It is a year of significant change at the Melbourne Football Club.
Favourite sons have departed, a new coach sits at the helm, and whilst there is still a spattering of the team that soared to the 2021 premiership, the group has splintered and the club has moved on. It was fun while it lasted, right?
The 2026 Demons are in a state of flux. You can see it when you look at their list. At certain positions, they remain dominant – the ruck and defence stand out, with proven performers at those positions. And after years of playing undermanned up forward, they have finally recruited someone who is happy to do the dirty work. It is a genuine pity it is a couple of years too late, both for the club and the player.
How the Dees fare in 2026 revolves around their younger players, and what steps they take early in the year. Someone like Harvey Langford has star potential written all over him, and with both Petracca and Oliver out the door, will likely get midfield time in year two.
But what about others?
Jacob van Rooyen remains a question mark, failing to take the big leap in 2025. Meanwhile, Disco Turner, Koltyn Tholstrup, and Xavier Lindsay, are all finding their way, and their place, in the system.
Can they collectively step up and make this Melbourne team a force to be reckoned with? Or are the Dees looking at making up the numbers in 2026?
If you’re reading all our previews, you can skip ahead a little bit – It’s the standard intro.
We’re steaming toward a new season, and as we do, it is time to turn our attention away from the glory of last year and look at the possibilities of the new one.
The players have been on the track for a while now – the Christmas break is over, and as we work through January, the charge into the new season ramps right up.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not, and young projects become the next group of stars. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all in to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you want to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide what you’re after.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; HB goes deeper than anyone else covering the game..
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a more comprehensive season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
Let’s jump into the season preview for the Dees,
1 – CAN KYSAIAH PICKETT BECOME THE FIRST 20 DISPOSAL / 2 GOAL PLAYER IN 15 YEARS?
It doesn’t matter if you watch a little, or a lot of footy – when you watch Kysaiah Pickett play the game, you know you’re seeing a special talent.
A couple of years back… it might have even been last year, I stacked up Kozzie and Cyril Rioli’s trajectory next to each other. It was an interesting exercise, as Pickett was about to enter his sixth season, and was tracking along very nicely in comparison. In 2025, he took another step to matching, or surpassing what Cyril achieved at the highest level.
Here’s how they sit heading into their seventh year.
Kysaiah has already averaged more disposals than Cyril did at any point of his career. At 19.9 per game, Kozzie has a +2.6 advantage on Rioli’s best season.
In terms of goals per game, at the same time, Cyril was averaging 1.3 goals per game. Kozzie is at 2.0. Further to that, Cyril only once averaged two or more goals per game.
Does that strike you as weird? It just dioesn’t feel as though Pickett is afforded the same reverence. Not yet, anyway.
The area that Rioli gets Pickett is tackles inside 50. He was a better defensive player than Kozzie, and it remains an area that requires some improvement. Kozzie’s best number was two per game in 2023, but as he has accrued more midfield minutes, that has fallen to 0.8 last season.
Cyril’s best was likely before the stat started being recorded (2015).
Anyway, that was just me rehashing. Given the reverence Rioli is held within the footy community, I thought it would be a good way to emphasise just how brilliant a talent the Dees have on their books… and he is bloody brilliant to watch.
Pickett has the chance to push past Cyril in terms of individual brilliance, and if he wants to do that, there is a specific mark that would help him do so.
The last player to hit the 20 disposals and two goals per game averages in an AFL season was Stevie Johnson, back in 2011. Last season, Pickett was just nine disposals short of joining him.
So close, yet so far…
However, you get the sense that if Pickett is able to play out the whole season, we may start to see something very special from him. As will be touched on several times, there are a vast number of opportunities in the Melbourne midfield this season, given the 2025 departures, and even though Pickett was already attending 69% of the centre bounces last year, you can see the Dees relying on him a little more this year.
So, do we back him to have the first 20/2 season in 15 years? If not, why not?
Pickett’s brilliance is the type of highlight film, backed by genuine substance, that puts arses on seats. The Dees need a player like him to give their supporters a reason to head to games, and the team around him needs him to play to that level to make others better.
If he splits time wisely between the midfield and forward line, we have not seen the best of Kysaiah Pickett, and for the first time in a long while, the 20/2 Club looks like it may have another member.
Perhaps 2025 was the entrée? And if it was, I cannot wait to see what he can serve up as the main course in 2026.
2 – WHAT DOES BRODY MIHOCEK BRING TO THE FORWARD 50?
Truthfully, he brings exactly what the club needed about two or three years ago – a genuine forward presence who fights, battles, claws, and scratches (figuratively… not in the Liberatore sense) into every single contest.
I don’t want to throw shade at Harrison Petty, but Brody Mihocek is the forward the club wanted him to be.
I have seen Brody have some poor games, but it is never, ever due to lack of effort. He will put himself in harm’s way, make something out of nothing on the back of pure effort, and if he is within range of goal, he is always a threat.
It is a real pity the Dees are getting him at age 33 (when the season begins), because at 30-31, he would have made this team a hell of a lot better. He still might, but we’re not talking about the contending list at the moment, are we?
I don’t think we can fall into the trap of looking at Mihocek’s numbers and assessing him on those alone this season. When I think about what he potentially adds to this club, I look at the way he can impact those around him, and my eyes settle on a young fella like Jacob van Rooyen.
I can feel Melbourne fans starting to get impatient with van Rooyen, particularly as other young players in the same position start to blossom and JvR is out there returning games where he has little impact.
Now have look at Petracca and Oliver’s disposal efficiency in 2025 – that was the delivery coming into him. No wonder the kid can’t grab a mark! They were banging it long and on his head all the time!
I digress.
The numbers of van Rooyen will be a great indication of how much Mihocek is impacting the team. Working in conjunction with an actual key forward, and not someone being used as a big-bodied stop-gap, will afford him more opportunity to work with.
I can see Mihocek kicking 25-30 goals and people wondering why the club bothered. But if van Rooyen snags 30-35, you have to look at why that is. I reckon a big part of that will be what Mihocek adds and the way he positions himself to give his young co-forward a good look at the contest.
In a way, I am reminded of how Collingwood brought in an ageing Dermott Brereton to work alongside Sav Rocca back in 1995. Dermott was not there to achieve career-high numbers – those days were gone.
What he was there for was to work with Rocca to allow him the space to grow and become the player that would lead the club’s goal kicking seven times.
That’s more akin to Mihocek’s role now – hit the scoreboard here and there, and develop both JvR and maybe Matt Jefferson, in the twilight of his career. If he does that successfully, everything else is a massive bonus.
I am a massive Mihocek fan. I love that he is a footy success story built on hard work, who came into the system the hard way. He is just the hard-nosed player that the Dees have lacked.
I just wish he’d made the leap when they needed someone to do that to keep them in the premiership window.
3 – CAN DISCO TURNER BECOME AN ELITE INTERCEPT PLAYER?
He has the right supports around him to do so, and his 2025 numbers indicate that he could well make the leap into the frame as the best intercept player at the club.
Of course, Jake Lever’s health may play a pretty significant role in terms of that occurring.
I do get the feeling that we may see Disco given the opportunity to head forward at points this season. If the current defensive structure maintains its integrity, you have May, Lever, Petty and Turner back there, and things could be a little top heavy. That said, if Steven King has an eye on the future, we could see him positioned as the preferred option at half-back over some of his experienced teammates.
Turner started out as a forward, but was wisely moved to defence when Simon Goodwin saw how he was being swamped by defenders in the air. At 24, and with 37 games now under his belt, he is starting to look like he can match it in the air with anyone in the league, so the option to swing him forward may be explored.
Will King be tempted to move him?
Would you?
He kicked 17 goals in 15 games back in 2024 before the move to defence, but those games were dotted with the type of performances that go hand-in-hand with a young man in a forward setup. A three-week period averaging 4.8 disposals and 0.3 goals was just as telling as his four-goal blast against the Suns in the penultimate round. Has he matured enough to be a better, and more consistent, option now? Or is his home in defence?
It’s a nice problem to have, but as we saw with Harrison Petty playing forward, if it is not his natural role, then he will likely be exposed.
Daniel Turner has time on his side. He is locked away until following the 2030 season, and the coaching staff have plenty of time to decide where he plays his best footy.
As it stands, right now, I would keep him in defence while he continues to develop, and whilst the JvR/Mihocek/Jefferson forward line is given a chance. However, if things are not working out, Disco remains a chance to shift forward and change things up inside 50.
Really, I cannot see either option being a poor one.
4 – IS CALEB WINDSOR A MIDFIELDER, OR IS HE MORE SUITED TO THE OUTSIDE GAME?
I’ve followed the pre-season reports out of Melbourne with interest, and many of them have reported that Caleb Windsor has been spending time in the midfield group. Not only that, in match sims, he has been one of the standouts.
This was not something I saw coming at this stage of the pre-season.
Windsor took a bit of a hit in 2025, playing primarily as a half-back, and in the minds of many, going a bit backwards from his excellent first season with the club.
Sophomore Blues, it’s called.
Now entering his third year in the system, and with 36 games behind him, he looks set for another role change as the ripple effect of the Petracca/Oliver fallout continues. Could he be the surprise packet of the 2026 season, and the first player to really break out?
Whilst Windsor looked great on the wing in year one, his second season failed to demonstrate the growth expected of him. Then again, growth is never really linear, and there is the chance that moving into a new role meant that a period of adjustment negatively impacted his output.
However, in terms of his work on the track, he seems to be pretty determined not to repeat the process this season, particularly in such a vital role for the team.
As it stands, there is going to be some competition for spots in the midfield. When there is a vacuum the likes of which the departures have left, many get sucked into the position of vying to replace them. Right now, Windsor seems to be in the hunt up to his eyeballs. Looking at the possibilities, he will need players like Jack Viney, Jack Steele, and Trent Rivers in there doing some hard yards, as he and Kozzie Pickett get to play a little more offensively.
Can the Dees make this lineup work?
With Gawn feeding the midfielders, they should be getting plenty of first use, right?
Hmmm… maybe.
Did you know the Dees ranked 13th in clearances in 2025? That is underachieving, and if you’re paying exorbitant amounts for blokes to get in there and not win clearances from the tapwork of the best big man in recent history, I reckon it was time to change the guard.
Windsor may find himself relegated to other roles as the season progresses. He may be at half-back, and out on the wing as the right balance is sought in the middle. However, as the Dees find the structure they need, he will likely form part of a developing midfield rotation that might start to give a few some trouble.
5 – DO THE DEES PERSIST WITH ED LANGDON AS A TAGGER?
I both love and hate the idea of Ed Langdon as a pure lockdown player. And, even though it is a small sample size, let’s look at the most memorable of his roles in 2025; shutting down Nick Daicos.
It was clear from the outset that Langdon meant business. He was all over Daicos like a fat kid on a doughnut, harassing him at every opportunity, and forcing the Collingwood star into retaliating. Classic tagger behaviour… nothing wrong with it, despite the whining and crying of Collingwood fans and people who have only watched the game for five years.
However, there was a distinct downside to having Langdon play such an attentive defensive role – he was a non-factor in every other aspect of the game.
Whilst Daicos was held to 19 touches, Langdon managed just four possessions for the day. In effect, he not only nullified his opponent, but took himself completely out of the game in the process.
I suppose the argument here, is that the best taggers in the league still manage to find a way to remain involved by releasing the tag to get dangerous. Langdon, in his first dance as a tagger, completely lost focus of his own game, and did no damage as a result.
Is that what you want?
Is this what we’re after from Langdon? It all was for nought in those contests, as the Dees lost both contests (albeit by a cumulative margin of seven points). In the 11 games prior to the first Daicos encounter, Ed was averaging 22.7 disposals per game. Is it worth completely torpedoing that to nullify Daicos? He is probably the only player that can run with him, but at what cost?
I’m torn on this one. I love the passion he played with when opposing Daicos, and against a hard runner, his defensive style works well, but against someone a bit stronger through the body, he could be exploited in the contest.
With Langdon turning 30 before the start of the season, it will be interesting to see whether Steven King finds more value in what Ed can provide the Demons offensively, or what he can deduct from the opposition.
I expect we’ll get a match-up-dependent role for Langdon this season. I just hope he doesn’t forget who and what he is, as he attempts to be something else.
The remainder of this article, and the next 15 questions are for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re on the march to the 2026 AFL season and it all begins here. The Mongrel’s Big Questions Season Previews are THE best in the business. If you know, you know… if not, maybe it’s time to find out. Pre-Season, Practice Games… we’re all in. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to re-read the first five questions again, but if you do… there is a heap more below.
