LIFE SUX

[Demonland 73,139]

LIFE SUX by The Oracle

What do we make of yesterday's debacle?

A team that is seemingly in control of a game for the best part of three quarters gets overrun in the last and is beaten by a goal kicked in the last five seconds.

What do you do?

You put it in the category of an experience that must partly be forgotten and partly be remembered. Forget that which occurred which was beyond your control and remember the things you did that you did wrong and you can do better next time and the time after that.

Melbourne was struck down in the end because its young group panicked under pressure in the late stages of the game while Hawthorn rode its luck to the hilt with two snapped goals from difficult angles and a mark to Jarryd Roughead after what should have been adjudged a free kick to Demon defender Stefan Martin when the Hawk forward put his hands in his back in the last marking duel of the day. You can't control a tunnel ball flick through the back of a pack (that might have caught the umpire's attention) or a fluky bounce of the ball through the goals and you can't change the mind of the umpire when a mark has been paid. Or that the Hawks had the majority of the 8,000 strong crowd behind them when the going got tough. Life sux but you get on with it.

You forget about the missed opportunities, the fact that you would have been playing in a high profile game in front of your supporters at Telstra Dome next week instead of some far flung corner of the country. You forget the additional prestige of playing in a NAB Cup quarter final against Carlton, the excitement, the extra publicity and media exposure, the membership sales and the attraction that such a scenario might have for the potential major sponsor that you don't have and need so badly.

What you remember is where you failed to lay a tackle properly, positioned yourself poorly, kicked to the wrong option, left your opponent for that split second and let your team down with poor disposal. And you remember the positives as well because, after all, yesterday was simply the first step in a long journey and it's important to remember that there are tougher and more important battles to be fought before the campaign of 2009 is over. Remember the pain and ensure that next time, it's your opponent and not you who comes out of the game screaming that "life sux".

The positives were that Melbourne was more than just competitive for the bulk of a game even allowing for the fact that the Hawks were missing several of their stars from their premiership side of last year. The Demons were also missing a number of automatic senior selections and were badly hit by injuries early in the game to their skipper James McDonald and in-form forward Austin Wonaeamirri who kicked four goals last week in an intra-club game and would have been a handy crumbing player in an area of the ground where the Hawks were in control, sweeping the ball out of defence time and time again when the ball hit the ground. Forget Roughy's five goals of which four were kicked from the nether regions, it was Melbourne's failure to convert clear scoring opportunities into goals that cost it the game in the end. Those wasted chances in front of goal came back to haunt them in the end. Dean Bailey, who I thought coached well for the most part, now knows that he needs to make some changes to the forward set up and he has very little time available to get it right but a nine goal haul from the opportunities presented in this game was inadequate and inexcusable.

Melbourne tackled harder and was more desperate at the contest for the first three quarters, something that has been missing in the team's makeup for the best part of two years. Put that down as a positive – particularly if it can be kept up throughout the season.

A clear positive was the form of rookie ruckman Jake Spencer who stamped his influence on the game immediately. Slightly ungainly, he nevertheless used his 203cm to advantage, actually palmed the ball to his rovers, marked strongly and played with aggression. It was no co-incidence that Hawthorn took control of the game after Spencer went off the ground for a few minutes early in the final quarter after he was struck by a blow to the face at a ruck contest. The fact that Brock McLean (whose strong form in the middle after a long break with injury was another positive) also started running out of steam at the same time giving Hawthorn's on ballers control of the game was enough to swing things around.

Unless one of its players is placed on the long term injury list, Spencer won't be available to play in the first half of the season but, even if that transpires, it appears that the club has found itself a ruckman and that is a huge plus in an age where there are some clubs that will pay a king's ransom to secure a player of that Ilk.

One of the highlights of a dismal year in 2008 was the gradual reconstruction of Melbourne's backline. That process continued yesterday when we saw the progress of players like Colin Garland and Stefan Martin, the emergence of James Frawley and promising signs from Kyle Cheney and Jack Grimes. Matthew Whelan held it all together with a great first half but he disappeared after that, possibly because his game time was being managed after last year when his season was marred by injury. One thing is for certain in my mind, Melbourne's defence will be a huge strength with the added experience of Whelan and a fully fit Jared Rivers.

We also saw the rebirth of Ricky Petterd and even a heavy knock just before half time didn't unsettle the courageous young Demon. Matthew Bate was the best of the Demon forwards with four goals, Brad Green was solid as usual and, while not outstanding Nathan Jones showed a bit yesterday. Rohan Bail made a short appearance and will benefit from the run.

There were, of course, some forgettable performances. Michael Newton again failed to impress (he simply doesn't know how to present in front of goal and someone needs to teach him soon) and Colin Sylvia was very disappointing. His missed shot for goal early in the last quarter could have iced the game. What makes things so frustrating for supporters is that both players have trained well so far. After yesterday, both of them will need to pull something out of the box in the NAB Cup Challenge to retain their places in the team for round 1.

Much has been said of the fact that it should have been Melbourne doing the overrunning at the end of the game because of its longer preparation time but I'm not so sure of that. I put the team's fadeout down more to inexperience and some bad breaks and it could just be that some readjustments to training patterns by the conditioning staff will take care of this problem.

The main thing is that the club will learn from the experience, remember its lessons and the hurt of a narrow defeat in these circumstances so that next time we won't have to walk away from a game of football muttering that life sux.

Melbourne 0.4.5 0.5.6 1.8.8 1.8.9 (66)

Hawthorn 0.4.0 0.5.1 0.5.2 0.11.3 (69)

GOALS

Melbourne: Nine-point goal: Bartram Goals: Bate 4, Green, Bartram, Johnson, McLean

Hawthorn: Nine-point goals: - Goals: Roughead 5, Stokes 2, Williams 2, Morton, Dew

BEST

Melbourne: McLean, Spencer, Bate, Green, Frawley, Garland

Hawthorn: Roughead, Mitchell, Dew, Sewell, Young, Suckling

INJURIES

Melbourne: Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring), James McDonald (leg)

Hawthorn: Michael Osborne (knee), Chance Bateman (ankle)

REPORTS

Melbourne: Paul Johnson for striking Sam Mitchell in the first quarter

Hawthorn: Clinton Young for rough contact on Aaron Davey in the first quarter

FOOTNOTE: Another positive was the alternate strip - a big improvement on last year's ridiculous, silver bling item that has thankfully been consigned to the trash can. Also congratulations to the club for promoting the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. Let's not forget that while the theme of my article is that "life sux" we are commemorating today the end of 200 lives in the tragic bushfires. Please give generously.

[Rolling Stone 158]

Great summary - good choice of best players!

[btdemon 482]

Pretty good summary of the game I reckon.

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,294]

Great write up! I thought the majority of the responses on this site yesterday were bordering on hysteria. You`d have thought we had just lost a grand final or a round 22 match to get us in finals! Alas, it was the first hit out of the year in a NAB Cup match against the reigning premiers albeit with a few key players out! Its likely that the players will gain more out of this loss by losing a game at the death that they surely should have won, rather than just falling across the line in a crumbled heap with a lucky win.

Be grateful for the fact that we were far more competitive yesterday than we were for the majority of the past 2 seasons and rest assured there is some exciting times in the coming years. If any supporter thinks we are going to turn the corner this year and be a threat to make finals footy you are sadly mistaken. Just sit back and watch things unfold throughout the year without too much expectations and you just might enjoy yourselves as I guarantee we will begin to show signs later this year that perhaps even in 2010 we will not be far off from knocking on the finals door. Our backline is starting to take shape and we will have one of the best going around within 2 years and as Kevin Sheedy has written in his recent book ``stand your ground``, that is where premierships are won!

Bring on 2009!

[1858 285]

Nice write up, I can see that I will enjoy some quality stuff on this board.

One thing though: "Melbourne was struck down in the end because its young group panicked under pressure". I am not sure that I can go along with this in absolution. Sure some youngsters panicked a bit but at the end of the day we only needed one lousy goal in the last quarter to seal the win. Hawthorn only played one real quarter, the three quarters leading up to that they were going through the motions which allowed us to play constructive football (credit to the youngsters who gelled well). However when the game had to be won (because it actually became a game in the last quarter) not only was our forward line dismal but our midfield once again was completely over-run. The midfield looked ok for 3 quarters and then all of a sudden it was faced by a polished team actually playing footy and we were (yet again) brushed aside. Where was the leadership? Compare this to the round 9 game we played againts Hawthorn last year, there are quite a few similarities in how they pulled their collective fingers out and killed us in the middle. The youngsters were fantastic (they battled all day) and they were let down by more experienced players who did not do their job or show the way in tough times. As much as I admire Miller's work and tenacity he just doesn't finish it off with goals which after all win matches - he just isn't penetrating with his kicks - 40m out no hope. Unfortunately atm we just don't have any forwards with a geniune kick at goal (Bate was good though), which means we have a bunch of forwards but no goal kickers. As for Newton, the less said the better. As stated in the OP though it is all about learning and hopefully we have a pretty smart footy department down there.

[MO FINE 171]

Nice write up, I can see that I will enjoy some quality stuff on this board.

One thing though: "Melbourne was struck down in the end because its young group panicked under pressure". I am not sure that I can go along with this in absolution. Sure some youngsters panicked a bit but at the end of the day we only needed one lousy goal in the last quarter to seal the win. Hawthorn only played one real quarter, the three quarters leading up to that they were going through the motions which allowed us to play constructive football (credit to the youngsters who gelled well). However when the game had to be won (because it actually became a game in the last quarter) not only was our forward line dismal but our midfield once again was completely over-run. The midfield looked ok for 3 quarters and then all of a sudden it was faced by a polished team actually playing footy and we were (yet again) brushed aside. Where was the leadership? Compare this to the round 9 game we played againts Hawthorn last year, there are quite a few similarities in how they pulled their collective fingers out and killed us in the middle. The youngsters were fantastic (they battled all day) and they were let down by more experienced players who did not do their job or show the way in tough times. As much as I admire Miller's work and tenacity he just doesn't finish it off with goals which after all win matches - he just isn't penetrating with his kicks - 40m out no hope. Unfortunately atm we just don't have any forwards with a geniune kick at goal (Bate was good though), which means we have a bunch of forwards but no goal kickers. As for Newton, the less said the better. As stated in the OP though it is all about learning and hopefully we have a pretty smart footy department down there.

I reckon there was a touch of panic at the end of the game that could have been helped with a few cooler, wiser and experienced heads on the ground. Junior was a big loss.

[1858 285]

I reckon there was a touch of panic at the end of the game that could have been helped with a few cooler, wiser and experienced heads on the ground. Junior was a big loss.

No doubt there were a few instances in the last quarter where some youngsters did panick, I whole heartedly agree but I was disagreeing with the notion "Melbourne was struck down in the end because its young group panicked under pressure". We need to go a bit further than that if we want to deconstruct that pathetic last quarter - I think that is pretty rough on the youngsters to be honest. Our juniors no doubt struggled a little against class opposition and will learn greatly from this but over the period of an entire quarter we were struck down by a pathetic (senior) midfield which couldn't stop the Hawks getting the ball or put pressure on the person delivering the ball to their forwards. Furthermore we were struck down by forwards who just couldn't conjur up one single goal amid a fair few opportunities. I don't count Sylvia as a forward but he was also a culprit. The entire team was at fault, I just didn't like the sound of that sentence that's all. Remember, Hawthorn lost Bateman and Osborne and we still got taken to the cleaners in the middle.

[MO FINE 171]

I still reckon we missed Aussie and Junior more than their injured players. Aussie was really missed because we lacked crumbers and our mids rarely go forward to kick the odd goal themselves.

[1858 285]

I still reckon we missed Aussie and Junior more than their injured players. Aussie was really missed because we lacked crumbers and our mids rarely go forward to kick the odd goal themselves.

I agree both players were a huge loss. But I think sometimes there can be a tendancy to sidestep the crux of an issue and that is that we had enough opportunities to ice the game in the last quarter up forward and our midfield was completely over-run. Our younger players battled their guts out yesterday and they honestly deserved a win because it was those youngsters who gelled so well that gave us even a hope of winning in the first place. Instead of looking at what the younger players did do how about we concentrate on what the more senior players didn't do - this is where the problem layed. When Hawthorn decided that they were going to put in and actually play a quarter of football our juniors were always going to struggle. In fact the only reason we looked ok for the first 3 quarters is because Hawthorn let us. What I saw yesterday was a contingent of young players (who are still learning the game) play their guts out and be let down by more senior players who simply did not put in. I was swearing my backside off that last quarter with my heart in my mouth like any Dees supporter but once I calmed down I realised that even though I felt let down I actually felt more for the younger players who were put under pressure and made to look as not being good enough for the win - they were fantastic and they were sold out. Our senior Midfielders and forward line have a lot to answer for. I was disgusted that some people (on not just this site) suggested that we were chokers when in reality the young players who played hard were hard at it all day.

[Jarka 767]

I still reckon we missed Aussie and Junior more than their injured players. Aussie was really missed because we lacked crumbers and our mids rarely go forward to kick the odd goal themselves.

Bateman is a gun and would easily be our best midfielder, he always cuts us up

[Hulett Packard III 166]

Bateman is a gun and would easily be our best midfielder, he always cuts us up

He wasn't cutting us up before he went off though.

[True Believer 1]

""A team that is seemingly in control of a game for the best part of three quarters gets overrun in the last and is beaten by a goal kicked in the last five seconds.

Melbourne tackled harder and was more desperate at the contest for the first three quarters, something that has been missing in the team's makeup for the best part of two years. Put that down as a positive – particularly if it can be kept up throughout the season.""

Thankyou for a great report... after returning from Tassie late last night, I couldn't believe all the negative comments. Support the guys, their heart's are in the rright place and pumping red and blue.

[Gouga 570]

Agree 1858. I didn't think it was so much a case of youngsters panicking as it was senior players failing to ice the game (that is you Miller and Sylvia) like good players should.

Miller's goal kicking improved last year so was disappointed he missed a couple. Sylvia is a great kick usually but I do remember him making a meal of a few important set shots last year as well. Both players need to improve this aspect of their game immediately.

[Freddy Fuschia 747]

In terms of shooting for goal it was one of those days unfortunately. They must have had about seven shots from difficult angles that went through while we missed a few easy ones. On top of that, Roughhead could have easily been penalised for putting his hands in Martin's back when he took that last mark.

Every club has one of those days a couple of times a year when they simply can't miss and they get the lucky breaks in front of goal. The fact that we had more scoring shots and were on top for so long is cause for encouragement and we shouldn't despair at all from the game and its outcome.

[montasaurus 0]

In terms of shooting for goal it was one of those days unfortunately. They must have had about seven shots from difficult angles that went through while we missed a few easy ones. On top of that, Roughhead could have easily been penalised for putting his hands in Martin's back when he took that last mark.

Every club has one of those days a couple of times a year when they simply can't miss and they get the lucky breaks in front of goal. The fact that we had more scoring shots and were on top for so long is cause for encouragement and we shouldn't despair at all from the game and its outcome.

Freddy you also missed a couple of questionable free kicks awarded in the 1st that resulted in goals for the hawks in junk time to keep them in the game! Like you said one of those days. Lets spare a thought for the guy in todays age that dropped 50k on the dees!

[Paul Prympke 14]

Unfortunately I didn't get to see nor hear the game on Saturday. I did recieve some updates from loyal friends, but none the less I have no real comments to make on the game that are in context to the performance.

However a few items I would like to refer is:

One the best column in the wrap ups: Hawthorn Best: Roughead, Sewell, Mitchell and few of the other usual suspects. I understand the implications of no Buddy, Hodge and Ladsen (who IMO is extremely under rated) but for our team to go down by 3 points to Hawthorn and their best 3 players are 3 out of their top 5, that will happen to better sides than us this year and the margin will be alot more.

The second point I'd like to make is that Hawthorn are looking to defend a premiership, we are looking to simply improve and develop a stronger more stable side that has all the hallmarks of a well drilled unit. If Hawthorn are serious about a title defence (and I think we all know they are), I would hope that their playing list is as long as 30-odd players deep. Therefore to cover 9 (cough, cough) injuries is still well within their capability and they should be expected to beat us. If we can push them for 3qtrs, 19 minutes and 45 seconds, at a ground I don't think we've ever played on before, in front of an opposition home crowd, it bodes only all too well for us and what is to come.

The third point is that whilst everyone talks about 'it's only the NAB cup', they keep making the assumption that players don't try, not the case at all. Most of these blokes are fighting for spots 14-28 on their lists, so you can bet they are looking to impress. Coaches may trial different tactics and players in positions, and that's what loses the games, not the lack of player effort and commitment. Some key players may only play in bursts and small stints on the ground, but they don't throw games and they don't consciously withhold effort.

I think our blokes can reflect on their efforts and take something away from it, don't be content with it, but do be urged on by the improvement. Like the Oracle stated, look at the reasons why you lossed and look at the reasons why they won then set about turning the tables.

Good effort boys but it's still a way to go.

Disappointed to read about Aussie, really disappointed.

[Stigga 25]

I agree PP.

They still had:

Sewell, C. Brown. Bateman, Young, Rioli, Birchall, Morton, Roughead, Williams, Osborne, Mitchell, Gilham, Dew and Tuck.

A lot of experienced premiership players present there.

[The Great Pretender 473]

I agree PP.

They still had:

Sewell, C. Brown. Bateman, Young, Rioli, Birchall, Morton, Roughead, Williams, Osborne, Mitchell, Gilham, Dew and Tuck.

A lot of experienced premiership players present there.

Disappointed that all of the post match publicity centred on Hawthorn and almost nothing about us. After all, we were one free kick away from winning the game.

[Whispering_Jack 30,594]

Not making any excuses but Melbourne's fade out is more easily understood in the context of the injuries suffered on the day of the match. It turns out that on top of Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) and James McDonald (corkie) we also lost Matthew Whelan and Clint Bartram in the last quarter - Wonaeamirri to miss a month

Melbourne football operations manager Craig Notman "said defender Matthew Whelan (calf) would not play against the Sydney Swans in Saturday's NAB Challenge match at Visy Park. Skipper James McDonald (corked knee) and midfielder Clint Bartram (burst ear drum) are still in the mix to play against the Swans. All three sustained the injuries against the Hawks."

I was wondering what happened to Whelan in the latter part of the game after he was close to our best in the first half. It meant we basically finished the game off minus our two most experienced players and in a game where three points separated the teams at the end, an extra cool head like Whelan would have been handy.

[45HG 1,559]

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I give up, I'll be in Jamaica until 2012

[Nasher 33,617]

I've had more burst ear drums than I'd care to remember, they hurt like buggery and I have permanent hearing loss because of them. Feel for Clint there.