Collingwood fans were thrown into absolute turmoil this weekend, while a season of promise for the new-look Dees failed to pass its first real test.
As Magpies coach Craig McRae often says, his club are "in the business of getting better".
What does that look like this off-season, after a heart-breaking, post-siren end to their year, and with two furniture-like club champions no longer walking the halls?
Melbourne's meteoric rise is sure to make them an attractive destination in free agency, should they go down that route. A pair of long-tenured swingmen in Tom McDonald and Jake Melksham called it quits this season, too, with the club no doubt eager to fill those voids. They also own Gold Coast's first-round draft pick, courtesy of the Christian Petracca trade, so how should they best use it?
All that and more, answered below!
Melbourne Demons
When the Gold Coast Suns sent their 2026 first-round draft pick to the Melbourne Demons as part of a suite of selections that netted them star Christian Petracca, conventional wisdom suggested that selection would be nowhere near as high as the sixth overall pick.
The Suns were supposed to continue on their premiership trajectory, with the Petracca acquisition a key driver in their quest for a maiden flag.
The wheels, however, fell off, and the Demons miraculously took the Suns' place in the top eight, under the charismatic tutelage of first-year coach, Steven King.
Although their season ended with a misfire against the humming Carlton Blues, there are plenty of positives to take from King's first campaign - positives that will only be amplified when two picks inside the top 15 or so join the club in November.
That sixth pick will likely be pushed out to eighth after Carlton and Port Adelaide presumably match bids for exemplary club-tied prospects Cody Walker and Dougie Cochrane respectively, but it should still net them a prospect in the realm of Ethan Drever - a Vic Country standout with outside polish.
Melbourne's out-of-contract list is quite clean as things stand, with multiple retirements helping that end.
Decisions will need to be made around the future of long-term servant Christian Salem, and hard-luck story Andy Moniz-Wakefield, but expect at least the former to yield a short-term extension.
The Dees have been linked to Roo Zane Duursma, Hawks Calsher Dear and Bailey Macdonald, and fringe Lion, Will McLachlan, with only time revealing whether or not any of these acquisitions go ahead.
