NSW Demons to host club president Kate Roffey AM

The NSW Demons are delighted to host our eminent and recently honoured club President Kate Roffey AM at the Kirribilli Club on Thursday 22nd June.

Kate has kindly made herself available to meet with the NSW Demons supporters, so we encourage anyone who can to come and fly the flag. This is a rare opportunity to talk to someone intimately involved with the club, and who is just an all around interesting and inspirational person. Under Kate’s stewardship the Demons are AFLM 2021 Premiers, and reigning VFL and AFLW Premiers.

The Kirribilli Club is the new home of the NSW Demons. The club boasts a bistro with ridiculous views of the harbour (and a new winter menu), and a dedicated sports bar and lounge.

We invite Demons supporters to dine in the bistro at 6pm, ahead of formal introductions at 7pm, then the game on the big screens in the sports lounge at 7:20pm. There’ll be a half-time lucky door prize of a Melbourne Football Club guernsey, kindly donated by Beyond Bank, a major supporter of the Demons.

We don’t get a lot of love north of the Murrumbidgee so let’s show the club how much we care. The more support we show, the more support we’ll get.

Please RSVP to Marilyn on armagrant@hotmail.com

When: Thursday 22nd June. 6pm dining for 7pm formalities

Where: Kirribilli Club

• 11 Harbourview Cres, Lavender Bay
• Get there by train (Milsons Point), car (paid parking on-site, limited local parking)

An evening with Daisy Pearce

Star-struck young girls and boys were among an enthusiastic crowd of Melbourne Football Club fans who came to see Daisy Pearce talk about life, the universe and the AFL Women’s Comp last Thursday night at the Pullman Quay Grand on Sydney Harbour. Despite the classic Sydney views visible from the hotel reception room’s windows, all eyes were on Daisy as the iconic Sydney ferries sailed by ignored.

Autographs were signed and some very junior hands shaken before the humble, generous and self-possessed Melbourne Football Club’s women’s comp captain told the audience of her love for AFL as a kid growing up in the Victorian country town of Bright. Disappointment followed when she reached an age where she could no longer play in games with the boys.

The older Melbourne-born women among us sighed in recognition and regret, remembering the 1970s when girls who dared bring their Sherrin to primary school had it confiscated until the end of the day with that infuriating headmaster’s refrain: “Football’s too dangerous for girls.”

Fielding questions from magazine editor Jackie Frank and later from an engaged and responsive audience, Daisy spoke of the contrast between the more DIY-style women’s AFL – where you strap up your own ankles and even clear rubbish from the ground before you play – and the newly established professional AFL Women’s comp where physios and other assistance are all on hand.
But before we get too pleased with the progress of women’s AFL, let’s remember that unlike her AFL competition-playing male counterparts for whom it’s a full-time gig, Daisy still has a day job.
She works as a midwife at Melbourne’s Box Hill hospital, something she says she also loves and that keeps her grounded. So there’s still a fair distance to go. But to quote an old advertisement: “You’ve come a long way baby.”

Sonya Voumard
2 March 2017

AFLW – Grand Final Brisbane V Melbourne

Nigel Dawe

Watching, and then trying to convey something about a team winning a grand final at any level, let alone your own team’s inaugural premiership, at the most elite level – is like seeing a pinata torn wide open from a great height, and then trying to determine which goodie you want to find and explain first.

Well, after seven seasons the AFLW crown has finally gone to the Daisy Pearce-led Melbourne Demons, at a location that few of us had even heard of little more than a fortnight ago… but one now, that none of us will ever forget – Springfield.

Heading to the game by car, I knew it was going to be a good day when the first turnoff from the highway to the ground heading north was #31, and the second was #11, all we then needed was a turnoff #2, and that would’ve been the most famous three guernsey numbers in the club’s history.

There was no turnoff #2, but once we arrived at the ground it became quite evident that the numbers were stacked in the Lions favour… to the tune of 20 (Lion fans) to each of our 1.

Which only meant the barracking had to be more vigorous and committed than at any other time or at any other game we could ever be in the attendance of (as such, I’m hoping I get my voice back at some stage between now and Christmas!)

Having watched footy my entire life, I can’t recall a game (let alone a grand final) that was more on a knife-edge for the whole duration of play, than this one. Throughout the day I kept pondering a comment Norm Smith once made along the lines, “Football is one hundred minutes of agony, but it’s an agony I love.”

Never did solitary acts and singular, selfless deeds across the entire field become so consequential and determining of a final result. As such, if Hanks’ lunging contested mark on the outer wing with 20-seconds of the game to go, didn’t seal the win, then her next possession – a laser-like pass to Purcell, forward of the centre square – certainly did.

With little more than one straight kick in it all day, the final result provided an eerie parallel with Melbourne’s first ever VFL premiership, 122-years prior – which was by the same margin against the same team – a four-point win against the then Fitzroy Lions!

But that said, November 27th, 2022 will eternally belong to the women in the team of the red and the blue, they clocked and thoroughly locked in this day as their very own, forever! With grit and a steely-eyed will to win, they took the grand old flag to a place – against all odds, it has never been before – the Premiership dais of the AFLW.

As a doting Dad who took his own 9-year-old daughter to her very first game of footy on the weekend; the beauty and lasting resonance of this occasion wasn’t lost on me for a second. It’ll be something I tuck away at the back of my mind in highlight fashion, like the day she was born and handed to me wide-eyed and curious of her surrounds. Or the day I wrote her the haiku poem: ‘Every daughter is a rainbow across the sky of her father’s soul.’

But it’s thanks to the women, both on and off the field last Sunday, like Daisy Pearce and Kate Roffey who have paved the way – so my own little girl might one day share the big stage (of whatever forum) without any constraints caused by gender, or because of any subsequent preferential bias given to boys.

Thus, leaving the stadium, holding my daughter’s hand and both of us singing A Grand Old Flag, I couldn’t have been more chuffed; at not just the game our team had won, but what it represented for my own little girl, and girls like her across the country – for the dreams and opportunities it now makes infinitely possible.

That my Alina was the happiest and most delighted I’ve ever seen her, is a measure and gleaming testament to something I just can’t wait to see much more of.

AFLW – Grand Final Brisbane V Melbourne

Jacqui Parry

When the Demons squad are standing out on the field and they hear the Lions song before the start of the Grand Final on Sunday – we’ll be singing these words:

We are the pride of Springfield town
We wear the Demons Red and Blue
We will fight like Hell for victory
Like the Demon Squads of old

All for one and one for all
We will answer to the call
Go Lions back to Brisbane – (without that Shiny Cup)
We’ll kick the winning score
You’ll hear our mighty roar – (and then you’ll hear):

The Grand Old Flag

It’s a grand old flag, it’s a high-flying flag,
It’s the emblem for me and for you,
It’s the emblem of the team we love,
The team of the Red and the Blue.
Every heart beats true, for the Red and the Blue,
And we sing this song to you,
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the Red and the Blue.
 
Oh, the team played fine in the year Thirty-nine,
We’re the Demons that no one can lick,
And you’ll find us there at the final bell,
With the spirit of Twenty-six.
Every heart beats true, for the Red and the Blue,
And we sing this song to you,
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the Red and the Blue.

We are going to Paxinate them!!

AFLW – Round 1 – Adelaide V Melbourne

Liam Chambers

Adelaide’s intent was obvious from the first touch. The premiers were going to go hard and fast in attacking the Dees. The Crows’ pressure paid off early with Ash Woodland able to get boot to ball in the goal square and notch up the first of the night.

Initially the demons looked shell shocked by Adelaide’s pressure, but slowly they started to find their feet. As Melbourne got more hands on the footy, they grew in confidence. They had some early opportunities but it wasn’t until Kate Hore’s centering ball from the pocket bounced favourably that the Dees had their first goal. Thank you lack of goal review system in AFLW.

The goal inspired Melbourne and their pressure and tackling became more ferocious; matching the Crows’ efforts. In the end, it was an even quarter with the Dees holding a slim advantage.

Melbourne made some good progress in the second term, penetrating the Adelaide defence but was unable to add to their goal tally. Both sides have strong back lines so potential scoring opportunities were quickly closed down.

The Demons were giving it their all; showing great skill, stringing hand passes together and trying to break through the Adelaide fortress. Finally the pressure paid off with Taylor Harris finding enough space 25m out to snap and claim the only goal of the quarter.

At the start of the second half, the Crows came out firing on all cylinders. They had the ball between the uprights within two minutes as Ash Woodland snapped her second, reducing the margin to four points. Then Woodland claimed her hat trick when she found enough room to the left of goal and chipped the ball off the outside of her right boot.

With Adelaide leading by a point, Melbourne kept their cool and started hunting for the next goal. It came via a Tyla Hanks’ effort. The midfielder was able to collect and control the tapped down ball before snapping goalward and watching it bounce across the line.

It was another Demon six pointer when Lauren Pearce marked at the top of the goal square and went back for the set shot. The Ruck’s initial kick was smothered by the player on the mark but Captain Daisy pounced on the rebound and snapped to claim the goal.

The Crows landed the first goal of the final term when Danielle Ponter snapped from 25m out to bring it back to five points.

Then Eden Zanker took an uncontested mark directly in front and slotted another for Melbourne. Finally Karen Paxman iced the cake with her mark and set shot from 30m to give the Demons a deserved eighteen point victory.

It’s going to be an interesting season now that there is the full quota of eighteen teams in the competition. Also, the fact that the top players are getting a half decent wage means they can devote more time to improving their skills and knowledge. The Dees are well place to repeat the success of season six with a good chance to go one better and claim their first flag.

Go the Mighty Dees!!!