SEN Breakfast
"The impact Steven King has had is profound" - Dees win on King's Birthday (9.06.26)
08 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the highlights from the Dees vs. Pies game on King's Birthday?
Breakfast with Gary and Tim. Podatsky couldn't get it to him. Langford on the steal. Jack Steele works it forward. Sharp kicks. Fritch! Got it! Jumped into the side of Quaidor. Hovered and marks. Bailey Fritch directly in front. 40 outs.
Kicks on its way. It's there.
Fritch has got three.
And McDonald the other way.
Chapter 2: How did the Demons manage to secure their win over the Pies?
Anderson. Off hands. Launches. Long. Long. Long. Got out. Gave it across. 50 from goal for the D's. He's caught it. He kicks. He couldn't put it.
He kicks it away. Got goal.
Big kicks across there.
Chapter 3: What were the standout performances in the Dees vs. Pies match?
Massive ball to win. Digo wins it, but he's tackled. Sparrow came up with it. Landon could seal it now. He goes with a short kick to Colby. That does seal it. Colby plays on and kicks. The seal up. It is over. Great game, Colby. Get your keys, Collingwood fans.
Oh, Nicky, fat fingers out there. These pain. Massive Collingwood, man. Painful putting that package together this morning. But in front of 88,019 people beat the previous record, 84,659. The Demons beat the Pies by eight points because the pick at 28 possessions, three goals, wins the Neil Danner Her Trophy. We're doing questions without notice here.
If you have questions on the game, you'd have questions about anything else that happened in round 13, all the way back to Thursday night when the Crows had a fantastic victory over the Cats with Jordan Dawson leading the charge.
Were you aware that Cozzy had gone back to Darwin on Friday or during the week? No. No, he did. I think it's the third or the fourth time that… This goes to the heart of the way that Stephen King and Melbourne are handling him, and he spoke about it on the agenda setters last night. He said, yeah, no, I went back home again. We've got this agreement. I train up there when I'm up there.
I don't know that he spent a lot of time thinking about who it might have been, though, that was going to tag him or go to him at any stage during the game. This is him on agenda setters last night being asked that question.
Were you surprised at the lack of attention that you copped early?
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Chapter 4: What insights were shared about Stephen King’s impact on the team?
Nah, what was that guy's name? He did end up coming to me. I forgot what his name was, but yeah, I think he'd done all right. But yeah, I end up just keep grinding out, so yeah. I love that.
I just saw that. I love that. He couldn't remember Ed Allen's name.
No, no.
But he thought he did all right.
That just goes to the heart of how he plays his football.
And if you want to keep receipts on this stuff, I mean, when he signed that big, long contract, there's lots of people, oh, this is a disgrace, and oh, he'll go back to, oh, he's broken up with his family, this is a disaster. Well, and winning wallpapers over, not that there's any cracks, but winning fixes everything. His form does, yeah.
And he's handled it beautifully, and the footy club have handled it beautifully, and he's playing as good a footy as anyone in the competition right now.
Correct. And he said he actually went on to say that there was an agreement that he had. Like, Kingy said to him, look, you know, I want to play in the midfield, but you're going to have to be a lot fitter than what you are now if you're going to play in the midfield. So he goes to work. He gets himself fit. He proves to the coach that that's what he's capable of doing, true to his word.
And then because of that, they are true to their word in saying, okay, well, we'll help facilitate you so that you can spend more time with your daughter. And therefore, you're going to be able to go at different times of the year. We're going to allow you to go off up there to Darwin and spend time with your family. And he comes back and he produces a performance like that on Monday. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How did the recent game affect the Demons' standing on the ladder?
He goes, I want to be the best player. I want to be the best player in the game, which I thought, I thought, geez, that's a... I didn't think that would have been his answer, but he's not there yet, but he's making a nice play at it, isn't he?
So the thing for me as a Melbourne fan is no way did I think they're going to be in fifth position on the ladder now, a game or less than half a game off third. The impact that Stephen King had is profound. There's no question about that. And the most significant thing was they got smacked last week, like absolutely belted against the Giants.
And you looked at that and you thought, oh, well, maybe the watermark, there's finding where they are, you know. And then they come to this game and last year they would have lost or two years ago they would have lost, three years ago they would have lost because they were behind for most of the day. The Pies just, they looked to have most answers most of the time, but then they found a way.
to come rattling home over the top. And I think that speaks to a bit of belief and a bit of the way they play. They didn't change the way they played.
I was going to say that same thing about the fact that they haven't really changed. He came into that job, Stephen King, promising one thing to all Melbourne fans and by extension to all fans of football, and that is that we're going to play an exciting brand of football. And they've copped a couple of defeats here and there.
And I'm sure they're making some subtle changes with the way they set up and that type of thing. But they still want to score and they still want to play this really attacking brand of football, which is a joy to watch. Like, it doesn't always work. And he said that on your program last night. He said, look, it was a bit messy at times, you know, like about what we're all trying to do.
Collingwood were trying to do the same thing in the opposite direction as well. Yeah. You sort of had that where it was always going to be about pressure, but then it was always going to be at the moments when somebody stepped up and they were able to actually take their chance at that moment and produce. And that's sort of how it played out in the end.
Yeah. So I want you to listen to Craig McRae, because did you watch Brisbane and the Gold Coast Sons? Yeah, I did, yeah. In what world... would Brisbane be contemplating not having Lockie Neal on their list next year?
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Chapter 6: What challenges did the Demons face leading up to this match?
And I know we've got Chris Fagan coming up and we'll ask him this question. Lockie Neal is still in the best 10 players in this competition. Lockie Neal came out and put a stamp on that game inside 15 minutes that only... the very best players can do. He played with his ferocious intensity. His clearance work was unbelievable.
And this narrative around, well, well, they've got to let him go so that they can have Dan Annables play in the middle or they can have Levi play more time. That is the most nonsensical thing I've ever heard.
No, I don't think it's nonsensical.
He is playing as well as any player in the competition nearly right now. What, are you going to move him or allow him to go so you can give more time to some 19-year-old kid?
kid. Well, you might want to allow him to go for other reasons.
Not necessarily football reasons. I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing this narrative that he's a great player so we'll let him go so the kids can have some time in the middle.
No, I don't necessarily agree with that. But to allow those other green shoots to appear, then you will at some point of time have to lessen his time in the midfield and give some of those other younger players more time in the midfield to develop as well. I believe that's a case.
But when though? Not Well, that's a judgment call. Not when he's playing at this level.
No, not like this.
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Chapter 7: What does the future hold for the Demons and their key players?
That's a whole different side.
Well, it's part of it, though.
You can't separate the two. If Lockie wants to go, that's a different argument. He's a free agent. And if he wanted to go, he's going to go. But don't.
No, no, no, but that is the question, though, isn't it? Whether or not he wants to force his way out of there or whether or not they want to keep him. I mean, if he wants to stay and they want to keep him, then no problem.
My point is, why would there ever be a world in which the Brisbane Lions would say, yeah, we're happy for Lockie to go?
I don't think it's a happy situation. I think it's a question of whether or not they're prepared to give him what he wants. Now, he wants a longer-term deal. They may not be prepared to give him three years, but you know that if he puts himself out there, he'll get a three-year deal on a lot more money potentially than if he stays. So that would be the question.
It wouldn't be them wanting him to go in any way. They'd be wanting to keep him because he's been such a magnificent player and leader for them. But it might get down to the length of contract. It's a little bit like, yeah, Majic, Brodie Majic. Collingwood didn't want Majic to go, but they couldn't keep him because of the contractual. That's true.
But with respect, Brodie Majic ain't Lockie Neal.
No, but I'm just talking about the reasons as to why a player may leave.
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Chapter 8: How do the hosts assess the overall performance of the Collingwood team?
If you put one of the Ashcrofts in there more times, so you get both the Ashcrofts in there and you give them another, by the end of this year, another pre-season into next year, is it not possible that Levi and Will are capable of covering somebody like a Lockie Neal and what he was able to produce?
Put Will aside. You know what I think about Will. Will's extraordinary. And Levi might get there. But he's a mile off having the impact that Lockie Neal had on the weekend. Not many players can have the impact. If you go back and watch that game, he just drove that game. He just took it out of Gold Coast. Levi Ashcroft ain't doing that.
He might do it in five years. Oh, no, I think he'll be able to do it.
Levi Ashcroft's going to be able to rip a game to shreds like Lockie Neal did.
Well, we can't say that he can't in five years' time. He may not ever reach the same level that Lachie Neal is at, but when you add him to the other Ashcroft, to the other midfielders that they've got there, Dunkley's still there, Barry there, around about the mark.
Bailey might go.
They've got Fletcher maybe playing him more time. They lose Bailey and Neal. Yeah, no, all those things will be thrown into the conversation. But I think we'll ask the coach this morning. I don't know how honest he'll be about it, but he's always pretty honest when he steps up to the microphone.
Honest fakes. He'll answer us. Craig McRae, he made no bones about the fact that – I want you to ask him where you think Collingwood are at.
How active are you to improve your lists at the end of the season? I'm impatient. I'm impatient to get the right people in our environment and also try to get our list to a state where we can compete. That's exactly what our intentions are and we'll work to whatever that looks like.
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