In 2021, the Melbourne Demons finally went back to the days of old winning a premiership on the road in a once in a lifetime Perth grand final.
It was an impressive journey in the finals, beating the Lions to the tune of 33 points and withstanding Brisbane’s pressure in the third quarter where Demons fans would have been worried that the Lions would storm home and send the mighty red and blue to a semi-final.
The Demons brought out their two most impressive performances of the season, with Max Gawn playing like he was God in the preliminary final against the old stagers of Geelong, kicking five goals, and Christian Petracca strengthening comparisons to three-time Norm Smith Medallist Dustin Martin, bringing one of the greatest individual grand final performances ever seen.
It was scintillating 45 minutes of football which would have left many Melbourne faithful at ease. As a Melbourne supporter myself, when Marcus Bontempelli kicked the goal to put the Bulldogs up by 19 points, I muttered, “I’m never going to see a Demons premiership.”
Even I couldn’t have predicted that the Demons would bring out some of the strongest scoring periods ever to be seen in a grand final and making the score look worst than the game was.
Only four teams have won consecutive premierships in the AFL era. Two of the back-to-back premiership occasions were as part of a three-peat. These teams were Adelaide (1997-1998), Brisbane (2001-2003), Hawthorn (2013-2015), and Richmond (2019-2020).
Adding to these statistics, no two teams have ever won consecutive premierships consecutively. Across the entire VFL/AFL history, this has only occurred twice. This was first achieved by Collingwood (1902-1903), Fitzroy (1904-1905), and Carlton (1906-1908). The second and most recent time this has occurred was by Essendon (1949-1950) and Geelong (1951-1952).
If Melbourne were to win again in 2022, it would put Richmond and Melbourne in rare company winning consecutive premierships consecutively.
Can Melbourne do it again in 2022? (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
With the Demons breaking a 57-year drought, the question now arises as to whether they can repeat and do it again to win their 14th premiership in history. Without bias, I genuinely believe that the Demons can definitely back up their drought-breaking premiership. Some of you may be asking, why do you believe that?
Well, there are a few reasons why I believe that they can.
The Demons have learnt how to be unselfish team players
This cannot be stressed enough. The Demons are unselfish. They don’t rely on one player to win the game. They don’t rely on individual accolades to push them towards the finals.
In the grand final, young ruckman Luke Jackson was on a hot run rucking. Max Gawn surrendered his rotation, telling Simon Goodwin to leave him there and it worked. Jackson rucked perfectly to allow clearances for the Demons to get three goals in 31 seconds.
They, like the Hawks during their three-peat, have a ‘one soldier out, another soldier in’ mentality.
Adam Tomlinson went down with an ACL injury against North Melbourne in Round 7. Up until then, he was one of their most important players as the third tall in the defensive half and proved he could hold his own against Geelong and Hawthorn in Round 4 and 5.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
The injury would have caused concern for the Demons faithful, having to rely on then-11-gamer Harry Petty to fill the void. The young defender took a couple of games to warm up to the occasion but more than filled in for Tomlinson and will make it hard for Tomlinson to come straight back in barring injury.
The continued emergence of their youth
Yes, a lot of their stars and big names led the way in the premiership, but what could have easily been overlooked was the presence of their youth.
Jake Bowey in his seventh was clean with ball in hand. Jackson with his presence and hit outs to advantage in the third quarter patch. Harry Petty manning opposition players to allow Steven May and Jake Lever to do their best work.
Tom Sparrow with 14 disposals and an explosive goal on the run in the third quarter patch. Trent Rivers was smooth defensively. Kozzy Pickett may not have put his best performance ahead goal and disposal wise, however, his 23 pressure acts and what he did that wasn’t seen on the stats sheet allowed others to get goals and force the turnover.
The continued development and emergence of their youth should hold them in a strong position next year and beyond.
Max Gawn still has at least two years of strong football ahead of him, while their stars are only coming into their peak now
People forget that Max Gawn is 29 years old. It sure doesn’t feel like it. It feels like only yesterday we saw him emerge into the man mountain that he is today.
Gawn still has plenty left in the tank, barring potential injury.
Players like Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, and Fritsch are only just starting to hit their peak and have plenty of strong football ahead of them. The dangerous one-two combination of Oliver and Petracca roving to their skipper has them around the mark of a grand final berth every year for the next few years.
What are your thoughts, Roarers? Do you think the Demons can join a couple of exclusive groups following the 2022 season, or will they fare slightly down on the magnificent form that they displayed in 2021?
Who is your early 2022 premiership favourite?
Skip
Roar Rookie
:thumbup:
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
Why does the cup have to be empty or full? If Melbourne get beaten by a point in the 2021 GF have they regressed? You’re being thin skinned. Enjoy your flag. I’m not saying Melbourne weren’t good enough, I’m analyzing what went right for them. Was it fair when the Lions bought all those Demons home games that gave them 12 home games a year and 3 flags? Bloody oath it was. Not a great result for Melbourne, but it was sanctioned and Brissy took full advantage. Good luck to you. It’s going to be a tough draw. If the Dees win will write an article about how difficult it was to climb the mountain again.
Skip
Roar Rookie
Thom you are being derogatory, by expressing your dismay that a whole group of people who follow a team, would all think alike, fit the same mould etc, in my experience it’s not going to happen, so no real need to invoke god help or the angles to rise up against the demons haha. The whole “it won’t happen again”is a bit fatalistic of course it can happen again, soft drawers happen, bad umpiring happens injures to key players happens, coaches quit and teams rally etc, and yes it would be fairer if all teams played twice, but 34 rounds would unfair to the players so not sure what ya getting at there. And yes you intimidated a COVID asterisk over our win with your wish to hypothesis post season with the equality of the draw, you can gather all the information but if the stats are presented with the bias which I believe you have shown, well its biased
Malley
Guest
Demons just to good this year they travelled aswell everyone had to it's hard this year because of covid
Jack
Guest
How can uou
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
I didn't do either of the things you claim. I just said that the Dees had a favourable run with limited travel and very little of the kind of obstacles faced by some other sides. I also didn't tar ALL Demons fans with the same brush, I simply expressed dismay at the prospect that if ALL Demons fans were like that only the Almighty could save us. You're being precious. Nobody is saying Melbourne didn't deserve their flag, it's just a fact that things went their way and they capitalised on it. See if they can do it again playing Geelong, Bulldogs, Brisbane, Sydney and Fremantle twice, for example.
Skip
Roar Rookie
I disagree with the way it’s being said by El, but you just disparaged a whole lot of fans over a commit from one, and then forced your opinion of the Dees had a cushy run, I don’t see it that way, it was hard for everyone I recon, but we won because we were good and unselfish with a team full of elites that had a ton of moxi when it was needed, to put a COVID asterisk in front of our win, well it’s unsportsmanlike. We won fair and square,The cream rose to the top:)
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
As for the long bow, looking at it in isolation the Dees had a different build up and a slight advantage. But I’m not just talking about single things in isolation, instead it is the cumulative effect that helped Melbourne win 17.5 games instead of maybe 15 games, which could have meant going the long way round from fifth like the Dogs. But at the end of the day, teams that win 20 games in a season deserve what they achieve. I’m simply going into a post season analysis of how things assisted certain teams over others. You have to take any advantage you can get, right? Years ago the Suns were getting 13 games in QLD and still did poorly. This year they had 8, with Brisbane, Sydney and the Bulldogs twice. GWS had an even harder draw. I’ve actually put a lot of analysis into this and hope to create a system that compares difficulty of draw and schedule in terms of teams played and where. It isn’t going to be easy because there’s so much data to consider, but my hypothesis is that competition equalisation was thrown out of kilter by Covid.
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
Yes, I remember the day the Demons players joked about flying to the Gold Coast and back in one day, saying how they told their children they might be away for two weeks. Meantime, Suns players had less than 15 minutes at home to pack for an indefinite period and scrambled to get to Melbourne for their home game. Players were still being Covid tested until after midnight, eating in the small hours, with vital support staff forced to stay behind and gear never arriving on the plane. What an inconvenience for you!
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
Good for them. I’d expect some players will take a little longer though.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Matthew Boyd and Simon Garlick as well.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Squash that one his parents aren’t relocating.
Handles
Roar Guru
"God help us if you are indicative of how Melbourne Demons fans are going to be all offseason." Hahahaha - we've been waiting a long time to be arrogant - you can't deny us our first chance since 1964! :laughing: :laughing:
Handles
Roar Guru
Calling the extra game a factor is a long, long bow to draw. There was a bye before the grand final, so travel and recovery times were well covered. And the Demons got royally stuffed by round 20 and 21, with a day in a plane on Saturday as they flew to the Gold Coast, spent a few hours on the tarmac and flew home, played a rescheduled game on Sunday, and then on another plane to go to Perth for a week in isolation. That game got stopped for lightning halfway through Q4. And round 23 was in Geelong! Hardly a 'saloon passage'.
Handles
Roar Guru
Jackson has started contract talks with Melbourne. No guarantees of course, but the want-aways usually say they are ‘delaying’ their negotiations. And the strong rumour during the finals was that his parents are looking to relocate to Melbourne.
Handles
Roar Guru
Widely reported in the press that most of Melbourne's big names were back last week for voluntary early sessions. News feed showed Petracca, McDonald, Brown, Oliver plus others, from memory.
Dale Hughes
Guest
They need him Easy beats now!!
ElDiablo14
Guest
Sure sure I am the aggressive one, your condecending tone says otherwise. You are entitled to your opinion, move along.
Thom Roker
Roar Guru
I will prove you wrong and you will still come back with your aggressive defence. I didn’t claim at any stage that Melbourne’s schedule was easy due to teams faced. In fact, I have previously shown the exact stats you provided to show that Melbourne beat the teams that mattered - you probably read it and are quoting my own stats back to me. I’m talking about home and away with travel, not difficulty of opponent. Melbourne had an easier schedule that most of the comp in this regard. Learn to read into the nuance of someone’s claims before going off half cocked. I didn’t have to explain it to Chanon because they actually read what I say. God help us if you are indicative of how Melbourne Demons fans are going to be all offseason. You had a cushy ride. It won’t happen again.
ElDiablo14
Guest
Melbourne played 10 games against the top 8. Record of 8-2 (best in the competition), you are lying because we also played GWS in Canberra so that is a true interstate game against a top 8 side. We beat Brisbane in Sydney when it should have been played at the MCG ( huge advantage to Brisbane). Played the cats and dogs twice. Richmond before they went astray, WC at Optus. I don't think your argument of 'easy' fixture stands up mate...but you do you.