It was Hamish Roberts’ leadership as he moved into defence, along with Tom Crawford switching to centre-half forward and booting two goals, that steered the Demons’ ship towards success against Rupanyup, joint coach Todd Heynen said. 

The changes came after a slow start from the Demons, which had them trailing by one goal at half-time. 

“We had a very slow start, which is becoming a theme of our season,” Heynen said. 

“But we bounced back and kicked (13 goals to the Panthers’ five in the second half) to finish the game and that made the scoreboard look a bit better for us.

“(Rupanyup was) really intense in the first half. Their tackling pressure was right up and they didn’t give us easy use of the ball. 

“We had more inside 50s, but their backline pressure was a credit to them.” 

Gerard Matthews led the goalscoring for the home side, finishing with six goals and three behinds. 

“Jedi played his best game for the season. He kicked well and six goals was a really good return for him,” Heynen said. 

Crawford and Matthews were rewarded for their efforts and were included in the team’s best players, along with Heynen. 

For the Panthers, Daniel Launer and Jordan and Tyler May performed well.

“Our fitness is good and we had that over them. That showed on the scoreboard (as the Demons ran out the game),” Heynen said.