AFL 2022 Radar: 'The Demons are clearly and obviously the team to beat'

Well, they finally did it. It really was a grand old flag.

Melbourne joined the Western Bulldogs and Richmond in the era of premiership drought breakers, adding their 57 years to the Dogs’ 62 and Tigers’ 36. Meanwhile, St Kilda fans are standing outside in the rain, with their hands and faced pressed against the glass.

It was apparent from early last season that the Demons were going to be a premiership threat, and they were essentially the dominant team for the last two-thirds of the season, particularly once the Dogs went off the boil.

And let’s face it, they pulverised the Dogs in the grand final in that last 35 minutes. That sort of brutality in scoring rate is rarely seen in finals, let alone grand finals.

There are a couple of competing histories the Dees have coming into 2022.

The average age of the Melbourne grand final side was 24 – the three other sides that were that young winning a flag this century were Hawthorn 2008, Collingwood 2010 and the Bulldogs 2016. It took the Hawks five years to get another one, the Pies never did, and the Dogs haven’t yet. Years of success doesn’t just happen automatically.

But then, looking at premiership sides that win by huge margins, it tends not to be their only one. Geelong set a new grand final winning record in 2007 and won another couple. Richmond had an 89-point victory in their three flag run. The Hawks of the ’80s had two smashings on their CV. The list goes on.

The Dees are now the hunted.

What’s new
The pressure that comes with being the game’s best. It’s one thing to do it in-season when one of the flag fancies, and apart from a couple of mid-year hiccups, they did it well.

It’s another thing altogether when you are the standout team and 17 other clubs have had an off-season to explore weaknesses. And then those teams tend to get themselves ‘up’ to truly test where they’re at when they face you. It will be impossible for Melbourne to be up for all of those challenges.

Ben Brown of the Demons. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

While you’d think St Kilda aren’t going well enough to let go of a midfielder who can poll 11 Brownlow votes, as Luke Dunstan did last year, he’s an interesting recruit by the Demons. He’ll keep the young blue collar brigade of Tom Sparrow and James Jordon on notice.

Star on the rise
Tom Sparrow is one of the understated and unheralded young Demons who made their mark in 2021.

He had only played seven matches in two seasons before that, but despite starting as the sub six times throughout the year, he established himself in the best 22 for the last couple of months.

Sparrow had an outstanding finals series for a guy who was essentially sixth or seventh banana in the midfield rotations. He won his own footy, snagged a few goals, ran both ways and provided something offensively and defensively. Still only 21, his future looks bright.

Also, how good was teenager Jake Bowey in his seven games, culminating in being unbeaten and a premiership medal? Big Jack Graham vibes from Bowey, albeit a very different player. Already, he’s proven to be a cool head under pressure and a lovely disposer of the ball.

Who’s under the pump
Not too many are under the pump after winning a premiership.

It doesn’t feel like he’s been around that long, but Sam Weideman is entering his seventh season, and is nowhere close to establishing himself as an AFL player. He’s played somewhere between a handful and a dozen games in each season, and always shown glimpses.

It looked like Weideman had a breakout game when kicking three goals and taking several strong marks against Geelong in the 2018 elimination final, but it wasn’t to be. He could have gone to a weaker club that may have afforded him more opportunities, but he’s chosen to stay.

Jake Melksham and Jayden Hunt also missed out on playing in the premiership, so the heat is on them to reclaim their places, lest they just waste away playing VFL football and end up moving clubs to play out their days at Gold Coast, North or St Kilda.

Best-case scenario
Back-to-back flags and being properly announced as the dominant force in Australian rules football. Winning a premiership at the MCG in front of 100,000 people and adoring home fans is clearly next on the agenda for this Melbourne side.

Can Melbourne go back to back? (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

You can make a case that in Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver they have the best three centre-square players in the league, along with a wonderful support cast, so getting the ball forward isn’t going to be a problem.

Down back, Steven May and Jake Lever are pillars of strength, and there’s a good eight or nine players vying for those spots in the back six, so depth isn’t an issue. Christian Salem is coming off a career-best season as a rebounding defender of poise and class.

The forward line was seen as something of a weak link last year, but they corrected that in finals when kicking 40 goals in the prelim and grand final combined. They had 93 scoring shots across their three finals, and Ben Brown is now locked in at full-forward.

They shape as a mighty team, and if they can get their mental state in the right place to defend and peak in September again, they’re clearly and obviously the team to beat.

Worst-case scenario
If there’s one certainty in the AFL this year, it’s that Melbourne will be playing in a preliminary final, so that’s their floor.

The question is whether they can learn from the mistakes of Richmond in 2018 after their breakthrough flag. The Tigers wanted to desperately prove they were hungry and there’d be no premiership hangover, and started the season too hot to trot. They were running on fumes by the end of the year.

If the Dees can pace themselves, and avoid catastrophic injury after last year’s golden run (14 players missed zero or one game last season), then they’ll be there.

Best 22
B: Trent Rivers Steven May Adam Tomlinson
HB: Jake Bowey Jake Lever Christian Salem
C: Ed Langdon Christian Petracca Angus Brayshaw
HF: Charlie Spargo Tom McDonald Alex Neale-Bullen
F: Kysaiah Pickett Ben Brown Bailey Fritsch
Foll: Max Gawn Clayton Oliver Jack Viney
Int: Luke Jackson James Harmes Tom Sparrow James Jordon