THE GREAT FAN FRAUD by George on the Outer

[Demonland 64,641]

 Turn up to Etihad we were told.  It’s our home away from home ...

Our home away from home!

And, yes the fans did exactly that ... 27K at a home game at Etihad.

Unheard of.

Buy your memberships.  Let’s break the record ...

37,500 Members ... 

Unheard of.

The players and coaches turning up to match the enthusiasm exhibited by the fans ...

Unheard of.

Once again the opportunity to truly cement the future of the club, in both the short and the long term was thrown away by a half interested team and a simply incompetent coaching group.

The excuse of a six day break will be trotted out, tired players etc.  But if that was the case, then the solitary change from the winning side of last week was simply inadequate.

Eleven of players who took to the field had less than 15 touches for the game.  If the management of the workloads of the playing group was truly being carried out, then the tired and lethargic performance against the Saints would simply not have happened.

Worse was that the players in this group included Jack Watts, Jeff Garlett, Dean Kent, Heritier Lumumba, Neville Jetta and Sam Frost.  These are not the young inclusions in the side but supposedly hardened experienced players. 

And we had a wealth of available inclusions to fill at least some of those spots. 

Then to cap it off the coaching group persisted with the simply ludicrous zone defence system.  Riewoldt, Bruce and Membery had a field day with uncontested marks and more of the same inside our defensive 50m zone.

To play a zone defence, you need players who can switch at the drop of a hat from one opponent to another.  With legs which looked like lead weights we saw time and time again defenders simply not on their man or not getting to the contest.

OK so it didn’t work, but when it isn’t working  then you change something.  Like going man-on-man.  No that wasn’t done.  So why not put an extra man in defence.  No that wasn’t done either until the third quarter when St.Kilda piled on eight goals!  And then it was poor Jayden Hunt who got dropped back instead of one of our talls. 

So we saw Reiwoldt marking against Jetta, Bruce over Hunt, Membery over no one at all!

Inside their 50, not one St.Kilda mark for the whole game was contested!

That single quarter simply blew the game away but the alarm bells should have been ringing long before that as the Saints had piled on six goals in the second as well with us persisting with the zone. 

There were a few shining lights for the Demons.  Jesse Hogan overcame his yips from last week and nailed 7 goals.  Without his efforts the result would have been horrible. Eight marks, five of which were contested gave the team a genuine target up forward. 

Big Max managed 38 hitouts but he too wasn’t able to reach the standards that he set last week.  Hickey and the St.Kilda mids simply negated everything that he worked at achieving.

Jack Viney continued his fine form with another 30 disposals and was abley assisted by Nathan Jones with 31. Trouble was the next best mids in Tyson and Vince could only manage numbers in the low 20’s.

Once again the fans were cheated.  Once again they put in, and saw hope and aspiration simply squandered with incompetence.  It simply isn’t good enough and now any hope of exceeding the 40K target for membership has been lost. 

Do you think any self-respecting fan will turn up to watch the rematch against the Saints at Etihad in July? 

No, the chance has been blown, well and truly.

Melbourne 5.3.33 8.3.51 11.5.71 15.6.96

St Kilda 3.4.22 9.9.63 17.11.113 20.15.135

Goals

Melbourne Hogan 7 Frost Watts 2 Bugg  Jones, Kent Tyson

St Kilda Membrey 5 Bruce Riewoldt 3 Acres Sinclair 2 Armitage Dunstan Gresham Newnes Weller

Best

Melbourne Hogan, Viney, Jones, Vince

St Kilda Riewoldt Acres Steven Membrey Sinclair Armitage

Changes

Melbourne Nil

St Kilda Nil

Injuries

Melbourne Harmes (corked thigh) Salem (concussion)

St Kilda Ross (shoulder) Webster (thumb)

Reports

Melbourne Nil

St Kilda Nil

Umpires Brown, Meredith, Findlay

Official crowd 27,260 at Etihad Stadium