fairest, Demons scored 46 votes. Kate Hore and Tyla Hanks earned 12 votes, Eden Zanker and Paxy Paxman 6., Alyssa Bannan 5, Eliza West and Lauren Pearce 2, and Liv Purcell 1. The Demons Best and Fairest is being held 9 December 2023. Meggs is tipping Tyla Hanks to win her second best and fairest. She has been our inspirational playmaker all year. Last year’s winner Kate Hore has been superb and might be thereabouts too. Melbourne FC has written a piece on some of the top-performing Demons of the season here: Tahlia Gillard   In just her third season at the top level, Tahlia Gillard has broken into the league as an upcoming star of the defensive 50. She’s improved with each week at the contest and on the rebound. The 19-year-old has managed to shut down some of the best forwards in the league, averaging 5.6 intercepts and 5.2 spoils, with her consistency earning her an inaugural selection in the All-Australian squad. Tyla Hanks   As vice-captain, Tyla Hanks’ impressive performances were a constant for the team in 2023, using her footy smarts, natural talent and silky skills to cement herself as one of the competition’s best midfielders. Statistically, she continued to reach new milestones, averaging a career-high 21.7 disposals, 5.6 clearances, 4.4 score involvements and 3.7 inside 50s. The midfielder finished the season with 12 votes in the league best and fairest count, an equal club-high. Shelley Heath  She might fly under the radar externally, but Shelley Heath is a highly celebrated Demon at the club for her versatility, strength and determination. Often tasked with locking down the opposition’s most influential players, this year has seen her talent showcased across both the backline and midfield, while also impacting in front of goals, kicking two during Round 1.   Kate Hore   This season has seen Kate Hore take on the new title of captain, embracing the responsibility and allowing it to push her game to another level. The crafty forward became the second player in league history to kick 20 goals in a home-and-season, earning her the title of leading goal-kicker alongside Eden Zanker. She also led the league for average score involvements with 6.5 a game.   Most recently, she became a three-time All-Australian forward and received the honour of All-Australian captain to go alongside her AFL Players' Association's Best Captain title. Blaithin Mackin   In just her second season at the club, Blaithin Mackin has further adapted into the sport, having only come across from Gaelic football last year. The speedy winger has been persistent in her develop of the AFL craft, her natural agility and creative skill an asset to the side. Her best performance came in Round 8 where she registered 21 disposals, six marks and four tackles.  Lily Mithen  A stalwart for the Demon line-up since the inaugural season, Lily Mithen has continued to be a pillar of strength for the team in 2023. The energetic and determined utility was impressive in the contest, her versatility an important quality for the side during integral games throughout the season. She averaged 16.6 disposals and kicked a career-high total of four goals.   Lauren Pearce No one does it quite like Lauren Pearce and in 2023 she continued her talented ways in the red and blue. Known for her impressive ruck craft, with the ability to follow up at ground-level, Pearce averaged 18.5 hitouts and 3.2 clearances a game, often seen changing the momentum of a game with a single tap. Despite missing one match in the middle of the season, Pearce’s impact across the year will no doubt put her in good stead for this year’s top honour. Olivia Purcell  A fiery midfielder who consistently steps up under pressure is Olivia Purcell, whose 2023 has been another testament to her talent. The bullish Demon is as competitive as they come, attacking the contest with an unmatched will to win. This season has seen her average 21.9 disposals, 4.5 tackles, 4.2 clearances and a career-high 4.6 score involvements.   Eden Zanker   Experienced Demon Eden Zanker produced a career-best campaign in 2023. The tall forward came into the season with perfected forward craft and a strength in the aerial contest, averaging close to four marks a game. She wrote herself into the history books as the first AFLW player to kick 20 goals in a home-and-away season and was named the league’s leading goal-kicker alongside Kate Hore.  She topped off her year with an inaugural All-Australian selection. Thank you readers Well, that’s all for Season Eight. It has been a pleasure writing about this wonderful team so thank you for reading. Meggs wishes you all the best for the festive season. MEGGS

It was a hot afternoon at IKON where the ferocious Cats came to play, had read the manual on how to beat us and the Demons were unable to match them for the first three quarters. With physical pressure, they took the game on with relative ease and though our resistance seemed better than the previous two weeks it was still not good enough. Within the opening minute, Kate Hore marks within range, but her shot was a miss-kick, like a fat iron, and it kinda set a flat tone for the afternoon. Young Geelong stars Nina Morrison (clearly best on ground) and Georgie Prespakis were ferocious, while 3-time best and fairest winner Amy McDonald started proceedings with two great goals in the opening quarter. Maddi Gay did give the Demon faithful some hope after the half time siren with a terrific long-range goal from a mark. Only three goals in it at half time. The Cats came out strongly after the main break and put the game beyond reach leading by 30 points at ¾ time. An unassailable lead? That’s what everyone thought. Melbourne in eight seasons had never lost three games in a row. Well in the ¾ time huddle, with Harris hurt, Mick Stinear mixed it up. He threw Tahlia Gillard into the ruck, with dynamo Goldie, Kate Hore and the extractor Westy and within seconds of the commencement of the last quarter we had scored a goal. The season-long weight of expectation of being reigning premiers, the hunted versus the hunter, had somehow lifted from our players’ shoulders. Emerging belief. Nothing to lose. It was a very exciting last quarter comeback to watch at the ground but ultimately it was too little too late. After witnessing almost three weeks of un-Melbourne-like football at least we finally displayed some of our trademark exciting football in the last quarter of 2023. Demons Fans were building with excitement as we kicked five goals in the last to nearly pinch a win, falling sadly short by less than a goal. That Loz Pearce snap was agonisingly close to forcing extra-time. Eden Zanker started holding her marks and kicked three brilliant last quarter goals to finish on 23 goals for the season, an AFLW record. Congratulations Edo. Geelong Coach Dan Lowther was shown on the big screen several times looking highly nervous. The big Geelong contingent who came up on the buses sensed the danger too and started cheering loudly for their team as the margin kept whittling away. But fortunately for them the siren sounded before our last forward thrust could be completed. In the end the Cats deserved the win. For the Dees Goldie was strong throughout, Hanksy is our talented talisman, Maddi Gay plays so well in finals, Westy made a strong comeback, Liv Purcell is an important cog in the midfield along with Paxy and Loz Pearce while Zanker starred in that last quarter. There were several players who didn’t impact the match and really every time we win, we have an even contribution. Sadly, not this week. Sherriff and Lampy were missed. The Demons will now start all the end of season processes including players reviews and list management. There is obviously some work to be done to improve. Well, that’s the season wrap up from Meggs. It has been a pleasure going to matches, reporting and reviewing and he thanks you for taking the time to read these missives. Coaches and next week Melbourne Coach Mick Stinear was gutted but said Geelong deserved to win. For three quarters Geelong got first use of the ball. Our belief kicked in in that last quarter and at least showed what the group is capable of. We were unfortunately out of form at the wrong time of year. Why was that Mick? Geelong coach Dan Lowther thought his side had enough of a buffer at ¾ time to win the match but was nervous towards the end and clearly relieved when that final siren sounded. He highlighted Hanksy’s outstanding last quarter. One concern for the Cats is their fading last quarters. In their 2 finals so far, Geelong has only scored 1.1.7 and their opposition 8.4.52. The Cats have earned a Preliminary Final contest next week against Brisbane at Ipswich starting at 7:45pm Melbourne time. It will be a tough assignment for them, and we wish them well.  MELBOURNE 0.2.2 1.4.10 1.7.19 6.9.45 GEELONG 2.4.16 4.5.29 6.7.43 7.8.50 GOALS MELBOURNE Zanker 3 Gay Hanks A Mackin GEELONG A.McDonald 2 Crockett-Grills Darby Moloney Parry Scott BEST MELBOURNE Gay West Zanker Gillard Purcell Hanks GEELONG Morrison A McDonald Webster M McDonald Parry Prespakis INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil GEELONG Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GEELONG Nil UMPIRES Adams Scott Talbot CROWD 5,057 at IKON Park