Demons’ day at home

Originally published in the Dubbo Photo News

The Demons put on a show this Saturday, taking on the Orange Tigers in their first home game of the season.

In much nicer conditions than last week, once again the club came away with two wins.

In an impressive display of what's to come for the season, the women's team registered a 50-point win.

Coming out of the gates strong, an underpowered Orange side was unable to keep control of the ball against the Demons. Despite late outs due to Covid-19 and several players away, the Demons managed to field 17 players. With only 13 able to travel up from Orange, Demons coach Peter Martinoli agreed to play 12-a-side, leaving Orange with an opportunity to rotate.

With a strong depth of talent and half the leadership group out, the team never looked in doubt of taking home their first win of the year.

“We can cover those (missing) numbers with the talent that we've got. Orange was short numbered this week, so it was bit of a reverse of last week, so we adapted the game to better suit both teams and to have a clean contest.”

Martinoli said that clear communication was key for teams to ensure game day competitions are as beneficial to everyone as possible.

“We’re just happy to get on the field and play, there’s no point trying to play 16 against 13 and absolutely dominating them. We want to make a fair competition.”

Four players pulled on the Demon’s guernsey for the first time, with Martinoli impressed with all their efforts across the day.

“Eliza Jarman got involved in the first three minutes and just kept going into every contest from there and Bella Faulder found form quickly.

“Amber Dutton only unfortunately got a quarter in there before she had to leave for other commitments but even in that quarter, she still showed a lot of potential and a lot of training that she's been doing has paid off.”

Keeghan Tucker and Dana Taylor returned to the game this week, both showing their skills were more than up to scratch and sliding into the team seamlessly.

Marty Schlumpf had an outstanding game, playing out of position with ease. Martinoli said efforts during the off season and participation in the local AFL 9s competition had certainly helped her game.

Martinoli is now looking towards this week’s away game against the Bathurst Bushrangers.

“Bathurst is always a tricky one, just the travel deters a couple of people a bit, but we should see a return of five or six players that were missing this week.”

With another great win from the men’s tier two side, the men’s first grade wasn’t able to make it three-from-three, going down in a frustrating game.

The final score reflected generously on the Demons, with coach Terry Lyons saying he knows the team is better than they performed.

“It was a frustrating game because I know the guys can play better than that, but it's quite often about what the opposition lets you do, and Orange were on today. They got the tail up in the first quarter and then we couldn't catch back up.”

Simple mistakes cost the team and though they were able to try and take back some control in the second half it was too little too late for the Demons.

Lyons said he was hoping to maintain momentum following their win over Bathurst Giants in round one.

“Maybe the boys were expecting to just do well, instead of doing the work because that's just certainly what it looked like.

“They lifted their work rate as the game wore on, but it just was never enough to come back from that gap at the start.”

Junior player Jake Egan made his first-grade debut in the loss and although not the outcome he would have hoped for, coach Lyons was thrilled with how he blended with the team.

Once again Joseph Hedger’s work rate was unmatched, and Isaac Heath provided a solid target when kicks were able to get where they needed.

“Nick Thornbury provides us an option all around the ground and really creates, gives us a real mobile tall forward which is handy, but yeah, we just made too many mistakes it’s frustrating.”

Lyons said the team can expect a lot of running after the loss but is looking ahead to next week’s Bathurst Bushrangers game where he hopes to see the team settle more.

“I think that first quarter really did us in, but also we're playing with new combinations in the backline and I think we didn't have the mix right at the start.

“We made a few changes and after that we settled and started to claw back.”