{"id":600523,"date":"2026-04-11T18:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600523\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:12:19","slug":"a-weeks-a-long-time-in-footy-perplexed-demons-coach-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600523\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A week’s a long time in footy’: perplexed Demons coach King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne coach Steven King is somewhat perplexed.<\/p>\n

A week after toppling previously unbeaten Gold Coast, his team crashed to a 45-point defeat to struggling Essendon.<\/p>\n

The first-year Demons coach repeatedly labelled his team “lethargic” — but he’s not sure exactly why.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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“This week is unique — Gather Round is a great thing,” King said after Essendon’s 17.11 (113) to 10.8 (63) win at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“We came over early; we do a T2 (two training sessions) over here; six-day break — everyone gets those.<\/p>\n

“That’s our job as staff, to look back at the week and how we prepped our players.<\/p>\n

“Our preparation was about maintaining momentum that we created, but obviously a week’s a long time in footy.”<\/p>\n

But even amid the disappointment of defeat, King sensed an exciting opportunity: to see how his players respond when hosting reigning premiers Brisbane next Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Demons walk from the field following their loss to Essendon.\u00a0Photo by Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It’s funny, isn’t it,” he mused.<\/p>\n

“It’s the hunters or the hunted and the mind games of footy.<\/p>\n

“It’s exciting, because I want to see us respond. And who would you rather respond against than the champs?<\/p>\n

“As disappointing as this is, this is just another new opportunity for us to respond as a group, and I’m looking forward to that.”<\/p>\n

Veteran Christian Salem is in doubt for the MCG fixture after hurting an ankle against the Bombers.<\/p>\n

And Jake Melksham, in his 250th AFL match, will also be sent for scans after copping a knee injury in the opening five minutes — he returned to action, but in obvious discomfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne coach Steven King is somewhat perplexed. A week after toppling previously unbeaten Gold Coast, his team crashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600523","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600523","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=600523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}