The Demons are nonetheless caught in 2021
Melbourne’s 2021 premiership felt just like the daybreak of a dynasty.
However three seasons later, the Demons are farther from a flag than ever and even farther from reinvention than they could admit.
This isn’t about effort, accidents, or dangerous luck. It’s about an organisation that constructed a powerful inner tradition, however now appears unable to evolve it.
The decline hasn’t been stark, however it has been regular. After ending second in 2022, Melbourne exited in straight units. In 2023, the identical destiny: two finals losses regardless of dominant midfield stats. In 2024, they dropped out of the eight completely.
In 2025, stagnation, not resurgence. The difficulty isn’t expertise – it’s transformation. It is a staff with a premiership system however a post-premiership mindset.
Melbourne more and more features as a closed loop, favouring inner validation over exterior problem. Why, for instance, was Demons nice Nathan Jones appointed to a key teaching position with out expertise at one other AFL membership?
It’s emblematic of a broader sample: acquainted voices, protected selections, and a reluctance to herald contrasting views. Tactical points like sluggish ball motion or ahead inefficiency are routinely reframed as lapses in “effort” or “connection.” The end result? Much less studying, slower adaptation.
As well as, the Demons’ language typically implies that perception, behaviours, and identification are sufficient to revive elite efficiency. Whereas this fosters unity, it additionally masks deeper points.
Structural or tactical issues are deflected by ethical framing, as if working more durable or believing extra will repair a flawed ahead setup.
The 2021 flag created a powerful cultural mythology. However alignment has morphed into sameness. Tactical innovation seems restricted, and acquainted voices dominate the panorama.
To be clear, not all dissent is silenced. Christian Petracca has voiced frustration, however significant structural change not often follows. The membership listens, however it doesn’t pivot. Dissent exists, however it doesn’t shift decision-making.
Narratives like “we all know our greatest is sweet sufficient” endure, whilst recreation traits and efficiency information say in any other case. Emotional truth-telling, such because the annual pre-season love-in, typically eclipse tactical proof.
The membership’s perception in its personal story generally overrides the truth enjoying out on the sphere.
Issues are met with extra of the identical: prepare more durable, recommit, belief the system. Not often does the membership publicly or structurally interrogate the underlying design.
It’s not only a query of execution, it’s whether or not the strategy itself nonetheless works.
However there’s a path ahead. It’s time to conduct one other unbiased soccer division evaluation, however this time led by a hardened AFL insider, not a pleasant outsider.
Benchmark towards extra tactically adaptive golf equipment. Recruit assistant coaches with totally different concepts, even when it unsettles the established order. Actual change begins with actual disruption.
Transcend outcomes. Ask: what assumptions are we defending? Why can we play this manner? What if the actual downside isn’t effort, however construction? This sort of reflection builds not simply resilience, however intelligence.
The Demons should strongly foster a tradition the place folks can say “this isn’t working” with out the chance of being marginalised. Appoint a satan’s advocate to check teaching assumptions. Encourage uncomfortable conversations. Dissent shouldn’t be a menace; it needs to be a management expectation.
The flexibility to talk plainly about failure is what separates enduring golf equipment from nostalgic ones. Humility isn’t weak spot, it’s step one towards reinvention.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin. (Picture by Dylan Burns/AFL Images by way of Getty Pictures)
And cease hiding behind summary phrases like “connection” and “intent” except paired with actual information. What does “enjoying our manner” really appear to be statistically? What are the KPIs for fulfillment? Tradition issues, however readability wins video games.
The 2021 premiership ought to stay a part of the membership’s identification, however not its working guide. Let it encourage, not dictate. The subsequent chapter gained’t be written by clinging to what labored in Perth – will probably be written by what works in 2026.
However isn’t the membership already doing this, I coronary heart you ask? Precisely – and that’s a part of the issue. Melbourne would say they’re implementing most of those solutions. On the floor, that may be true. However once we apply these fashions critically, we see the gaps.
Open techniques don’t simply take heed to suggestions – they’re modified by it. Melbourne listens, however not often pivots.
Psychological security isn’t everybody nodding about working onerous – it’s somebody with the ability to problem the system with out penalties.
Knowledge-informed decision-making isn’t having stats – it’s letting them disrupt assumptions. Double-loop studying isn’t reviewing outcomes – it’s questioning the very frameworks behind them.
Submit-truth drift doesn’t imply the membership lies – it means comforting inner narratives typically overwrite uncomfortable details.
So sure, the membership believes they’re already doing these items. However that perception, that phantasm of change, might now be the most important impediment to precise transformation.
The Melbourne Soccer Membership just isn’t damaged. However it’s caught. It has the folks, the assets, and the expertise. What it lacks is the braveness to reimagine itself past 2021.
Premierships aren’t simply moments to recollect. They’re launching pads. And for Melbourne to actually contend once more, it should ask the query no myth-driven tradition needs to listen to: what should we develop into now?
