{"id":583768,"date":"2026-04-03T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583768\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:57:10","slug":"demons-star-kysaiah-pickett-praised-after-brilliant-start-to-afl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583768\/","title":{"rendered":"Demons star Kysaiah Pickett praised after brilliant start to AFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ed Langdon says Melbourne teammate Kysaiah Pickett has &#8220;taken his game to another level&#8221;, as the Demons continue life under new coach Steven King.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Pickett has relished greater midfield time with some career-best numbers, averaging 22.7 disposals, 4.3 clearances and 5.3 tackles per match this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The explosive 24-year-old produced a brilliant second-half performance in Melbourne&#8217;s comeback win over Carlton at the MCG last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-04-04\/afl-michael-voss-carlton-blues-coach-north-melbourne-kangaroos\/106531148\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Voss unfazed about speculation over his future<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Michael Voss knows he faces more scrutiny over his role as Blues coach after his side endures another second-half meltdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Demons&#8217; victory gave the club a 2-1 (win-loss) start to their campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;He&#8217;s certainly taken his game to another level,&#8221; Langdon said of Pickett.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;He&#8217;s such a terrific player and he&#8217;s focusing more and more on his midfield craft, and working out how the best midfielders in the competition go about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;And we know what he can do when he goes forward \u2014 that&#8217;s kicking goals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Demons face Gold Coast at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Prior to the start of the season, Demons players had one eye on this clash as it was set to be their first meeting with ex-teammate Christian Petracca.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Petracca joined the Suns during last year&#8217;s trade period, ending an 11-year stint at the Demons, with whom he won the 2021 premiership.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Christian Petracca of the Suns celebrates kicking an AFL goal against the Eagles.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0ab9de4f9dc104503a037114967bdae6.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Christian Petracca is sidelined with a hamstring injury. (Getty Images\/AFL Photos: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But Petracca will miss Sunday&#8217;s match because of a hamstring injury, robbing the encounter of its main attraction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a shame. It would&#8217;ve been great to play against Christian,&#8221; Langdon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;But he&#8217;s had an unbelievable start to the year, so it might benefit us that he&#8217;s actually not playing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Demons have recalled Daniel Turner and veteran forward Jake Melksham, with Changkuoth Jiath (calf) and Paddy Cross (thumb) both ruled out because of injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Petracca and suspended forward Bailey Humphrey are missing for the Suns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But Suns coach Damien Hardwick welcomes back Brownlow Medal winner Matt Rowell from injury to bolster his midfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Langdon says Melbourne teammate Kysaiah Pickett has &#8220;taken his game to another level&#8221;, as the Demons continue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,19120,24706,40496,2485,9130,70801,647,85,79260,9391],"class_list":{"0":"post-583768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-christian-petracca","14":"tag-demons","15":"tag-ed-langdon","16":"tag-gold-coast","17":"tag-gold-coast-suns","18":"tag-kysaiah-pickett","19":"tag-melbourne","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-steven-king","22":"tag-suns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}