{"id":355226,"date":"2023-12-22T23:13:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T00:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=355226"},"modified":"2023-12-23T03:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T03:03:35","slug":"demons-united-in-hunt-for-premiership-hangover-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=355226","title":{"rendered":"Demons 'united' in hunt for premiership hangover cure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne<\/a> midfielder Tom Sparrow has declared his side are over their premiership hangover and ready to prove doubters wrong in 2024.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Age<\/a>, Sparrow\ufeff detailed how the club has struggled since breaking their 57-year premiership drought in 2021, bundling out of the 2022 and 2023 finals series in straight sets.<\/p>\n

Apart from failing to compete in September since the grand final's return to Melbourne post-Covid, the Demons have been thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Queensland great Webb dies after MND battle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Jaws dropped': The day Webb stunned Bennett<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Puzzled Khawaja reveals truth behind armband<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

From Steven May<\/a> and teammate Jake Melksham's brawl at a Melbourne restaurant last year<\/a>, followed by May's stunning jab<\/a> at Collingwood<\/a> after the latter's grand final win, to Joel Smith testing positive to an illicit substance<\/a> during a 2023 match, the club has faced it's fair share of controversies.<\/p>\n

On top of that, superstar midfielder Clayton Oliver<\/a> has been open in his health struggles\ufeff, most recently leaving the Demons' training camp early<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

But Sparrow has shut down speculation Melbourne are lacking a professional edge, saying the club has already "addressed" the plethora of off-field issues.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We addressed it. We wanted to make sure that we are united as a club," Melbourne midfielder he said.<\/p>\n

"Then it was, how do we focus on ourselves now to make sure that, you know, it doesn't happen again."<\/p>\n

"It's not just saying it," Sparrow said.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

"(It's) how we act on and off the field as people, how we respect the game, the opposition and the discipline stuff. That's how we act \u2026 that will give us a true measure of how we're going based on being accountable to what we say we're going to do."<\/p>\n

Sparrow, who is just 23-years-old,\ufeff admitted the side's game plan fell apart in the latter half of 2023, and they lacked on-field discipline when games \u2013 like their two-point semi final loss to Carlton \u2013 came down to the wire.<\/p>\n

"That's probably not how we want to be as a club in terms of our character," he said.<\/p>\n

"We want to be disciplined and play the right way, so there's definitely elements in that game where we could have been better.<\/p>\n

\"Oliver<\/p>\n

"We've already started working on that this pre-season. It's about controlling the controllables, making sure you stay disciplined under pressure, under fatigue, when you can't hear anything out of the ground."<\/p>\n

In an AFL first, the Swans and Demons will kick off the season at the SCG on Thursday, March 7 as part of the inaugural Opening Round.<\/p>\n

Four matches will be played for premiership points across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney \ufeffa week earlier than usual.<\/p>\n

The traditional Carlton and Richmond Thursday night MCG blockbuster will begin a full nine-game \ufeffround one the following week.<\/p>\n

It's the first time the AFL season has started outside Victoria.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne midfielder Tom Sparrow has declared his side are over their premiership hangover and ready to prove doubters wrong in 2024. Speaking to The Age, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":355228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355226"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355235,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355226\/revisions\/355235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/355228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}