THE MELBOURNE DEMONS best 22 in 2026

[The Dr]

FB: Lever - Petty - Howes
HB: Jiath - Turner - Bowey
C: Langford - Rivers - Windsor
HF: Culley - JVR - Chandler
FF: Fritsch - Mihocek - Melksham
RR: Gawn - Steele - Pickett
IC: Viney - Langdon - Lindsay - Tholstrup - AMW/Salem

Main depth: Picks 7 and 8, Heath, Adams, Kentfield, May, McDonald, Mentha, Sparrow, McAdam, Campbell
Development and/or trash: Jefferson, Laurie, Sharp, Henderson, Johnson, Woewodin (if he keeps a list spot)

Agree with a lot of this but that forward line is far too tall and slow. Culley looked promising last year on the wing - can’t see him being used as a half forward.

We do have a glaring hole in our small forward spot tho, maybe a draftee, Mentha or Hendo?

I also prefer AMW or Lindsay as a small defender over Howes.

 

[Scythe]

Agree with a lot of this but that forward line is far too tall and slow. Culley looked promising last year on the wing - can’t see him being used as a half forward.

We do have a glaring hole in our small forward spot tho, maybe a draftee, Mentha or Hendo?

I also prefer AMW or Lindsay as a small defender over Howes.

Was trying to balance what is realistic vs what I want. Melk really should be depth next year, with hopefully a Mentha or a Dovaston type as a crumbing small. Don't rate Henderson.

I think Culley's future is as a third tall forward tbh, but a lot of that positioning is just for the purpose of a team sheet (i.e. I'd have Langford playing significant inside mid time).

Put Howes in there purely as the other medium/smalls (Bowey, Jiath, Lindsay, Salem if picked) are all predominantly attacking types, so having an extra negator could be helpful. Don't rate him particularly highly though.

 

[Dancing Potato]

FB: Lever - Petty - Howes
HB: Jiath - Turner - Bowey
C: Langford - Rivers - Windsor
HF: Culley - JVR - Chandler
FF: Fritsch - Mihocek - Melksham
RR: Gawn - Steele - Pickett
IC: Viney - Langdon - Lindsay - Tholstrup - AMW/Salem

Main depth: Picks 7 and 8, Heath, Adams, Kentfield, May, McDonald, Mentha, Sparrow, McAdam, Campbell
Development and/or trash: Jefferson, Laurie, Sharp, Henderson, Johnson, Woewodin (if he keeps a list spot)

Pretty close to what I'm thinking, with a couple of exceptions.

Howes - I think Petty, Turner and Lever is enough height down there, so I might drop him and start AMW on the ground (and Salem on the bench).

Melksham - don't think I can justify all of Melk, Mihochek, Fritta and JVR up there as it's such a slow forward line. Not sure who takes his spot though given the depth is pretty atrocious. Though I can see a world where we take Heath in on the bench.

 

[Dancing Potato]

Well, looks like I took too long to type my reply and now I have to Sandra myself.

 

[The Dr]

I think it’s pretty clear we have two big holes in our 23: small defender and small forward.

I’d consider Jed Bews

24

Jed Bews

Age

31

Ht

186cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.9

3star

K

6.1

2star

HB

4.8

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

178.2

3star

D

9.5

2star

K

7.5

3star

HB

2.0

1star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.7

3star

MG

205.8

3star

D

8.8

3star

K

3.8

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.2

5star

as an UFA for a couple of years. Or someone similar out there?

Need a quality small forward asap.

 

[ray_purchase]

Will do a best 22 after the draft.

We are certainly desperate for a gun small forward.

 

[MartinPrince]

Dovaston is the small forward to get

 

[ray_purchase]

Dovaston is the small forward to get

His highlights didn't look too impressive.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Second on the No to Dovaston.

 

[Toump Ass]

Been saying it all along, if you can't win a footy match start a fight and win that.
Best 22 is anyone that can throw some fists or put in a good solid knee in when they go for a mark.
AJ in for sure, I wonder if Matty Jefferson is ready to throw his weight around. Any day now I reckon.

 

[wingersclub]

B: Salem Petty Bowey
HB: Jiath Turner Lindsey
C: Langdon Rivers Windsor
HF: Chandler JVR Culley
F: Fritsch Mihocek SMALL FORWARD
R: Gawn Langford Kozzy

Int: Steele Viney Heath pick 7 Sparrow(for now)

 

[Scythe]

B: Salem Petty Bowey
HB: Jiath Turner Lindsey
C: Langdon Rivers Windsor
HF: Chandler JVR Culley
F: Fritsch Mihocek SMALL FORWARD
R: Gawn Langford Kozzy

Int: Steele Viney Heath pick 7 Sparrow(for now)

Like that it's attacking, but that back six would concede a billion goals lol

 

[Dancing Potato]

B: Salem Petty Bowey
HB: Jiath Turner Lindsey
C: Langdon Rivers Windsor
HF: Chandler JVR Culley
F: Fritsch Mihocek SMALL FORWARD
R: Gawn Langford Kozzy

Int: Steele Viney Heath pick 7 Sparrow(for now)

I can't wait to see what SMALL FORWARD can do.

Replace Sparrow with Tholstrup. One is young and it's worth seeing if they might do something in a new system. One has consistently been a spud since debut.

Probably both spuds in the end, but hey, let's give a whirl.

 

[danster168]

I can't wait to see what SMALL FORWARD can do.

Replace Sparrow with Tholstrup. One is young and it's worth seeing if they might do something in a new system. One has consistently been a spud since debut.

Probably both spuds in the end, but hey, let's give a whirl.

Sparrow is the best defensive mid in our entire team. He ain't going anywhere.

The last time we got rid of a defensive role player, was ANB and we all know how well that went. People just get sucked into looking at stats.

The senior player that shouldn't be in the best 22 is Lever.

 

[Scythe]

Sparrow is the best defensive mid in our entire team. He ain't going anywhere.

Steele on one leg is twice the defensive mid that Sparrow is

 

[danster168]

Steele on one leg is twice the defensive mid that Sparrow is

Put Steele at half forward like Sparrow and see how well he does.Regardless, you don't get rid of the guys that chase. That's a recipe for disaster. And we've surely seen this year?

 

[Scythe]

Put Steele at half forward like Sparrow and see how well he does.Regardless, you don't get rid of the guys that chase. That's a recipe for disaster. And we've surely seen this year?

We've got Steele and Viney to do the dirty work in the midfield, Sparrow is completely superfluous.

Although who could forget his incredible hard tagging role from early in the year

 

[wingersclub]

Like that it's attacking, but that back six would concede a billion goals lol

Last round of the season we had

Salem May Turner
Bowey McDonald Rivers

Three slow fellas, although May and Macca are decent marks when they’re on.

We are either too slow or two attacking I do prefer the more attacking though. Let’s just run amuck

 

[danster168]

We've got Steele and Viney to do the dirty work in the midfield, Sparrow is completely superfluous.

Although who could forget his incredible hard tagging role from early in the year

View attachment 2459015View attachment 2459017

Must've been a close tag. 63% time on ground for Sparrow, 85% for Merrett. lol. Merrett 13 touches in the 3rd quarter when sparrow was on the bench for half the quarter...

His results speak for themselves in the bnf. coaches appreciated his work. As do i.

 

[Scythe]

Must've been a close tag. 63% time on ground for Sparrow, 85% for Merrett. lol. Merrett 13 touches in the 3rd quarter when sparrow was on the bench for half the quarter...

His results speak for themselves in the bnf. coaches appreciated his work. As do i.

Interesting that you're putting stock into the B&F results, given that you posted this...today

broken? Oliver had a better year than petracca if you actually watched some footy this year.

why are you using the bnf? as soon as the results came out all the dees fans laughed at the fact that they gave Petracca 2nd

 

[Toump Ass]

Didn't we just get a new coach, with a brand new 20th-century game-plan incoming?
Surely they can extract a bit more out of some our premierships stars like Sparrow and Salem.

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

Didn't we just get a new coach, with a brand new 20th-century game-plan incoming?
Surely they can extract a bit more out of some our premierships stars like Sparrow and Salem.

Sparrow holding Merrett to 38 possessions not good enough for you Mr.Fussy?

 

[The Dr]

Interesting that you're putting stock into the B&F results, given that you posted this...today

Boom

 

[PerfectFooty]

If only we had Goody, i really wanted to see CJ named at CHF

 

[Bluelegs]

My realistic expectations is this:

B - Salem, Petty, Bowey

HB - Lever, Turner, Jiath

C - Langdon, Viney, Windsor

HF - Pickett, Van Rooyen, Melksham

F - Fritsch, Mihocek, Chandler

FOLL: Gawn, Langford, Rivers

I/C: Lindsay, Steele, Culley, Sparrow, AMW

Last spot on the bench only one I struggled with. Put AMW down for now more as a pure hope that he can go on with what he showed in late 2024. Expect it will just be whichever Casey player has a good pre-season so could just as easily be Tholstrup or one of the draftees.

May also could easily be there but given we tried to move him on I'm leaving him out for now.