Round 3 – Brisbane Vs Melbourne – Lions Lay Down Like Lambs

Liam Chambers

Good result for the Dees. It’s never easy playing away. Brisbane were favourite to win on home soil even though they lost to in-form Fremantle in Round 2. The heat & humidity was also a factor, but you’d never know it by the way Melbourne controlled the game.

Five minutes in & Aliesha Newman kicked the first goal after one of her signatory runs. The Dees were dominating. Hanks was displaying her superior passing skills and showing great vision. A few minutes later and Newman had her second.

Overall Melbourne was applying tremendous pressure on the Lions and should have been further ahead at quarter time. Brisbane scored courtesy of Tawhaq-Wardlow.

The second quarter was the best display by Melbourne so far this season. Goals by Kat Smith, Paxman (again good pass from Hanks) & Eden Zanker showed the diversity of talent in the Dee’s side.

Harriet Cordner did a great job of shutting down Sabrina Frederick Traub. Bianca Jacobson scored a lovely goal after some intense pressure from Melbourne which saw them forty points ahead at the end of the first half.

Melbourne didn’t let up in the third quarter and tackled well, especially Kat Smith. Their use of the hand ball was at times superb and pressurized the Lions into making a lot of errors. The intercept marking was also noteworthy. Unfortunately for all the Dees superior play, Brisbane were getting themselves into potential scoring positions.

Finally, Nat Exon put one between the uprights for the Lions, their first goal since late in quarter one. Then Bianca Jacobson got her second & Melbourne went into the last quarter leading by thirty-eight points.

The last quarter was again a low scoring affair. There were some nice touches, but Brisbane never looked like launching a major comeback. A highlight for Melbourne was the mark and subsequent goal from Tegan Cunningham. Tegan looked like she lacked confidence early on. The Dees won by thirty-nine points after Kate McCarthy from Brisbane scored a deserved goal after the siren.

All in all, a great performance by Melbourne and they have now stamped their mark on the competition after three good games. The loss to Fremantle was unlucky but the girls also learned a lot from that disappointment.

Their biggest test will be in Round 4 when they take on the new kids from North Melbourne. Playing at Casey Fields will help but the Kangaroos are an altogether different beast to Brisbane. The Roos will have watched this game to spot where Melbourne are weakest. We will have done the same. It will be interesting to see what changes the Dees make to their game. If the Dees play like they did in Brisbane, then I would definitely not bet against us.

Congratulations to Daisy Pearce & the latest members of the Melbourne Demons Fan Club

2019 prelude – pre-season report

Nigel Dawe

“You can win without skill but you can’t win without spirit.” – Norm Smith.  Every football club is like a classic novel, whereby each decade might represent a chapter and each season could well be a page. That said, I’m thrilled to see what will soon be ‘written’ on the currently blank page that is season 2019 for us.

Whilst Round One outright represents the 2400th time our team has graced a VFL/AFL field, I’ve been suitably reflecting on the many whys –related to ‘absolutely’ why I go for Melbourne and what keeps me so enthralled with the every nuance and turn of this team – and primarily it is its history, its on-going story, a story that stretches farther back in time than any other team (of any code) in the world. Of course I more than fully appreciate seeing its future evolve and unfold but I just love acquainting myself with its past – delving into the tales, the records, the stats, facts and fascinating figures of not just the club’s shining stars but its lesser lights as well.

Take one of my ‘lesser known’ favourites for example – Artie Best, a bloke who hasn’t taken the field for 105 years and only played a dozen games – but in his very last game of VFL footy before bravely sailing off to the battlefields of WWI, he did what no one else in Melbourne colours had ever done and fair to say, will ever do again. Artie kicked the team’s entire score of 5.5 against South Melbourne (who were no light weights, being that year’s eventual runners -up).

Similarly, talking last appearances before never appearing in the red and blue ever again, if there was one game I’d like to see in our club’s entire history (besides the 1926 Grand Final) I know call me Dr Who now, but it would have to be Fred Fanning’s ‘big day out’ in 1947 and his mammoth return of 18 goals, 1 point in front of the sticks, which remains not just a club, but a competition record haul to this day. I’d also love to have seen his 105.5 metre roost at the MCG in the 1939 reserves Grand Final, one that landed him (with an accompanying sonic boom) into no less than the Guinness Book of Records for the longest kick of all-time.

And then there are some records or accolades that simply don’t reflect or do justice to what it is they were intended to honour, if not honourably commend. Take our great Robbie Flower’s ‘one’ solitary club best & fairest award (he also claimed 4 runner up mantles) but the fact he earned more Brownlow votes than any other Demons player (150 to be exact) highlights something I’ve never been able to reconcile.

Similarly the great Gary Ablett Snr only ever took out the one club best & fairest award in his whole career at Geelong, and this pair were perhaps the most mercurial players I’ve seen in the last 40 years. Maybe their brilliance was just expected and never came as a ‘surprise’ to those who ‘oversaw’ such things, I don’t know, and never will.

But isn’t that what makes our game so great and follow-able – the eternal subjective engagement and stimulation it offers each and every one of us without exception, it is an afforded ‘buy in’, a chance to share and partake each year over a lifetime in something absolute and grand, or as Oscar Wilde once so tellingly observed for particularly players and coaches, but also fans alike: “The world only belongs to you for a season.”

Round 2 – Collingwood Vs Melbourne

Liam Chambers

After last week’s disappointing last quarter loss to Fremantle, the Dee’s bounced back to secure their first AFLW win for 2019. The two Team Captains Elise O’Dea & Shelly Scott have filled Daisy Pearce’s legendary boots to perfection. It’s never easy winning away from home and the blustery conditions added to the drama, making scoring opportunities all the more difficult. The 7000 plus crowd got a great evening of footy though. From the start the Dees were determined to make up for that agonizingly close loss to Freo.

Aliesha Newman, showing that she’s lost none of her speed, kicked a beautiful pass which Tegan Cunningham collected in a diving mark. Unfortunately, Tegan didn’t collect the six points. The first quarter ended all even at two points apiece. Melbourne should have been a few goals ahead but the Pies’ defence and the breeze kept their score down.

It looked like the second quarter would also be a low scoring affair until an inspirational kick from O’Dea and a kind bounce saw the Demons get their first goal in the last two minutes. Not to be outdone, the rising star Tyla Hanks (still only 18), pick up the ball on the run and banana kicked superbly to the grateful hands of Lauren Pearce. Pearce converted and the Dees were 16-2 going into the second half.

The third quarter opened promisingly for Melbourne. Cunningham looked back to her winning ways with a lovely mark inside Collingwood’s 50. A one handed mark by Woodland show a nice confidence. Lauren Pearce had a 50 metre penalty awarded to her at the end of the quarter but a misunderstanding of the amount of time left saw her her handball rather than kick for goal. Only one point for the Dees in the third but Collingwood were scoreless.
Melbourne kept up the pressure at the start of the fourth and a tidy kick from Paxman was plucked out of the air by the talented Hanks, which she then converted for a perfect goal. With just over four minutes to go, Collingwood finally found the Dee’s goal, much to the home fans’ delight. Sarah Dargan soccer kicked it between Melbourne’s uprights but it was too late for the Pies.
The Dees won 26-9 and there’s a lot to like about this new line up. Best wishes to Daisy Pearce and the impending arrival of the twin bundles of joy.