THE SLOW FIX

Posted June 30, 200817 yr

by Whispering Jack

For the first time since the start of the 2008 season, TAB Sportsbet has a team other than Melbourne installed as favourite for the wooden spoon.

This would, in itself, normally be unremarkable but for the fact that the memory of the Demons' horrific start to the season sits freshly at the forefront of our minds. They have come a long way from the dark place where they opened proceedings losing in successive weeks by an aggregate of 199 points to end up three months later beating a top four aspirant – albeit by a single point in a game that never quite hit any high spots in terms of playing standards.

Of course, it's not really the end but merely the beginning of a long journey embarked upon by a young side whose number counts not a single member who played at this elite level in the 20th century. The team's four most senior players – Brad Green, Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan and Cameron Bruce were all drafted in 1999 AFL National Draft and all made their debut in Melbourne's grand final year of 2000. Of the four, only Green managed to get a taste of playing in the season's ultimate contest and even that was a brief taste. Today, these players are at the forefront of a new era for the Melbourne Football Club.

During the week before the Brisbane game at the MCG, the club announced a new leadership group, then promptly dropped experienced ruck stalwart Jeff White to Sandringham and omitted another 30 plus year old in James McDonald due to injury. David Neitz, Adem Yze, Russell Robertson, Nathan Carroll and Ben Holland were others who were there at the start of the year but missing from the team along with the injured Jared Rivers and Brent Moloney. In ringing in these latest changes, coach Dean Bailey warned supporters not to expect "a quick fix."

Welcome to the slow fix then!

The majority of the team that played against the Brisbane Lions came well within the guidelines established by Bailey before the season when he proclaimed that he was in the business of building a team with the emphasis on players 23 years of age and less.

And so the football world saw youth pitted against a Leigh Matthews coached Brisbane Lions who were aiming for a top four slot and immediately pronounced Melbourne dead and buried for the week at least.

However, as was the case with Mark Twain, the news of the Demons' demise was greatly exaggerated. It was Melbourne that came out with a sense of purpose and attacked the ball with aggression and a single-minded desire to win and suddenly, the game was not going according to script. Melbourne held firm to half time, saw off a few challenges in the third term and even when things looked grim as Brisbane twice stormed to a lead late in the game, they were able to muster up enough inner strength to fight back and regain the lead.

The win was a real team effort but veterans like Green and Wheatley had an enormous say in the result as did the often maligned Brad Miller who demonstrated why the club’s faith and was well placed when he was included in the leadership group earlier this season. His great pack mark and goal late in the game gave his team the lead and the win but his three first quarter goals provided the spark to start the run to victory. There were several memorable moments and inspirational efforts like Paul Johnson's running down of Justin Sherman, Aussie's goal sense, Chris Johnson's coming of age, Lynden Dunn's tagging of Simon Black, Colin Sylvia rising to dangerous up forward and Colin Garland's dashes out of defence. Even Stefan Martin's subdued debut was the stuff of fairy tales. Two years ago he decided to give up a budding career as an potential international basketballer to have a kick with his mates at Old Haileybury Under 19's. Now, he's a fully fledged AFL footballer and has a VCE ENTER score of 99.75 which is only slightly lower than his winning percentage of AFL games played.

Much was said after the game of Brisbane needlessly conceding free kicks through an interchange error and because its physio was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the point that wasn’t but all that ignores the fact that the Lions were gifted a few simple goals courtesy of some dodgy umpiring decisions. We all know by now that it’s asking too much to expect the men who make the decisions to be consistent.

We can't expect a young team to be consistent either for that matter. There will be good days and there will be bad as the remainder of the season unfolds. Whatever the case, the future is looking brighter than it did three months ago and it will be brighter in three months and three year's time. There are five more young men waiting in the wings (three of them All Australian Under 18's playing at Sandringham where Cale Morton has averaged 30 touches a game for the past fortnight) and a good draft position looms at the end of the year.

Our time is coming - it's just that the fix is a slow one and we need to be patient in order to savour more wins like Sunday against the Brisbane Lions.

Melbourne 5.4.34 6.6.42 9.8.62 14.9.93

Brisbane Lions 2.3.15 5.9.39 7.12.54 13.14.92

Goals

Melbourne Miller Sylvia 4 Bruce Wonaeamirri 2 Bate Green

Brisbane Lions Brown 5 Bradshaw 4 Hooper 2 Patfull Rischitelli

Best

Melbourne Green Wheatley Miller C Johnson Sylvia Jones Garland

Brisbane Lions Power Brown Rischitelli Black Hooper McGrath

Injuries

Melbourne McLean (ankle)

Brisbane Lions Nil

Umpires Head Armstrong Jeffery