DRIFTING ALONG

[Demonland 65,639]

by Demon Head

The Demons are a strange lot.

One week they travel out West to take on Fremantle and they start like a house on fire, keeping the Dockers goalless until 10 minutes into the second quarter, at which time they capitulate and finish up with their tails between their legs after suffering another almighty towelling.

The next week, they start where they left off the week before and produce more rubbish but then, just as they seem to be drifting along on the way to a big loss, they manage to lift and, play with some competitive spirit. They still drift along but the size of the loss is contained to manageable proportions.

That’s exactly what happened to Melbourne in Sunday's game at the MCG against North Melbourne, a game that it lost by 28 points after conceding seven goals to one in the first twenty minutes. At that time, the game was virtually all over and any interest in proceedings completely dissipated.

The game deserved to be attended by a paltry crowd of 21,330 on a weekend when 86,179 were attracted to the G to witness a top of the ladder four quarter contest on Friday night between Geelong and Hawthorn and 64,785 came to the same venue on Saturday to see the Bombers fly up Mick Malthouse's nose with a brilliant seven goal victory over the Magpies.

Sunday afternoon's affair was dull and colourless and only sparked to life on a couple of occasions. Once, when field umpire McLaren resorted to histrionics with his frivolous double report of Lynden Dunn after Kangaroo thespian Brent Harvey hammed his way through the performance of his life. Another, when an otherwise inept and stumbling Michael Newton tried to add goal of the year to his mark of the year award from last year.

In between, the Demons worked hard to rally after trailing by over six goals early in the game to get to within 19 points before an errant handball from Simon Buckley to Lindsay Thomas sealed the whole shebang and lifted North from 10th position into fifth place on the AFL ladder.

Considering that the Roos scored only five goals in the final term – and these came only through unforced errors and turnovers from Melbourne and gifts from the umpires, the Demons can probably say they did well to achieve that result. It was certainly better than their display against the same opposition earlier this year when North Melbourne won by 48 points (and it would have been double that if they only kicked straight).

Unfortunately, most of the game was bilge. Simon Buckley underlined his improvement, James McDonald and Shane Valenti worked hard but there was too much second rate stuff from most of the team for my liking. Nathan Jones and Cameron Bruce let themselves down with poor disposal, a few others with poor decision-making. Paul Johnson was good at times, Stef Martin and Cale Morton were promising and Chris Johnson continues to show some form. Brad Miller snared the first three six-pointers (all in the first half) but was well covered after that and Aaron Davey was handy at times.

All in all, a disappointing day in an ordinary year for the Melbourne Football Club.

Melbourne 1.3.9 3.4.22 6.8.44 10.10.70

North Melbourne 7.3.45 9.6.60 11.9.75 14.14.98

Goals

Melbourne Miller 3 Newton 2 Davey P Johnson Morton Sylvia Valenti

North Melbourne Thomas 5 Jones 4 Harvey 2 Campbell Hale Petrie

Best

Melbourne Buckley Jones Valenti Davey McDonald P. Johnson

North Melbourne Harvey Hale Jones Thomas Gibson Simpson Rawlings

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Changes

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Reports Dunn (Melbourne) for striking Harvey (North Melbourne) in the third quarter by umpire McLaren

Dunn (Melbourne) for striking Harvey (North Melbourne) in the third quarter by umpire McLaren

Umpires McLaren Fila Hendrie

Official crowd 21,330 at the MCG