It was a shattered Simon Goodwin who fronted the cameras after the Demons were beaten by the Brisbane Lions in their semi-final at the MCG last September, their premiership defence ending in a straight-sets failure.
A week after they fell to Sydney in a qualifying final, hopes of back-to-back flags were extinguished, on a night the Lions even had to deal with the late withdrawal of key tall Joe Daniher.
The Demons need Jake Lever to be a rebounding king across half-back – a skill opponents want to deny him of.Credit:Getty.
“In finals, generally your vulnerabilities come out in games,” Goodwin, the 2021 premiership coach, said in the chilly bowels of the MCG.
“And we’ve had some throughout the second half of the year, especially. When we’ve lost games of footy, teams have been able to impact in the second half of games and mow down leads, and it happened again tonight.
“So we’ve got to be able to deal with those situations, the pressure in games, second half in games when things aren’t perfect for us. And we’ll dig into all of our program about what that looks like, but we’ve got some vulnerabilities that we need to fix up.”
Almost five months on, and with the new season all but upon us, the Demons have confidence those “vulnerabilities” have been addressed.
Head of football Alan Richardson told The Age that the Demons had completed a comprehensive review, which also touched on many of the team’s “really good” traits in a season when they had 16 home-and-away wins and finished second on the ladder.
“It was probably in the second half of the year, not just the two finals, that we became pretty vulnerable in the second half of games,” Richardson said.
“So, what was that? Is it fitness? Is it mindset? Is it opposition? Or all of the above? Although [it was] not fitness. We are still running really hard. There were a few competition-wide markers that were strong proof that we were still a hard-running team. It was a bit more about attitude and opposition. Teams were taking things away from us.”
Christian Petracca will again be a prime mover for the Demons in 2023.Credit:Getty Images
While Richardson said fitness was not an issue, rival clubs speculated the loss of master fitness coach Darren Burgess – who left for the Crows after the 2021 premiership – had an impact on the Demons.
Champion Data statistics show that the Demons were the best first-term team in the competition, winning 17 opening quarters. They were equal second for second and third quarters won, but slipped to sixth for fourth-quarter wins. That they were -31 for points differential in the final term, ranked 13th, highlighted their woes.
They led at three-quarter-time in four of their eight defeats last season, and were tied at three-quarter-time with the Lions in their semi-final. But by that point in the semi, they had ceded a 28-point second-quarter lead, and ultimately lost by 13 points.
Opponents increasingly worked out how to quell, even combat, defensive maestros Steven May and Jake Lever. May, who signed a two-year contract extension last week, had 23 disposals and held Lance Franklin goalless in the qualifying final, but he was forced to work up the ground more, robbing May of the “goalkeeping” role he relishes.
Intercept king Lever was made more accountable by opponents, denying him his marking and rebounding skills. Lever has had ankle issues over summer but is now fine. That may be eased this season if skipper Max Gawn, as he has flagged, plays more of a defensive sweeper role in the mould that Geelong ruck Rhys Stanley was so successful at last season.
“There is no doubt, the combination of, in terms of our talls, May, Lever and [Harrison] Petty, it’s a bit like [Tom] Stewart down at Geelong – you go in knowing if you let these sort of players get it on their terms, it’s going to be hard to score,” Richardson said.
“Most clubs, particularly the clubs at the top, have a couple of defenders you want to try and tie up. Our blokes were no different. Yes, that was a bit of trend, that teams would do a little bit more work and, potentially, change up their forward structure to be able to do that. That’s something we will have to fight through.”
The Demons hope former Magpies ruckman Brodie Grundy can provide more marking power inside 50 when sent there. There is much intrigue as to how the Grundy and Gawn partnership will work. Both are multiple All-Australians and best-and-fairest winners.
Grundy has never flourished as a forward, as his former coach Nathan Buckley has said, but Gawn has improved in this area. However, he has spoken of a desire to spend more time behind the ball, allowing Grundy to head into attacking 50.
Former West Coast forward Karl Langdon has questioned whether both can co-exist in the same 22, but Richardson says both men can flourish, as Gawn and Luke Jackson, now with Fremantle, had.
“We think that partnership is going to be really good for us, potentially. I reckon it’s going to take a bit of time for the boys to get the synergy in terms of when to play forward, and when to play ruck,” Richardson said.
“That’s no different to the way Gawny and Luke Jackson worked together. We have sort of been through it in many ways with two genuine rucks, both different, as are these two.”
Richardson said he didn’t expect either to be benched under the new substitute ruling, for each should be relatively fresh late in games – and as the season unfolds.
Uncapped youngster Jacob van Rooyen – unlikely, said Richardson, to debut in round one – is another tall forward option alongside Ben Brown, the latter having completed most of the pre-season. Brown’s marking issues in both finals last year were put under the spotlight by media and supporters.
Melbourne great Garry Lyon lamented at the time there had been a “malaise” about the Demons’ forward line for the entire season. They averaged 12.5 goals per game, the sixth highest, but had only 10 in the qualifying final defeat. Brown, Bayley Fritsch and Kysaiah Pickett each contributed more than 20 goals for the season.
The Demons have made a change, with veteran coach Mark Williams replacing Greg Stafford as goalkicking coach.
Fellow forward Tom McDonald has fully recovered from the Lisfranc injury that derailed most of last year, and young gun Pickett, off contract this year, will have more midfield time because of his “exceptional” skills.
Former Bulldog premiership winger Lachie Hunter adds more midfield class, while Kade Chandler, with 10 games across four seasons, has dazzled over summer.
In stars Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney, the Demons have a hard-at-it midfield the envy of most teams. Oliver, having had off-season thumb surgery, and later a scare when the thumb was badly bruised, and Petracca, the latter impacted by a knee injury in the finals, are at the peak of their powers. Vice captain Viney may also have spells up forward if Pickett is given more time in the middle.
The Demons also hope to benefit by again being the hunters, rather than hunted, this season. The noose that can be chasing back-to-back flags, particularly with the added desire to repeat before the blue-and-red faithful at the MCG, having won in Perth in the COVID-impacted campaign of ’21, may have mentally worn the team down.
As Goodwin said after the loss to the Lions: “We knew that pressure around our footy club would be high and that’s why it’s challenging to be successful when you’ve come off what we’ve come off. And that’s why not many teams do it.”
Firmly in the premiership window in terms of average age, games played and key on-field statistics, Richardson, the former St Kilda coach, said the Demons intended to “live in the moment, play in the moment” more this season.
“We won 10 in a row [last season]. I wouldn’t say every week we focused on going back to back, far from it … the noise around the camp, around the footy club, was just taking it a week at a time, but it was just the way that we played at times in those second half of games,” he said.
“We didn’t help ourselves at times. We almost played as if not to lose, as opposed to continuing to play to win. It’s hard to know. What you then need to do is you talk about it, you address it, it’s as much about us as a leadership group, a coaching group, to make sure that we continue to reinforce, stay positive and stay in the moment.”
