Deep dive special: Inside look at exactly where the Demons are at ahead of 2020 season
No one predicted Melbourne to fall so far in 2019. From preliminary finalists to cellar dwellers, the Demons lost their hunger. The early signs in 2020 are good, but does anyone outside the club and its fans think they can bounce back?
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Melbourne got comfortable.
It’s one of those sad three-word stories no one saw coming last year after a brilliant 2018 netted the Demons a pair of finals wins at the MCG.
But the buzz and adrenaline of such a long-awaited September breakthrough caused havoc over the following summer as the same club fell flat on its face.
Injuries and post-season surgeries contributed significantly, clearly, but that doesn’t excuse the fact the Demons lost their physical and mental edge.
The hunger disappeared.
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Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan even used the Demons last week to highlight the challenge ahead for his young Lions when he said his club didn’t want to “do a Melbourne” this season.
As in, blow it.
And now it feels like the footy world has its boots lined up to kick Melbourne again — the AFL’s oldest club with the longest premiership drought — as it tries to atone for a year in which it fell from preliminary finalist to second-last.
But rather than back-in the status quo for 2020, Melbourne made bold decisions and deep cuts as part of a footy department overhaul.
New assistant coaches, a new captain, new fitness bosses, two new wingmen, two more first-round draft picks, and, in part, a new attitude.
High-performance expert Darren Burgess has flogged the Demons on the track over the past few months as part of plans to transform Melbourne – which copped criticism for having a one-way midfield in 2019 — into the hardest-running team in the competition.
Football boss Josh Mahoney said 2019 left a bitter taste in the mouths of everyone at the club.
“We weren’t able to get any momentum at all throughout last year and when you start the season slowly, you always think it will turn around,” Mahoney said.
“But we were never able to get our best players out there and that then flows on to other issues around the club.
“But we felt really comfortable that we were able to identify those at the end of the year and make some changes.
“The one that is not measurable was, ‘Did they have the fire in their belly’ last year?
“All I can say from the first conversation that ‘Goody’ (coach Simon Goodwin) had with them on best-and-fairest night was there was that sting in the tail.
“Everyone had walked around disappointed and ashamed of our performance last year and that has certainly been driving them since.”
And dare we say it, the early signs in the new year have been extremely encouraging.
Christian Petracca did a “Dusty” and No. 13 draft pick Kysaiah Pickett applied the kind of forward-line pressure the club has sorely missed in the opening-round pre-season win over Adelaide at Casey Fields.
The Demons desperately need a blowtorch close to goal and Pickett, who some thought was taken too high, already looks like a wrecking ball.
Not that talent is really the question in red and blue.
The Demons have three of the best young ballwinners in the league. Their new skipper, Max Gawn, is one of the two most dominant ruckmen going around, and their two blue-chip intercepting defenders — Steven May and Jake Lever — have turned heads for the right reasons all summer.
The Jesse Hogan trade also hasn’t hurt Melbourne, as the talented goal kicker works back from a serious foot problem and a mental health issue in the west.
And we know Melbourne can dominate the contested ball.
What the Demons have focused on over the summer is putting it together. The connection within the team.
“The main thing for us over pre-season has been getting back and building that cohesion between players,” Mahoney said.
“Simply having our midfield all together. Midfielders kicking it to forwards and our defenders all training and playing together.”
But the mountain of list management work and pre-season training will count for little unless the Demons can turn that talent, and indeed an encouraging pre-season, into genuine “when-it-matters” results when the real stuff starts.
MORE DEES NEWS:
Stats show Christian Petracca is charting Patrick Dangerfield’s rise to KFC SuperCoach stardom
Kysaiah Pickett is tracking towards a Round 1 debut for the Demons
New Melbourne captain Max Gawn on leadership and the inspiration of Demons legend Jim Stynes
At least one win in the first two rounds against premiership fancies West Coast or Greater Western Sydney would be a tremendous kickstart to 2020.
Not that many people outside the Demons’ own fan base truly trust Melbourne.
Only four of the 19 tipsters in the Herald Sun’s Footy 20 magazine selected Melbourne in the final eight.
And around the office water coolers and in Victorian pubs, the Demons have been the butt of footy’s jokes.
There’s the skiing ones, the tanking ones and now “doing a Melbourne” has entered footy’s vernacular.
But if the Demons are potentially the most ridiculed club in the land, the team which passed on that baton, Richmond, has shown quite profoundly how to turn full circle.
Remember, the “Richmondy” jibes and the Richard Tambling draft jokes? That same club is a powerhouse on and off the field as the Tigers reload for a tilt at a third flag.
It is against these sorts of chequered back drops that the best stories in world sport can be written.
Think Boston Red Sox when they ditched the “Curse of the Bambino” to win their first championship in 86 years. Melbourne’s dry spell currently stands at 54 years.
It is why, for all of the cynicism, the Demons can also be one of those joyous footy fairytales if they can pull off a huge slingshot up the ladder this season.
Their delivery inside 50m has to find more targets and you would think the defensive running should improve significantly with two new gut-running wingmen in Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson.
The club rotated about 17 wingmen through the outside midfield slots in 2019 without success.
But Langdon, in particular, has the capacity to be an elite player and represents a huge loss for Fremantle.
He finished top-five in the Dockers’ best and fairest in the past two seasons and zipped back and forth from the forward line to the back line on repeat in the 33-point first-up win over the Crows.
It will give the Demons much-needed midfield balance and running power.
“We needed some wingers,” Mahoney said.
“We targeted guys who play it the way we want to and are disciplined with how they hold their structure and two guys who are elite runners.
“That will give us great flexibility to rotate our midfield a lot more strongly and knowing how much they help us defensively as well.”
BURNING QUESTIONS
How much pressure is Simon Goodwin under?
NOT much, really. The Demons would have to lose their first five games of the year for there to be any real heat on the senior coach. The Demons face a testing start against West Coast and GWS Giants, but they will be expected to post some wins in Rounds 3-5 against Fremantle, St Kilda and Gold Coast. Goodwin signed a contract until the end of 2022. The club was thrilled to sign former Saints senior coach Alan Richardson last year to help support Goodwin in the box.
What is Angus Brayshaw’s best position?
RIGHT under the ruckman’s nose. Brayshaw is at his best in the thick of the action. He has played on a wing over the past two seasons largely because Melbourne has not had any consistent outside midfield options. But the addition of Langdon and Tomlinson should free Brayshaw to attend more centre bounces. Melbourne will demand all of its midfielders run both ways after struggling in this area in 2019.
It is a big year for …
STEVEN May. The gun defender and former Gold Coast co-captain rocked up to the club for the start of 2019 out of shape and then copped it from the club for having a drink while injured. This time around he arrived in excellent nick but has still suffered a pair of minor knee surgeries to remove a cyst and then correct a fluid problem. That hasn’t been ideal, but Melbourne knows it has one of the best key defenders in the competition at their disposal. He almost topped the club’s best and fairest polling in the eight games he played last year. He’s All-Australian material.
PRE-SEASON HERO
CHRISTIAN Petracca played the game of his life in the pre-season win over Adelaide, according to Goodwin. We’ve always known he has special talents but until now he has been largely consigned to the forward half. If Burgess can build a midfielder’s motor in him, Petracca could begin to follow in the same path as brilliant playmakers Patrick Dangerfield and Dustin Martin. He has a powerhouse frame and exquisite skills, even in congestion. It’s all set for Petracca to become a top-50 player in the league this year after he signed a two-year contract extension this week.
The best player you might not have heard of
ALL football fans are going to enjoy watching Kysaiah Pickett this year. The excitement machine hits hard and shows Cyril Rioli-like qualities around the forward 50m. Expect him to play early and make opposition forwards nervous with his defensive pressure. He’s an excellent fit for Melbourne which desperately needed someone of his ilk.
STATS THAT MATTER
3rd Centre bounce clearances (+1.4 differential)
16th Forward 50m groundball get differential (-4.3)
17th Pressure differential (-8)
17th Points from clearances (25.4)
18th Scores per inside 50m (38.3 per cent)
SOURCE: CHAMPION DATA
CELEBRITY FAN
Titus O’Reily, comedian
THE 2020 season can’t come soon enough, if only to erase the traumatic memories of 2019.
It hurt me on so many levels. I’m looking forward to this season as much as a Melbourne fan ever does.
A Demon supporter approaches a season like someone starting a relationship they think probably won’t last — you know you’re going to end up heartbroken, it’s just a matter of how cruel the dumping will be.
On the positive side, the Dees have done a pre-season this year, which they decided not to do last year. Being fit enough to play the sport you’re paid to shouldn’t excite me, but it does.
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Originally published as Deep dive special: Inside look at exactly where the Demons are at ahead of 2020 season