NOT SO EASY

by the Oracle

Melbourne travelled to Skilled Stadium to take on an out of form Geelong in the hope of extending its winning run to three on Saturday but soon discovered that life wasn't meant to be so easy.

The Cats had their first win of the day when Demon captain James McDonald lost the toss at the start of the game giving the home team the opportunity of kicking first to the Colac end which was aided by a strong breeze.

Bouyed by the return of no less than six of its top players and determined to celebrate the 150th birthday in better fashion than its opponent did last year, Geelong went to work on making amends for its fortnight of failures (and its ridiculously swanky anniversary guernsey) with Joel Selwood posting the first goal inside 90 seconds. That was about ten times as long as it took Garry Ablett to perform the same feat when they met at the MCG earlier in the season but the point had been made. You don't mess around with this mob and a dominant seven goals to nil opening term burst (20 inside 50's to 5) was testimony to that fact.

The Demons of last year might have caved in when down by as much as 44 points at quarter time but they showed they had some resolve and a willingness to fight when they booted the first three goals of the second term to narrow the margin to 29 points. The Cats regrouped and showed that it was possible to kick goals into the wind but they did concede a win to their visitors who outscored them by a point for the term. This was largely due to the effectiveness in the ruck of Mark Jamar, having his best season, and up and comer Stef Martin which resulted in the Demons winning more than their share of the clearances where Ricky Petterd and the skipper were doing well. Problematic however, was the fact that they simply were not nearly as effective in their disposal as their opponents, not to mention the skill errors that returned in profusion this week.

The returning Cats Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett, Andrew Mackie, Travis Varcoe, Cameron Ling and Darren Milburn were all massive contributors to their improved performance this week. Ablett finished with 40 disposals, Scarlett racked up 30 - an incredible effort from a full back - to shut out Russell Robertson, Ling restricted Brock McLean to seven possessions, Varcoe was a pest near goal and Mackie and Miburn defended tightly.

The whole of the second half was pretty much junk time with the presure well and truly off. Geelong coasted and Melbourne tried hard to prevent a blow out and thanks to the efforts of Brent Moloney, Brad Green, Petterd and Jack Grimes the final margin was restricted to a mere 46 points. A special mention should go to Jared Rivers who held Cam Mooney goaless which was assisted to some extent by the big hairy Cat's inaccuracy in front of goal.

After a week of strident debate about teams tanking it was gratifying to hear from AFL head honcho who pronounced unequivocably that the practice doesn't exist (well at least on this side of the Nullarbor). This has saved the Demons from that accusation this week and, judging by the way their next opponent, Sydney, collapsed in the final quarter yesterday against a far less superior opponent, there's a fair chance that the tanking issue will finally be laid to rest. Unless of course ...

Melbourne 0.2.2 3.2.20 7.3.45 11.5.71

Geelong 7.4.46 9.9.63 14.13.97 17.15.117

Goals

Melbourne Bate Morton 3 Jurrah 2 Dunn Moloney Petterd

Geelong Stokes 3 Ablett Hogan Mackie Varcoe 2 Byrnes Chapman Hawkins Selwood Taylor Tenace

Best

Melbourne Moloney Green Petterd Grimes Rivers Frawley

Geelong Selwood Ablett Scarlett Ling Chapman Milburn Enright

Injuries - nil

Changes

Melbourne Paul Wheatley (quad) replaced by Jamie Bennell

Geelong Tom Harley (knee) replaced by Tom Gillies

Reports - nil

Umpires Kennedy Stewart Kamolins

Crowd 21,160 at Skilled Stadium