THE SLOW FIX

[Demonland 70,323]

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

Reports Nil

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Brisbane Lions Johnstone (hamstring) replaced by Polkinghorne

Crowd 23,278 at MCG

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:

Q1 MELBOURNE v BRISBANE LIONS

Q2 MELBOURNE v BRISBANE LIONS

Q3 MELBOURNE v BRISBANE LIONS

Q4 MELBOURNE v BRISBANE LIONS

MELBOURNE V BRISBANE LIONS FINAL MINUTES

[Luck Lucy 0]

THE SLOW FIX by Whispering Jack ...

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.

Despite the gloom and doom of the start of the year there's something exciting about following a team that is showing the first signs of raw development. What a fantastic effort from Dean Bailey as a coach to come to the club and take this step.

There would be many easier ways to start a career and the conservative approach of keeping the old hands on longer might have yielded better results early but we would have remained static in terms of building a team for the future.

The coach has to take a lot of credit for the enjoyment of Sunday's victory.

[Geddy Lee 582]

99.75 No wonder his name is S. MARTin

[mclean sweep 0]

There were several memorable moments and inspirational efforts like Paul Johnson's running down of Justin Sherman ...

After just watching the replay on Foxtel, I remember a few things that i was really happy about being at the game which makes me feel great to be apart of the Melbourne Football Club. I'm sure many will agree that the following moments from sunday's game did put a smile on your face (in no particular order):

*PJ's Run from behind against Sherman - Everyone is talking about this how his commitment to this play lifted the other boys and did rightly so. Big rap on PJ as he set the standard of how every individual in the team should set themselves in every situation like that. No other ruckman in any club would have done what he did. Really good speed from this guy!

*Matthew Bates' spoil in the first quarter against J Brown - Was really impressed that Master put his body on the line to get that knock otherwise would have been a certain Brown Mark. Bate's efficiency was second to none.

*Buckley's Tackle on Black - He also did a couple other pressure tackles which was pleasing to see, one in particular setting up Miller's goal in the first quarter. This kid has some serious speed. This game proved the potential of this kid getting closer.

*Miller's last quarter Mark in the goal square - He tried all day and showed real leadership. And the most pleasing thing is about this guy he steps up when the team really needs him. His mark & goal was the matchwinner!

*Wonnaeamerri's Run in the dying seconds - This was it! What illustrated the win to us. It was like the final 100m of a long distance event which he broke from the pack and there was no looking back. Even though the goal to green didn't count, Everyone in the stadium knew that the win was safe! it was a WONAEAMAGIC experience!

Few other mentions to our younger boys in CJ who played his best game for the club, couldn't have been happier the way he played.

Dunn's performance which really set himself as a quality tagger, his ability to shut down oppositions' best player's keeps improving. He has the endurance and speed to keep up with opponent's which i think makes him a great contender for a permanent role.

Valenti's game, even though he made a few errors that will take in as a learning experience, i believe he will step in the shoes of a Boomer harvey type player as he develops.

[mikeod 21]

I just watched the game for the first time with the replay on Fox.

Our tackling was just amazing - you could hear how impressed the commentators were.

The way we tackle has improved out of site, as has our ball use which - although its not nearly perfect yet - is getting more and more efficient.

All those moments you mentioned were brilliant examples of how Melbourne's pressure throughout the game helped them win it.

[the fork 357]

I get to one or two games a year, I live outside Vic, I just happened to be at this one and was amazed from start to finish. Being on the members wing that day is something I will always remember. Standing, shouting my lungs out with my fists in the air watching the now famous PJ chase. The deafening ending to this match was dream like, such a majestic end to our effort. Another player I believe deserves a mention here is Dunn. He has claimed some massive scalps of late.

I got down on the boundary at the end of the game, Dunn, Martin (I have high hopes for Stef) and CJ all really pumped. I looked CJ in the eyes and told him that that was his best game yet. He listened, smiled and I swore he grew a foot higher. It's the spark in our new guys and their growing confidence that'll see us through. Go you Demons!!

[Timmuns 16]

*Miller's last quarter Mark in the goal square - He tried all day and showed real leadership. And the most pleasing thing is about this guy he steps up when the team really needs him. His mark & goal was the matchwinner!

I took the mark in the 3rd level stands - came straight to me lol!!! Awesome moment

[demonfanjezza 1]

The whole game where the boys stood up for 4 quarters

[tooly 0]

Trying to sing the song words

[mclean sweep 0]

I took the mark in the 3rd level stands - came straight to me lol!!! Awesome moment

Man that's awesome!

I would've ran off with that ball. Put it in framed box and cherrish the moment

[Rogue 585]

I get to one or two games a year, I live outside Vic, I just happened to be at this one and was amazed from start to finish.

Nice one!

Unfortunately I was on the opposite wing (and the play always seems to be on the members side of the ground).

[Kiss of Death 733]

I was probably 8 metres from the mark... pure elation from the faithful.

[deestroy08 0]

Just watched the replay and the expression of Jim Stynes' face in the last few minutes of the game is actually priceless. The fact that he was sitting amongst the supporters instead of in some special corporate chairman's box is one thing, but to see him there standing up and barracking for his club the way he did is really special.

[Dannyz 2,555]

The courage shown by Brock

Typifies the closeness the current group have. I feel confident in saying every player out there on Sunday play for the jumper.

[Cards13 9,117]

Finally was able to watch the full game over here, my thoughts:

* Wona's goal at the 12 min mark of the 1st was set up by a Bruce sheperd. He is not known for his body work, the comentators were incredulous.

* 12 min 1st Wona running back with the flight into a contested situation to spoil a Lions mark.

* Dees constant pressure, Lions had so little time to dispose thus turning it over.

* Our skills are still terrible a lot of the time. When you win these things can be glossed over but we still turn the ball over way to often.

* 9 mins to go in 1st, as raised in the intial post, Baters spoil stopping an easy Brown mark and goal.

* 15 mins into 3rd, Jamar ran Sheman down!!

* Greens constant chops outs.

* Anyone who says Bruce is a rubbish player, or turns the ball over to much, or needs to be dropped does not really watch the game or how he plays. The more I watch him the better he is. His work rate is huge! He will be in the back pocket one min, then next he is snapping the ball on goal. His last qtr was excellent.

* At the end of the coverage I saw, the [censored] who was abusing the players as they came of the ground early in the season that had everyones knickers in a knot, was standing on his chair shotung and singing the praises.

* Chris Connolly sitting on the bench shouting out instructions... Connolls addressing the players in the centre square after the win, not Bails.

Really good sign of how confident Bails is about being the head honcho, Connolls knowing his place and the off field team working really well together.