Thinking Demons

August 26, 2012 by sally
Filed under: NSW Demons

Thinking Demons

Thursday 9 August 2012

Socrates once said “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think”. Now I am not sure if Mark Neeld is a fan of the classical Greek Athenian philosopher but this year Neeld and his brains trust have been spending all season getting the boys to think and play a different brand of football and the fruits of this labour were in full force on Saturday as the Mighty Demons flew out of the blocks and comprehensively beat the Gold Coast Suns.

I couldn’t believe the rumours last week that, given the GWS win, our proud club may contemplate ‘tanking’ to possibly finish last this season! What a loud of CRAP! as the game was over at quarter time and this time it was Melbourne that had all the play. I expected the Dees to win but six goals to zip at quarter time perhaps exceeded most supporters’ expectations.

Despite being elated with the win I am sure this is tainted with a hint of disappointment in that the margin was not greater – especially given the fact that the Suns’ bench showed a remarkably close resemblance to a bombed WW1 bunker by the end of the game. An interesting stat this year is that Melbourne have won 13 qtrs in the first half of this season but only 5 after half time and many put this down to experience and the youth of the list. This certainly wasn’t the case on the weekend when for only the second time this year our playing list had notched up more games than our opposition.

But hey!……I will take the win……in fact I will take ANY win and for only the third time this year I was happier than Matthieu Ricard! (a French Buddhist monk often reported to be the ‘happiest man on the planet’). The day started off on a great note with the announcement that two of our most talented players had committed to the Demons for a further three years! The signing of Nathan Jones and Jeremy Howe is fantastic news and really does show the faith that our players have with the direction the club is heading. Losing Jordie before the bounce made me a tad nervous but we had several players who lifted and ensured we came away with the 4 points. Let’s have a look at some of our key performances.

Do I even need to tell you????….cue that algorithm!!…<INSERT NATHAN JONES> Jonesey celebrated his new contract with belting out 29 touches and 5 tackles to be our leading possession getter in just another ‘Bluey’ voting performance.
Colin Sylvia has been in true Draft pick #3 form of late and picked up 24 disposals and capped off a great day with 2 goals.
Talking about goals Brad Green finished with five and celebrated with vigour. I haven’t seen such high quality celebrations since Aussie was at the club!
Brent Moloney is officially back in form with 24 possessions whilst our two co-captains, Jack Grimes and Jack Trengove and Tom McDonald and Jeremy Howe were all amongst our best players which was a Grand Old Day for the Mighty Demons.
Lastly I am going to keep banging on about Jake ‘the pencil’ Spencer as I am absolutely loving the way he is going about his footy. He chases hard, he presents at contests and on the weekend managed his first senior AFL goal. He had the most hit outs on the ground and I am so happy to see the big man playing well.

This week it is the Saints – another ‘bogey’ side of late. The last time we beat St Kilda Brock McLean dominated in a memorable finals win. Well there won’t be finals this year and there definitely won’t be McLean running out in the Red and the Blue on Saturday but I sure the boys will be keen to make it two in a row as they strive to finish the season on a high note.

Go Dees

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