"First it started falling over. Then it fell over" - 2020 end of season spectacular.
Here endeth our 55th straight season without a premiership, a drought that is stretching towards record proportions. Only one thing can comfort me now, the greatest ever rendition of our national anthem. Please be upstanding and remove your veils of negativity.
Finishing ninth in a photo finish was certainly a step up from missing out last year by virtue of finishing 17th but that's cold comfort in the grand scheme of things. If good feelings won flags there's be about 11 of them handing out every season.
Realistically, we were never going to contend for the flag anyway, so while it would have been nice to make it just to get some dignity about the place, how much did we really lose?
In a way, I'm just happy to get through a season where we were shunted around the continent like backpackers with the club in one piece, still financially viable and without our players or coaches (openly) wearing deep psychological scars. Let's have another go next year. We won't win anything then either but it'll give me about 30 weeks to come up with some new content.
It was hardly the best of times, and it was nowhere near the worst of times. The games were shorter, barely anybody (if anybody at all) was in the stands, and the only comparisons to recent years were endless whinging about umpires and Richmond winning the flag.
Let's just be thankful that it's over and if Victoria can avoid cocking up hotel quarantine for a second time we should be allowed to watch games in person again early next year. That novelty will wear off after about two weeks of schlepping to the 'G to see limp performances, I can't have been the only one to start enjoying watching at home and getting on with my life immediately after the siren instead of packing onto a train carriage with 2000 people.
If you ever live through a stranger season something has gone terribly wrong (think Threads), but to start our look at the season with the Disease that Delivered we flash back to a simpler time...
AFLW Season in Review
In this case, seven weeks was the longest time in football. When the women's season started we were busy PISSING ourselves laughing at people who spent thousands of dollars on cruise ships only to catch a mystery virus. By the time the competition was left unfinished we were PISSING ourselves with fear of losing our jobs and ending up on a ventilator. Can't win 'em all.
Contrary to popular belief, the Melbourne Football Club did win one final in 2020. You're welcome to decide how much that means to you on a scale of 1-100 but it was nice to see the AFLW side finally make the post-season, even if it happened in Bradbury-esque circumstances when the season was subject to arbitrary shutdown.
To say things changed quickly would be an understatement. The 3500 crowd for the first MFC related contest of the season seemed like a decent warmup for the rest of the year. Hard to envision that male and female combined we'd only play in front of more people three times.
One thing that remained consistent was our inability to turn dominance into winning scores. This was best demonstrated by opening the season with a 0.0 quarter. Fortunately, we both defended stoutly (cliche) and North attacked for the rest of the game like they were drunk, allowing a comeback two point win. We'd got a difficult game out of the way in the first round and things were looking up...
... and surprisingly we carried on with it. For one more week. The wonderfully surly Libby Birch (who I Trengoved by calling Burch for half the season) helped restrict the team she'd fallen out with to just 1.6, including going scoreless across the middle two quarters. Suddenly it looked like we were going to romp to the first MFC flag (no, AFLX doesn't count) since the 1993 Reserves.
Then just as we'd established ourselves as premiership favourites, along came the expansion side that had barely fired a shot in its first two rounds. Like the night we inducted Mo Hope as the first female Kingsley, there is nothing that excites people in a Melbourne jumper more than suffering an unexpected reverse. This was a ripper, with our forward line functioning like a Yugoslavian car on the way to 1.8.14 - none of which came in the last quarter. Somehow we still only lost by five points and the people who hate-watch this stuff just to complain must have been absolutely pulling themselves.
It was all over if we lost here, and the gravity of the situation must have contributed to the bumper crowd of 21,528. Well, that and the Victoria vs Allies state game that was on right after. I was not amongst them, firstly you couldn't pay me to watch reheated state football, and secondly the 5.35pm start time left me in disarray. Seemed like a weird and wacky time to play football until the men were involved in even more obscure timeslots later in the year.
As it was I barely saw any of it, just enough to know that we won in thoroughly unconvincing fashion. Good enough to keep the season alive, if we could avoid another humiliating reverse against an expansion side.
... which we surprisingly did. In fact, the Eagles were clubbed to the tune of 66-7. If the West Coast ladies had scored one fewer point Margaret Court would have thrown battery acid at them when their plane landed. It's not often you get to dismantle West Coast so it was welcome, even if it was in no way payback for the great Preliminary Final fuckup.
The title made more sense when you know it was also International Women's Day. Which was never once referenced in the post itself, so top marks for me there.
Round 6 vs Carlton - The Sound of Silence What better way to follow a thumping, brutal victory than starting favourites and going down without a fight? Of course we did. Maybe we were spooked by the crowd being reduced to 80 people, the first time we'd played under Corona conditions. The reaction was to kick 2.3 in the first quarter and 1.3 in the next three combined. Good thing the home and away season was immediately called off or there was no earthly way we'd retain a spot in the finals.
Elimination Final vs GWS - Miracles in an emergency If the men pulled off a comeback like this you'd never stop talking about it. For now the women's game doesn't arouse the same passions - not in me anyway - but at the time it was still exciting. Unlike the rest of the game, where we kicked one goal in the first three and a bit quarters and found ourselves in what could only be described as deep shit. 15 points down with time running out there was frankly no bloody chance of a win.
Then, after a year of Peg Leg Pete kicking for goal we converted three set shots in a row to win. The hero was Lily Mithen, who sank a set shot with 30 seconds left to put as ahead. That was as good as it got, the season was immediately cancelled because the unbeaten Freo were being locked behind the Great Wall of Western Australia. Saved us from being savaged by them the next week. By the time footy teams were allowed back into Perth it was too late to get the competition started again. So we finished the year with a finals win and still ended it empty-handed. Seems like an appropriately Melbourne scenario, except for it requiring a finals win.
Daisy Pearce Medal for Women's Player of the Year
For only the second time in the history of Demonblog awards we've got a hat-trick winner, with the peerless Karen Paxman matching the feats of Nathan Jones 2011-2013. I suspect that one day she will be getting this medal named after her, with Daisy respectfully relegated to a secondary award. We love Daisy but Paxy is by an enormous distance the most dominant AFLW player we've ever had.
Somehow she only finished sixth in the league-wide voting, but we've never trusted the opinions of umpires yet so complaining about them now is about as useful as whinging about breakdancing in the Olympics.
Second, albeit miles back, was Footscray refugee Libby Birch, whose dominant defensive performances inspired (we assume) Steven May to play the season of his life.
31 - Karen Paxman
20 - Libby Birch
13 - Kate Hore
7 - Eden Zanker
6 - Elise O'Dea, Daisy Pearce, Shelley Scott
5 - Maddie Gay
4 - Lily Mithen
3 - Tyla Hanks
2 - Casey Sherriff
1 - Harriet Cordner, Sinead Goldrick
Honour Roll
2017 - Daisy Pearce
2018 - Karen Paxman
2019 - Karen Paxman (2)
2020 - Karen Paxman (3)
Paul Prymke Plate for Pre-Season Performance
Ahh pre-season, where everything looks like a good idea. We've been misled before, but things seems to be heading in the right direction this time. Not counting a glorified Casey team being unmercifully humped by first choice Essendon, we won comfortably thrice.
Turns out that Adelaide, Hawthorn and North Melbourne were all complete wank during the regular season, so the long-term value of the wins is debatable. However, at the time I was ready to run through brick walls.
Mr. February/March proved to be Bayley Fritsch. At the time it looked like Max Gawn's bold - some would say piss-taking - prediction of him winning the Coleman might have some legs. Bayley proceeded to lead to the boundary line all year and kick 22.24. Still, you can't take away his place on the most eclectic honour roll in the history of VFL/AFL football.
10 - Bayley Fritsch 7 - Jack Viney
5 - Christian Petracca
4 - Trent Rivers, Adam Tomlinson
3 - Angus Brayshaw, Clayton Oliver
2 - Mitch Brown, James Harmes, Jake Melksham
1 - Nathan Jones, Jake Lever, Oscar McDonald
Honour Roll
2008 - Aaron Davey
2009 - Cameron Bruce
2010 - Brad Green
2011 - Colin Sylvia
2012 - Nathan Jones
2013 - Nathan Jones (2)
2014 - Jeremy Howe
2015 - Heritier Lumumba
2016 - Jack Watts
2017 - Jesse Hogan, Jayden Hunt and Clayton Oliver
As far as predictions go that headline was a fair old understatement. Still, at the time it looked like our off-season fitness campaign was about to deliver a year of runaway wins. What a campaign it was, complete with fancy promotional videos that made it look like our next step was to invade Grenada. Then the length of games were reduced, mostly negating our advantage. There were a handful of romping finishes but none against top sides.
More importantly, the afternoon featuring Christian Petracca announcing his arrival at the AFL's top table with one of the best individual games you'll ever see. Usually, you'd write it off for being in a practice match but given there were more people in attendance than most of our 2020 matches I'm counting it.
Where we confirmed suspicions that North weren't going to be very good this year by beating them comfortably. A 55-33 final score offered a hint of what was to come when teams packed up and stopped trying to score once the real games started.
In which we went to Tasmania, when interstate travel was still a thing, and beat Hawthorn in a fashion that you were both happy about and unconvinced by. Melksham kicked four before disappearing for the next six months. And like 80% of his career games vandenBerg injured his foot and wasn't seen again for a few months.
Featuring one of the most farcical scenarios we've ever been involved in. Just think about the ground that covers. The spiralling pandemic already meant we'd be playing in front of an empty stadium for the first time in history, then shortly before the bounce it was announced that the season was going to be put on hold with no firm date for resuming.
There was every possible chance that there wouldn't be another game, which would have been the biggest stitch-up ever after we'd put players through a torturous pre-season. Perhaps thinking about this unfortunate twist of fate said players rolled over for a few minutes late in the first quarter and let the Eagles open a winning margin by quarter time. We broke even for the rest of the game but fat lot of good that did.
Then for a long time nothing happened. Until about 80 days of watching our lives go down the tube (the first time eh Victorians?) footy returned, still without anybody in the crowd bar a handful of parents of debutantes. Some got snarky that Jeremy Howe said he was used to playing in front of empty stands because he used to be at Melbourne, but to be fair this wasn't a much worse Docklands crowd than the day he played his last game for us against GWS.
The break seemed to have treated us well when we stormed to a 42 point lead early in the second quarter. Conversely, Carlton looked like they'd had their drinks spiked with deadly nightshade. We followed this with a one goal second half, allowing the Blues to draw level in the last quarter. I was consulting the manual for my oven with Fritsch got a late point (of course he did) to put us ahead again. We narrowly avoided two Carlton attacks and got away with it. All's well that ends well but it didn't bode well for the future.
Round 3 vs Essendon was postponed when an Essendon player got the sniffles, causing everyone to shit themselves. Connor McKenna's mucus worked in our favour, moving the game from when they'd have undoubtedly beaten us to the end of the season when they'd gone to water.
Where the Cats toyed with us for three and a half quarters, playing the sort of chippy, keepings off footy that works a treat when the other side stands around and lets you do it all day. Unlike other times where Geelong has treated us with contempt (refer extensive list of unbelievable thrashings) they couldn't put us away, leading to the ridiculous scenario of us almost winning. Indeed Adam Tomlinson even kicked to put us ahead. It would have been pure and simple thievery but I'd have taken it.
Neither side was impressive but somehow they ended up in the Grand Final while we spent the finals series in our traditional position of on the couch with thumbs up arses.
Speaking of teams that played off for a premiership, this was arguably a better performance than the Geelong game but we were beaten by three quarter time. You had to feel for the players who'd been told they were going interstate immediately after the game with no indication about when they'd get to come back to Victoria, but I was still getting ready to become morbid and concede the season.
Salvation came at the unusual location of the Sydney Showgrounds, our temporary home until New South Wales also achieved disease pariah state status. Even though Gold Coast was already showing the signs of their usual post-Round 4 collapse this still got far too close for comfort. It saw the birth of the Rankin Wankin' phenomenon, as a first gamer threatened to win the game off his own boot and gave the Fox Footy commentary team the firmest horn since Gerard Healy met Nic Nat.
The game ended with Harley Bennell kicking a heartwarming goal after the siren and being mobbed by his teammates. Surely nothing was going to stop him now.
Round 7 vs Hawthorn - Mask on, lid bubbling From the post title I presume this was around when Victoria went COVID crazy and we were confined to our homes. Unfortunately on this day I had to leave said place of residence and watch the game on the world's most malfunctioning television. Somewhere in the midst of Fuzz/distortion/NO SIGNAL I saw us recover from a nervy, possibly season-ending start and run away to a comfortable win. I don't know if the lid deserved to be bubbling but at this stage we were desperate to find something worth looking forward to.
Unless you're into statistical anomalies and unusual scenarios the "sure, why not" game against Brisbane on the Gold Coast was not something to look forward to. Unlike some clubs we could mention they followed their breakthrough season with another finals appearance instead of plummeting back to the bottom of the ladder and were clearly the better side here.
However, we were far from humiliated. And like the Geelong game nearly nicked it. I wouldn't have complained if we'd won, but the twin fiascos of an unnecessary goal review at one end and Fritsch giving away a numpty 50 at the other made sure that wasn't a factor. Realistically, the margin flattered the buggery out of us.
Jeff Hilton Rising Star Medal
Accused in some circles, mainly this one, of merely being a fluffer to keep fellow Westralian, Luke Jackson from getting the sads and going home (because we've all seen how well that worked for Jesse Hogan...), Rivers proved a handy player in his own right.
Even before his mysterious goalkicking interventions against the Giants, Trent was proving a handy user of the ball out of defence. As you can see from the mixed bag of previous winners it's no guarantee of bigger and better things but at least he's got his name on the prestigious Demonblog honour board.
6 - Trent Rivers
1 - Kysaiah Pickett
0 - Toby Bedford, Austin Bradtke, Kade Chandler, James Jordon, Luke Jackson, Aaron Nietschke, Tom Sparrow
Honour Roll
2005 - No players eligible.
2006 - Matthew Bate
2007 - Michael Newton
2008 - Cale Morton
2009 - Jack Grimes ($4)
2010 - [REVOKED]
2011 - Jeremy Howe ($30)
2012 - Tom McDonald ($8)
2013 - Jack Viney ($5)
2014 - Jay Kennedy-Harris ($15)
2015 - Jesse Hogan ($4.50)
2016 - Jayden Hunt ($50) and Christian Petracca ($10)
2017 - Mitch Hannan ($15)
2018 - Bayley Fritsch ($4.50)
2019 - Marty Hore ($8)
2020 - Trent Rivers ($40)
Demonbracket IX
AKA - The year I lost interest. Where despite relatively low voting numbers I could no longer muster up the enthusiasm for counting ballots from a variety of sources. Especially when everyone just voted for the favourites anyway.
My first instinct was to shut the competition down and concentrate on the memories, but after an unpredictable change of heart I've decided the bracket will be back in January 2021. Whether it's for just one more season or my love of footy related democracy is reinvigorated will be decided in January/February 2021.
What I'm hoping is that because Twitter voting is a) anonymous, and b) will mean less people voting, that we may get some more 2013 Summer of Sizzle style upsets. And if not I've saved myself several hours total in admin work.
Orthodoxy peaked this year with a final between the #1 and #2 seeds. The dramatic emergence of Petracca was the only thing that stopped the semis being played by the top four. There was little drama throughout the tournament, and the final ended in a landslide win for Maximum. Well deserved but we'd like some tension about whether Aaron Nietschke is going to unexpectedly romp into the quarters.
Quarter Final
1. Clayton Oliver d. Neville Jetta 102-45
4. James Harmes d. 6. Bayley Fritsch 103-44
5. Christian Petracca d. 3. Jack Viney 114-33
2. Max Gawn d. 7. Christian Salem 125-22
Semi Final
1. Clayton Oliver d. 4. James Harmes 99-43
2. Max Gawn d. 5. Christian Petracca 101-41
Final
2. Max Gawn d. 1. Clayton Oliver 160-48
Honour Roll
2012 - James Frawley d. Nathan Jones
2013 - Tom McDonald d. Mitch Clark
2014 - Nathan Jones d. Jack Watts
2015 - Nathan Jones [2] d. Dom Tyson
2016 - Jack Viney d. Nathan Jones
2017 - Max Gawn d. Jack Viney
2018 - Neville Jetta d. Clayton Oliver
2019 - Clayton Oliver d. Neville Jetta
2020 - Max Gawn d. Clayton Oliver
Welcome to my vendetta
A salute to the tired/poor/huddled masses that have come to us from far and wide. Some of them might leave with their lives and careers enriched but don't count on it.
Ben Brown He looks like the lady out of Arcade Fire and has the most tedious set shot routine in the history of the sport, but also holds a strong record of kicking goals in an era where scores are crashing like a Russian airplane. And as long as the 3200m run-up is happening at our end who are we to complain?
After one injury riddled season in a crap team, the discount price paid for him can only be a good thing. If nothing else it takes the heat off Weideman, providing some mystery about who we're kicking to inside 50. Add Jackson to the mix and this is a marking forward group that might even be able to cope with the mystifying array of shanks, slices and genuine clangers that will be coming their way.
Adem Yze Or as he's more commonly known, the Goodwin Insurance Policy. As long as we don't short circuit his senior career Choco Royal style Ooze will coach at the highest level eventually, the only question is whether he'll have to wipe his predecessor's blood from the office floor first. Obviously I hope that his input as an assistant is maximised in a setup where Goodwin suddenly turns into Norm Smith and goes somewhere else with our blessing after a flag. Realistically I'm expecting him in the top job by the end of the year. Before then, let's have some topical Queen's Birthday footage of him tormenting the Pies.
Board member Brad Green This doesn't feel as consequential as Yze but it's still a good news story. How much influence a board can really have (unless they do something catastrophically bonkers) is debatable but I can't see any downside. When you add Matthew Whelan returning in a community role it's a welcome return to the (relative) glory days of the early 2000s. And a reminder of just how old I am.
Several draft picks If there was ever a time to make like a modern person and just post an emoji this would be the time to put up the guy shrugging and move on. On paper all three of Bowey, Laurie and Rosman (sadly not a silly Rochford Devenish-Meares still name amongst them). The only initial thoughts I've got are that Bowey looks like somebody who'd love to punch on in a suburban pub and Rosman will be fighting women off with a stick.
Hawthorn's 2021 third round pick Acquired in exchange for this year's fourth pick at the point where draft night had dragged on for so long that everyone just wanted to go home.
Choke Yourself With A Tie And here's the main event, a near 10 year campaign to get the real Mark Williams (no offence to this guy) to Melbourne finally pays off. Should have been the coach after Bailey and never had a look in when Roos came on the scene but his madcap brand of lunacy has finally arrived. It may only be a developmental role but it will do me. I've never been a sack Goodwin fanatic but Yze/Choco 2021 has a ring to it.
First my long-held desire to sign Steven May paid off, now this. I don't think I've got anything else I deeply want from another club except a bloody flag.
Celebrate his arrival in the traditional manner.
... and if it goes tits up then let's forget everything I've ever said about him.
Goodbye, and varying degrees of good luck
Lots of AFLW players Bittersweet stuff for those of us who suffered through the various near-misses of the early AFLW seasons. Other than Elise O'Dea there was nothing to get really upset about, but Harriet Cordner, Bianca Jakobsson, Kat Smith and to a lesser extent Maddy Guerin were classic names as part of the struggle.
Other than O'Dea I was most distressed at losing Tex Perkins, who turned up as a mid-season injury replacement player and provided the best forward target we've ever had. Pending a rookie season to remember from top pick Alyssa Bannon I guess it's back to the classic 300:1 ratio of inside 50s to goals.
Harley Bennell You don't want to judge somebody without knowing their circumstances. As far as career-killing moves, costing the club thousands of dollars by escaping the hub to get on the piss then refusing to answer phone calls was quite the way to go. I haven't seen anything like it since the flight attendant who denounced passengers over the PA, grabbed two beers and escaped by deploying the evacuation slide.
It's not only a shame for him personally but I think for the team. He was adequate this year but considering how little he'd played recently you had to think there was improvement in his future. Instead his career has gone to the great footy oval in the sky. Wherever he is now I hope he's well.
The Wagnii The powers of this none-more-Germanic duo peaked in 2019, when Corey came from North Melbourne and was quite good. Obviously the coaches didn't share my enthusiasm because he didn't get near a game in the improved 2020 side. Josh only got a couple of token appearances late in the year and their AFL careers simultaneously went kaput. Should do well on the suburban circuit if they're interested.
The Sizzle Brothers Continuing the campaign against brothers, the Sizzle family were simultaneously railroaded out of the club at speeds that would impress the Japanese bullet train. We were so harsh on siblings this off-season that even the Wright Brothers would have been told to shut up and walk.
Hang on, I'm getting word that our efforts to shift Tom by any means necessary failed and he'll be with us next year. Fine by me. I wasn't going to slash my wrists if he went, and maybe clearing his salary would have given us a chance to join the Collingwood fire sale but I think he's still got something to offer. I doubt he's a Round 1 player, but if one of the key forwards or defenders is hurt he can take their place. Then presumably at the end of the season we do a Collingwood and pay anybody we can find to take him off our hands. Which is a shame because no player has ever embraced my online shenanigans more. To paraphrase Huey Lewis, I'm happy to be stuck with him. Not sure he's thrilled to be stuck with us though...
On the other hand, Oscar is not coming back. It's no surprise that his time has come to an end, having failed to kick on from what seemed like a breakout game against Hawthorn at the end of 2016. Wasn't in my first choice team but I thought it was a bit harsh how everyone treated him like he killed puppies in his spare time. He never excelled but he was ok, it's just that you can't plod on with ok players forever. We wish him well.
Mitch Hannan Mitch has returned to his roots with the Bulldogs but we'll always have the 2018 Elimination Final to remember him by. His career never hit anywhere near those heights again, but other than an injury ravaged 2019 he was usually a decent forward and should go alright at a better club. Give the placement of that goal in the 21st century folklore of the club his loss gently tugs at the heartstrings, but at the same time he kicked one goal in his last five starts this year so that shouldn't be hard to replace. The Dogs obviously have a plan, hope it works well for him.
Braydon Preuss Here endeth one of the strangest recruiting moves ever, as we say farewell to the Comedy Moustache Lips that brought a touch of vaudeville everywhere he went. I still don't know why he joined us just to sit behind Gawn in the ruckman pecking order for two years but I suppose the idea would have been hailed as genius if Maximum hadn't been so resilient.
I have faith he'll do well with GWS, where he'll form an unlikely ex-MFC partnership with Jesse Hogan (see also Mitch Hannan meets Stefan Martin at the Western Oval). Either it works and we claim to be good guys for giving him two years of development or it fails and we can be smug about how he wouldn't have worked out with us anyway.
Assistant coaches by the truckload Max Rooke, Daniel Cross, Ben Mathews and Justin Plapp, butchered en masse as part of a joint cost-cutting/mediocre performance resolving initiative. Whether their replacements are an improvement is anybody's guess but we couldn't carry on doing the same thing that has got us nowhere and next to nowhere over the last two years. Shithouse timing to lose your job just as the industry tightens its belt but, and this may surprise you, we're not running a charity. I reckon we're about eight poor weeks at the start of the year from the senior coach joining them on seek.com.au.
Our original recipe picks from 2021 We must be the first club ever to trade away all its picks for the following season. We got selections in return but they'll be tied to the fortunes of Brisbane, Footscray and North Melbourne. What we do on field will not make one red hot shit of difference to our position at next year's draft, only whether or not we look like buffoons for trading Brisbane our top pick.
Josh Mahoney You couldn't say Essendon's new GM of Football presided over spectacular success with us, but he certainly had amazing longevity. Just think of the chaos and carnage he's seen since joining us in 2007, in which time he's been an assistant coach, forward coach, Football Manager, Football Operations Manager and christ only knows what else. If you look at pictures of him then and now I think he's developed a bit of the mad eyes, but who wouldn't after 13 years with us? Good thing he's moving to a perfectly sensible club where absolutely nothing unusual or bizarre ever happens.
Jim Stynes Medal for Ruckman of the Year
Considering only seven players on our list got a single hitout this year this is one of the flimsiest awards around. Five of them failed to qualify by averaging less than 10 hitouts a game. The end result was Maximum winning by a lot.
I can't rule out a future challenge by Jackson, but you feel that if anyone other than Max wins this for the next couple of seasons then we're probably not winning many games. Mind you, he's won it ever year since 2015 and we've had two winnings records in that time so who knows what it all means.
30 - Max Gawn
0 - Braydon Preuss
DNQ - Mitch Brown, Luke Jackson, Oscar McDonald, Tom McDonald, Adam Tomlinson
By now we'd been shifted to Queensland, and with limited options for the continuing the season if the COVID took off nationwide, the AFL came up with the idea of the idea of stuffing as many games into a couple of weeks as possible. Nothing to do with keeping the broadcasters happy you see. Definitely all about keeping the fans happy.
I was not very happy, at first anyway, considering that we took to the prospect of four day breaks with all the enthusiasm of prisoners of war. Port were very good this year and demonstrated that by strangling us from the first bounce. At the 60 second mark we may as well have called a halt to proceedings and conceded. We lost by heaps and looked as unlikely as ever to feature in the top eight.
Here's an early 1990s clipart representation of how I felt watching it:
That dreadful performance led to a game that couldn't have been any more dangerous if it was played at Chernobyl. After flopping against the good South Australians we had to fly to Adelaide to play the ones who'd lost their first nine games.
All the ingredients were there for the sort of embarrassing loss that we'd have been left moping over for the next 20 years, and when we'd only eked out a two goal lead by three quarter time you felt they were going to win. But you were wrong, instead the much-vaunted Darren Burgess fitness program sprung into action and provoked a (relatively) rampant seven goal to one finale. The only person not to come out of it with a smile on his face was Alex Neal-Bullen, who got four games for bouncing a Crows player's head off the ground like a basketball then discovered that we didn't think enough of him to pay for an appeal.
I could have been the only one who thought we'd used up all our reserves of mental strength beating one side in turmoil at the bottom the ladder and would come of this looking like cockheads. But against all odds we won again, wobbling unsteadily through three quarters of generally awful football before exploding in the final term and stomping the opposition to dust. We've never won a league game in South Australia by more. Which just goes to show how shizen we've been there.
After a pair of unexpected (albeit slowly developing) thrashings, this big win came as more of a surprise. The Pies were in the midst of a duel injury and form crisis but you didn't expect them to fold like a house of cards. More injuries during the game didn't help, leaving them vulnerable to another free-wheeling, high scoring rampage. Things were looking up again.
Somehow the Pies, despite being coached by somebody who seemingly has the man-management skills of David Brent, made it to the second week of the finals. At that point they were duly beaten to a pulp and responded by trading half their list for magic beans. They will still be back in premiership contention before us.
After three wins in a row this was our chance to consolidate a spot in the eight and strike a blow against a fellow contender. For a while things were looked good, until we came back after half time like the team-talk had been done by Sylvia Plath. The Dogs took advantage of a few minutes of madness to open a winning margin and we never looked likely again. After a few weeks of "maybe this is going to turn out alright", the anti-Goodwin society went ballistic again. I couldn't be bothered joining in.
Where we got to cash in on our annual Alice Springs game AND rescued our season with a thrilling victory. Another defensive masterclass by May, Petracca kicking a goal that took the biggest turn since Shane Warne, and we held on in the face of a furious attack in the last few minutes to put ourselves back in the box seat for the eight. If we won our next two games as favourites. Guess what happened next?
Having subdued our natural instinct to lose games we were supposed to win for the first 14 rounds you wanted to believe we were going to win this but secretly knew it was going to end in tragedy. Even a 4.40pm start on a Thursday in Cairns shouldn't have made a significant difference but down we went. There were arguments over Sydney having more time in Cairns to prepare but that shouldn't have stopped us. If we couldn't win here we were not a finals team. We didn't and we weren't.
Offered one last chance to enter the final fortnight of the season with our destiny in our own hands we responded to another game in Cairns by playing Preuss at full-forward in pissing rain. Surprisingly with quality selection tactics liek this we kicked 2.4 in the first three quarters. Getting within eight points in the last quarter was nothing more than an unnecesary tease. The season wasn't dead yet but it was hooked up to a malfunctioning oxygen tank.
The equation was relatively simple, win the last two games to stay alive. Then our fate depended on results elsewhere. All of a sudden after barely scoring a goal in eight quarters in Cairns, our return to Queensland saw the strangest collection of goalkickers all season. Baker, Spargo and Rivers each got two, including the wobbling snap from the latter that theoretically sealed the win. Of course, nothing comes easy and we were left fanatically defending a five point lead in the dying moments. It's debatable whether the occasion was worth the near heart attack it caused me but at the time I felt good about it.
It came down to winning on Saturday and hoping Freo beat Footscray the next day. We did our bit, albeit in a complicated way that left the result in doubt until late in the last quarter. Against an Essendon side who'd ceded their interest in 2020 weeks earlier we got out to nearly six goals ahead late in the third quarter before switching off and letting them get five of the next six. The margin was back to seven, prompting me to unleash an expletive-laden tirade while stomping around the room like a petulant child.
We recovered in time to win comfortably but it was all for naught, Freo gave a decent account of themselves but couldn't summon up the same sort of upset that they'd pulled against us and our season was over. About two days later I was entirely over it and looking forward to next year.
Marcus Seecamp Medal for Defender of the Year
Welcome to the year where we finally won a high-profile trade. As much as I want to see Hogan do well, his career going into the shitter at Fremantle at the same time May went ballistic in our backline proved that we ultimately did the right thing in swapping them.
Now, you could argue that if we'd kept Hogan things might have worked out but history suggests that's wishful thinking. Some also like to moan about we could have drafted one of the King brothers but that's a false argument considering we traded Hogan specifically to get a ready-made key defender.
All I know is that after the disastrous 2019 campaign May played a ripping season and I'm dying for him to get a crack at a full year in 2021. He was the rock in our backline and the real electoral irregularity for Donald Trump to get upset about is how he didn't make the 40 man All-Australian squad.
28 - Steven May
13 - Christian Salem
6 - Michael Hibberd, Trent Rivers
4 - Jake Lever, Adam Tomlinson
1 - Jay Lockhart
0 - James Harmes, Neville Jetta, Oscar McDonald, Harrison Petty, Joel Smith, Corey Wagner, Josh Wagner
Honour Roll
2005 - Nathan Carroll and Ryan Ferguson
2006 - Jared Rivers
2007 - Paul Wheatley
2008 - Matthew Whelan
2009 - James Frawley ($22)
2010 - James Frawley (2) ($3.50)
2011 - James Frawley (3) ($4)
2012 - Jack Grimes ($7)
2013 - James Frawley (4) ($2.80)
2014 - Lynden Dunn ($25)
2015 - Tom McDonald ($14)
2016 - Neville Jetta ($13)
2017 - Michael Hibberd ($16)
2018 - Christian Salem ($20)
2019 - Christian Salem (2) ($4.75 fav)
2020 - Steven May ($11)
Aaron Davey Medal for Goal of the Year
Unusually I can't find any specific footage of Petracca's goal against GWS that won the award. I was going to just post the match highlights and make you find it yourself, then I remembered that the legends who make the videos didn't rate it worthy of qualifying for a seven minute video package. From memory, and there's been plenty of water under the bridge since it happened, he scooped it off the deck 50 metres out and thumped it through like a long-range missile. Imagine that in the space provided below.
[Your mental picture goes here]
It was one of seven (!) nominations for the season, leaving him kicking outrageous goals at a rate that early Sam Blease would have been envious of. Not only does he take home the Davey for the first time (and who would be against him being the first man to capture it twice?), but his tally of nominations takes him beyond Jeff (never, ever Jeffy, even in retirement) Garlett to the top of the all-time leaderboard.
Nominees
Round 1 - Kysaiah Pickett
Round 2 - Christian Petracca
Round 4 - Christian Petracca [2]
Round 5 - Mitch Hannan
Round 6 - Christian Salem
Round 7 - Kysaiah Pickett [2]
Round 8 - Jake Melksham
Round 9 - Christian Petracca [3]
Round 10 - Jack Viney
Round 11 - Christian Petracca [4]
Round 12 - Charlie Spargo
Round 13 - Sam Weideman
Round 14 - Christian Petracca [5]
Round 15 - Charlie Spargo [2]
Round 16 - Bayley Fritsch
Round 17 - Christian Petracca [6]
Round 18 - Christian Petracca [7]
Honour Roll
2014 - Christian Salem
2015 - Nathan Jones
2016 - Jack Watts
2017 - Tom McDonald
2018 - Mitch Hannan
2019 - Marty Hore
2020 - Christian Petracca
All time nominations (2014-2020)
18 - Christian Petracca
16 - Jeff Garlett
7 - Jake Melksham, Jack Watts
6 - Mitch Hannan, Jayden Hunt,
5 - Jesse Hogan, Nathan Jones, Dean Kent, Bernie Vince
4 - Tom McDonald, Cameron Pedersen, Jack Viney
3 - Max Gawn, Jordan Lewis, Jay Lockhart, Christian Salem,
2 - Angus Brayshaw, Chris Dawes, Bayley Fritsch, Mark Jamar, Alex Neal-Bullen, Clayton Oliver, Kysaiah Pickett, Braydon Preuss, Charlie Spargo, Dom Tyson
1 - Oskar Baker, Sam Blease, Chris Dawes, Jack Fitzpatrick, Sam Frost, Marty Hore, Matt Jones, Ben Kennedy, Jay Kennedy Harris, Heritier Lumumba, Oscar McDonald, Ben Newton, Aidan Riley, Charlie Spargo, Corey Wagner, Sam Weideman
2020 Allen Jakovich Medal for Player of the Year
And here he is again, the man who played a dominant season and somehow still went within one game of having to share the award. That's 5-4-3-2-1 voting for you, the greatest of all systems.
Petracca's maiden win in our premier award was not a surprise result, every major collection of Melbourne fans, best and fairest voters, umpires, and the media all had him as our best player. The only surprise was how close Oliver got.
This is no slight on the Hamburgler, who played a fine season, but it just felt Truck should have won in a landslide. Coaches didn't think as much of Oliver, only landing him fifth in the B&F, a mile behind Petracca, but they agreed on the winner.
It's hard to believe that the promise of that pre-season Adelaide game paid off, I was almost certain he'd immediately turn it into a mediocre up and down season that left us with red and blue balls. Instead he was reasonably consistent across the year, with several Brownlow quality spikes throughout. Some nonsense talk about him being as good as Dustin Martin failed to distract him, and I've got faith that he's going to continue playing like this next year. Many congratulations from everyone associated with Demonblog, Demonwiki and Brunton Avenue Publishing.
Leaderboard
46 - Christian Petracca
41 - Clayton Oliver
30 - Max Gawn, Jack Viney
28 - Steven May
23 - Ed Langdon
13 - Christian Salem
10 - Angus Brayshaw
6 - Michael Hibberd, Trent Rivers, Sam Weideman
4 - Jake Lever, Adam Tomlinson
2 - Jayden Hunt, Jake Melksham
1 - Mitch Brown, Mitch Hannan, Jay Lockhart, Kysaiah Pickett
Honour Roll
2005 - Travis Johnstone
2006 - Brock McLean
2007 - Nathan Jones
2008 - Cameron Bruce
2009 - Aaron Davey ($8)
2010 - Brad Green ($4)
2011 - Brent Moloney ($9)
2012 - Nathan Jones (2) ($3.50)
2013 - Nathan Jones (3) ($2)
2014 - Nathan Jones (4) ($3.50)
2015 - Jack Viney ($15)
2016 - Nathan Jones (5) ($8)
2017 - Clayton Oliver ($35)
2018 - Clayton Oliver (2) ($3.25 fav)
2019 - Max Gawn ($9)
2020 - Christian Petracca ($6)
And that is it... usually the man who lives underground and the Solid Brown Dancers get a run in this post but you can't just dredge up the same tired old gimmicks every season. Alternatively, as you may have noticed, this year has sapped my life force to the point where I just can't be bothered working them in.
Thank you again for your support during this absolute shit of a year, and I hope that we've given you some entertainment while you were striving not to catch a deadly disease. We'll be back for a 17th year (!!) of blogging madness in 2021, but which point I'm hoping my enthusiasm transfusion kicks in and I can get through the year without resigning from the AFL and taking up go karting.
Much love and don't forget to buy your membership,
Adam
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