PRE-SEASON COMMENTS
COACH HEATH PYKE: It will be more of a weekly focus. The ceiling hasn't been placed on the playing group.
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TIM O'CONNOR: Looks as though it's going to be a tough season for the Demons, which have said goodbye to a string of top players. Given the side missed finals in 2018, you'd get some nice odds about the team figuring this year. Will still be competitive and should finish around the middle of the table.
GEOFF TAYLOR MEDAL VOTING
Jackson Murphy 8
Andrew Milroy 8
Bailey Veale 6
Steven Ryan 5
Alex Browning 3
Shaun Finlayson 2
Chris Cowan 1
Cameron Jackson 1
CHFL TEAM OF THE YEAR
nil
THE YEAR THAT WAS
The departure of a string of top players meant it was always going to be a difficult season for Bungaree.
The Demons were without the winners of the previous three Geoff Taylor medals in David Benson and Joel Mahar, as well as a long list of other first-choice players from years gone by.
And while the year started on a surprisingly bright note with the team stunning premiership fancies Buninyong in the opening round, it never really reached any great heights.
Bungaree was in the hunt for a bottom-end finals position for much of the campaign, but in the end losses to middle-of-the-road teams such as Creswick, Learmonth and the round 14 defeat to Skipton essentially cost it a place in the play-offs.
Gun forward Luke Mirtschin's departure was a telling one for the Demons and the lack of a real significant goal-kicker was a thorn in their season.
Jack Walter won the club's leading forward award with just 14 majors in a side that only ever booted 10 or more goals in a game on five occasions.
A real positive for the club was the efforts in defence, with the Demons only conceding 997 points. This was the eighth best defensive record in the competition.
The conclusion of the season saw the end of a five-year stint as coach for Heath Pyke, who has passed the reins over to his assistant Ryan Waight.
In an interview with The Courier in September, Waight was quick to point out where he expected improvement.
"I've been really impressed how they have a go, but we just need to put a bit of polish on the outside. And there's probably three ways we can do that," Waight said.
"We've got a bit of push up from the under-18s - we've got 10 or so of them coming up to the senior list - obviously we want to coach the current guys and get a five or 10 per cent lift out of them and also top up with some recruits as well."
SEASON 2020
While it would surprise to see a push for the flag next year, finals should certainly be on the radar for the Demons, which only need some targeted recruiting to make the jump from 10th into the top eight.
OVERALL RATING
4/10