SUNDAY STROLL AS DEES HAVE FUN AGAINST THE SUNS

[Demonland 72,216]

SUNDAY STROLL AS DEES HAVE FUN AGAINST THE SUNS by Scoop Junior

An Aaron Davey contested mark in the goal square at the Eastern end of the Gabba pretty much summed up this game. It's not very often you'd see Davey out-body his opponent with ease and stroll in for an easy goal … well, unless you were playing the Gold Coast Suns. Hard to imagine Andrew Carrazzo or Clinton Jones being brushed aside so easily.

 

That one moment encapsulated the difference between the teams. Gold Coast was out of its depth in the strength department (understandably so given the youth and inexperience in its side) and was no match physically for a Melbourne team that can hardly be labelled as one of the competition's most physically developed teams.

 

This was known to all pre-match, and without the strong bodied and experienced Ablett and Brown, the difference in physicality between the sides was further increased. As a result, there was almost an air of inevitability about the result, with the major interest being in how Melbourne would respond after a poor performance against the Lions and how large the final margin would be.

 

With this in mind, combined with the small crowd and the humid conditions, as I took my seat at the Gabba I felt as though I was attending a pre-season practice match rather than a home-and-away game. The tension and excitement in the atmosphere that is usually present just wasn't there this time.

 

In the end, while a 15-goal victory was a great result, Melbourne supporters wouldn't have been too excited about the manner of the win.

 

At certain stages of games this year, the Demons have looked all at sea from a defensive structure point of view (by this I mean "whole ground" defence rather than just the backline) and have been opened up and scored heavily against in patches. The first quarter against the Lions and the third against the Hawks are prime examples of this.

 

And again this weekend there were certain periods of the game where Gold Coast too easily moved the ball from defence to attack and scored without enough pressure being applied and with what appeared to be some holes in Melbourne's defensive structure. The third quarter in particular was extremely poor, with the Suns managing to pile on four consecutive goals. If the young Suns can kick four in a row against us, what does that mean when we play sides that can actually compete physically at AFL level?

 

Last year Melbourne generally became a far more difficult side to score against than it had been in 2008 and 2009 and this was a major reason for its improvement. At the moment, the Dees' "team defence" appears to be well down on last year and it is something they need to get right as they move onto more difficult assignments than the Suns and Lions.

 

The other reason why Melbourne fans felt satisfied but not thrilled after Sunday's game is that you simply cannot draw any conclusions from the game, as the team did not play against genuine AFL opposition. I'm not having a go at the Suns as they performed okay given their incredibly young side and they will be a force in the years to come. But right at the moment they cannot maintain a consistent level of AFL intensity and pressure. They made numerous errors when in possession, missed tackles, gave away cheap easy goals and allowed the Demons far too much space at times. It was a real life example of men-against-the-boys with the Gold Coast players simply unable to compete physically for long enough.

 

Anyway, that's probably enough for the negatives after a 90 point win!

 

There were at least some positives. Guy McKenna said that if the game was stopped early in the last term the final margin would have only been 37 points. This is true. But if the game was stopped at half time the margin would have been 50 points. Or why not take it to the next level and say if the game was stopped after 5 minutes Gold Coast would've won. This just highlights the ridiculous spin by McKenna.

 

While the 90-point margin was undoubtedly flattering for the Dees, over the course of the four quarters Melbourne was clearly superior and at least a 10-goal better side. Make no mistake, the second and fourth quarters were absolute domination by Melbourne (13 goals to 2 in this period) and Gold Coast was comprehensively outplayed for three quarters of the match.

 

Another positive was that we at least showed some ruthlessness in burying the Suns in the final quarter. It would've been easy to accept a comfortable eight goal win and put the legs up. But the players kept running and spreading at the end and it was good to see them really putting a side away rather than taking the foot off the pedal as has been the case so often in the past.

 

The midfield dominated for most of the day. Mark Jamar was again strong in the ruck and gave the midfielders first use for much of the day. Brent Moloney bounced back from a difficult week to take full control of the first half, picking up possessions at will, while Colin Sylvia carried on from Beamer's first half work with a prominent second half display. Rohan Bail continued his solid season with another impressive showing, while Jack Trengove played his best game for the year after a couple of quiet weeks in Rounds 2 and 3.

 

There wasn't as much work for the backline this week, though Jack Grimes did provide some good rebound and was more effective with his disposal than he has been this season.

 

Up forward, Liam Jurrah again showed glimpses of brilliance but despite threatening to kick a bag never really imposed himself on the contest. Jamie Bennell I thought was handy, his speed and spread important at times across half forward and Aussie was lively as well with two goals and some clever work inside 50.

 

The most baffling call of the game in my opinion though was the decision to use Jack Watts as the substitute. I just cannot work it out. Here was a game where we were always going to rack up a high numbers of inside 50s and be up against a young, inexperienced defence. To me, that's the perfect game to let Watts run around inside 50 and try to get some confidence. Obviously the footy department saw it differently and chose instead to give him one quarter of footy.

 

I just don't see how this helps his development. I would rather him play a full game at full forward for Casey than sit on the bench for three quarters at senior level. Bails spoke after the game in relation to Watts that he thought he could provide a spark up forward when subbed on. So the footy department thought we'd need a spark at three quarter time to beat the Suns? Somehow I don't think so.

 

Perhaps it was more of a decision along the lines of "if you don't perform, you're not in the starting 21". While this may be understandable, the principle of only getting games on merit hasn't been applied throughout Watts' development so far. So why would it be starting now all of a sudden? It was a strange decision and I still can't quite understand it.

 

So we go into the bye at 2-1-1 sitting seventh on the ladder. Looks pretty good on paper. But reality is a different thing and if Melbourne are to improve on last season they would want to start delivering a more consistent performance across four quarters. I still think Sydney was our best performance so far and we were probably only reasonable that day. The good news is that there is a large scope for improvement and hopefully that begins straight after the bye in a tough trip west to face a much-improved Eagles outfit.

Melbourne 6.2.38  11.9.75  15.14.104 23.21.159

Gold Coast Suns 3.2.20  4.5.29  8.11.59  9.15.69

Goals

Melbourne Jurrah Morton 3 Davey Dunn Green Jamar Trengove Wonaeamirri 2 Bail Bennell Jones Moloney Sylvia 

Gold Coast Suns Smith Swallow 2  Fraser Magin Matera Shaw Stanley

Best

Melbourne Moloney Trengove Sylvia Jamar Bail Grimes 

Gold Coast Suns Rischitelli Brennan Tape Bock Fraser

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Suns Coad (hamstring)

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Suns Ablett (calf) replaced by Magin in the selected side

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Suns Nil

Umpires Keating Ryan Meredith

Crowd 12,111 at Gabba

[Striker475 696]

Even with the average state of the kicking, that was a very good win in the end.

Not too much you can read into any of the Gold Coast games at this stage, unless they win one in which case the other side is officially crap.

[Jordie_tackles 354]

Are you serious? that was a terrible game and i can read plenty into it..... we had little structure, looked uninterested all day, and bombed it long to a tall who is larger than a GC kid.... cant play this way and expect to beat any real team

[Mallee Bull 97]

1. Concerned about the fact that once again we were slow to start. Why does this seem to be something that the FD and players cannot address?

2. Moloney's first half was superb.

3. Our forward line is very efficient when the ball is in there.

4. Our back line is looking ordinary.

5. That third quarter was disgraceful.

6. winning by 90 points was only due to the 18 year old suns fatiguing, allowing us to romp away with 8 goals in the final term.

7. Bail has improved out of sight!

8. Davey was good today, but gee his disposals at time are ordinary to say the least.

Still very unconvinced after 4 games of football.

[Dockett 32 1,239]

Point 7. was ok Mallee Bull.

[Nasher 33,616]

I've got to say I'm finding the reaction to this match amusing. We won by 90, but you'd think we lost by 90 with the way many are carrying on. I wasn't expecting flower bouquets, but I wasn't expecting death threats to Bailey either.

My take on the game was that there's nothing to take. We bullied a team of kids as we should've - Beamer weighed more than their entire midfield combined and took them on accordingly. No positives or negatives worth noting for me as this game didn't reflect real match conditions.

[jnrmac 20,093]

If we had not hit the post SIX times today our percentage would have been 8% higher at 124.

Also would have been a 120 point win which is about where it should have been,.

[bing181 9,241]

that was a terrible game

I often think, when I come to this board, "it can't be worse than last time i visited". But I'm wrong. No matter what we do, no matter how much we win by, no matter how many positives we take out of a match, there will always be someone with pointless hyperbole like this.

We beat them by more than the Dogs did ... and they were at home. A couple less posters and we would have come close to beating them by as much as Carlton did. But no, there's still someone here trashing the side completely.

Here, try these select quotes:

"fans disapointed with that 3rd quarter need to realise its part of the game"

"Every AFL club have talented and quality players. It's insane to expect the better team to always be better than who they're playing. Each team will have their spells of dominance in a game."

"Its impossible to win every quarter in the season. The lapses are just normal ebbs and flows."

No, not reasonable Melbourne fans discussing our game against GC. Reasonable Collingwood fans discussing theirs against Richmond ... where they were well and truly out-played for a whole quarter. No-one trashing the club, no-one calling for heads to roll, no-one calling the FD and coaches idiots ... just a realistic understanding that even if you're the best team in the comp playing one of the worst, it's never going to be all one-way traffic.

FFS.

[stranga 328]

Are you serious? that was a terrible game and i can read plenty into it..... we had little structure, looked uninterested all day, and bombed it long to a tall who is larger than a GC kid.... cant play this way and expect to beat any real team

This.

Our skills were generally horrible and we would have been punished by a real team. Backline is terrible, what has happened to the real Grimes?

The fact that they nearly outscored us in that third quarter was embarrassing.

[dees_rule_4eva 22]

I often think, when I come to this board, "it can't be worse than last time i visited". But I'm wrong. No matter what we do, no matter how much we win by, no matter how many positives we take out of a match, there will always be someone with pointless hyperbole like this.

We beat them by more than the Dogs did ... and they were at home. A couple less posters and we would have come close to beating them by as much as Carlton did. But no, there's still someone here trashing the side completely.

Here, try these select quotes:

"fans disapointed with that 3rd quarter need to realise its part of the game"

"Every AFL club have talented and quality players. It's insane to expect the better team to always be better than who they're playing. Each team will have their spells of dominance in a game."

"Its impossible to win every quarter in the season. The lapses are just normal ebbs and flows."

No, not reasonable Melbourne fans discussing our game against GC. Reasonable Collingwood fans discussing theirs against Richmond ... where they were well and truly out-played for a whole quarter. No-one trashing the club, no-one calling for heads to roll, no-one calling the FD and coaches idiots ... just a realistic understanding that even if you're the best team in the comp playing one of the worst, it's never going to be all one-way traffic.

FFS.

Good post. Agree with all of that.

It was a solid enough win with a disappointing lapse in the third quarter. Had we not hit the post so many times, the margin would have been far greater. I was pleased enough.

Thought Moloney was super all day - will be leading the Brownlow at the moment. Sylvia's second half was brilliant and I liked Nathan Jones' game. His kicking has improved out of sight.

I was disappointed to see Watts as the sub. Give the kid a break. Credit to him for coming in the last quarter and doing some nice things (that horrific left kick aside). I hope he plays at Casey during the bye and gets some real momentum for the WCE game.

We now have a really good chance to cement a spot in the top 8. West Coast, while playing well at the moment, are a very beatable side as are Adelaide at the G. Win those two and we will set ourselves up nicely.

[Deestroy All 14,266]

I've got to say I'm finding the reaction to this match amusing. We won by 90, but you'd think we lost by 90 with the way many are carrying on. I wasn't expecting flower bouquets, but I wasn't expecting death threats to Bailey either.

My take on the game was that there's nothing to take. We bullied a team of kids as we should've - Beamer weighed more than their entire midfield combined and took them on accordingly. No positives or negatives worth noting for me as this game didn't reflect real match conditions.

I have to disagree. I can take negatives and positives out of this game as much as any other.

I've seen enough of this club to not have been surprised to see as fumble and stumble to a 3 goal win.

But we did step up and bully them as you say. We did get that percentage that we needed by non stop attack, opposition noted, but it was a relief to see us do that, and gives hope that we can put away other struggling teams when we come across them.

Cruising to the bye with a 40 point win would've been a nothing result for me.

On the negative side, we can't even play 4 quarters against the noobs. Had we played 4 quarters of high pressure footy we would've won by close to 200.

[Arrow 1,257]

Good post. Agree with all of that.

It was a solid enough win with a disappointing lapse in the third quarter. Had we not hit the post so many times, the margin would have been far greater. I was pleased enough.

Thought Moloney was super all day - will be leading the Brownlow at the moment. Sylvia's second half was brilliant and I liked Nathan Jones' game. His kicking has improved out of sight.

I was disappointed to see Watts as the sub. Give the kid a break. Credit to him for coming in the last quarter and doing some nice things (that horrific left kick aside). I hope he plays at Casey during the bye and gets some real momentum for the WCE game.

We now have a really good chance to cement a spot in the top 8. West Coast, while playing well at the moment, are a very beatable side as are Adelaide at the G. Win those two and we will set ourselves up nicely.

Sadly, and what I think will cause us to lose to West Coast is that Casey also have the bye.

[Guest Rojik of the Arctic]

On the negative side, we can't even play 4 quarters against the noobs. Had we played 4 quarters of high pressure footy we would've won by close to 200.

We are the little girl with the little curl, aren't we. We look bloody magnificent when we are switched on but very meh when we are not. We really don't have that middle ground very often.

It's pretty frustrating to watch but then again it's better than being meh all of the time as we were until recently.

[dees_rule_4eva 22]

Sadly, and what I think will cause us to lose to West Coast is that Casey also have the bye.

Ah thats a shame. I still think we'll beat the Eagles.

[rpfc 28,469]

I've got to say I'm finding the reaction to this match amusing. We won by 90, but you'd think we lost by 90 with the way many are carrying on. I wasn't expecting flower bouquets, but I wasn't expecting death threats to Bailey either.

My take on the game was that there's nothing to take. We bullied a team of kids as we should've - Beamer weighed more than their entire midfield combined and took them on accordingly. No positives or negatives worth noting for me as this game didn't reflect real match conditions.

Yeah, I know!

It's been good for a laugh this reaction but nothing more.

There was not much at all to take out of this game, other than we did what we should have done (which probably is something to take away, because we rarely do that...).

It was just a professional job - nothing great, nothing ordinary.

[Jaded No More 68,940]

Yeah, I know!

It's been good for a laugh this reaction but nothing more.

There was not much at all to take out of this game, other than we did what we should have done (which probably is something to take away, because we rarely do that...).

It was just a professional job - nothing great, nothing ordinary.

Yep and good teams get the job done.

We've been ordinary and are sitting 7th, and are out of the top 5 by percentage.

We played two good teams and two terrible teams and have only lost 1 game.

Give me those sorts of results every month of the season and I'll be happy.

Better to be stuck in third and win, than be in first and still lose.

[Grandson of a gun 276]

Here's hoping for a fast ruthless start from the boys and a 30 point lead at quarter time....(and of course a 10 goal win at the end- although if that happened some on here would still say it wasn't good enough and they should win by 200).

I got my quote about the start a bit wrong but man was i spot on about the end....

It is ridiculous what some people on here post and whinge about.

...Nothing to take out of it...Terrible win....Not good enough....

FFS

The Bulldogs and Carlton are two teams people expect to be top 6. We played better against the Suns than the bulldogs and but for 6 posters were close to the blues margin. And we played them away which the Dogs didn't. People want to say on one hand that so we should because they were kids but then again if the margin isn't 300 then we are crap because they are kids....

You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Here is a stat for ya. THAT WAS THE TWO YOUNGEST AND MOST INEXPERIENCED TEAMS in the AFL going at it.

If many around here actually had REALISTIC expectations of where we are at, what this year holds and where we are going then they may actually see that all in all that was a good performance, with no injuries and getting the required percentage boost that is important when 6 teams have a draw this year...

We are not a top 6 team. Probably not even a top 8 team. We are going to make mistakes at times. We are going to look ordinary at times. But that is what you get from a team that is still learning what is required to be the best in the AFL.

Good on the boys. Good win. The bye comes at a time that will allow us to see the early season areas we need to improve on and gives us a chance to work on them in readiness for West Coast who will be very stiff competition over there...

[biggestred 5,098]

8 posters. Boo. Mate had 30 on us. For highest score of the round.

3 posters in 67 seconds

[Sir Why You Little 37,046]

I got my quote about the start a bit wrong but man was i spot on about the end....

It is ridiculous what some people on here post and whinge about.

...Nothing to take out of it...Terrible win....Not good enough....

FFS

The Bulldogs and Carlton are two teams people expect to be top 6. We played better against the Suns than the bulldogs and but for 6 posters were close to the blues margin. And we played them away which the Dogs didn't. People want to say on one hand that so we should because they were kids but then again if the margin isn't 300 then we are crap because they are kids....

You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Here is a stat for ya. THAT WAS THE TWO YOUNGEST AND MOST INEXPERIENCED TEAMS in the AFL going at it.

If many around here actually had REALISTIC expectations of where we are at, what this year holds and where we are going then they may actually see that all in all that was a good performance, with no injuries and getting the required percentage boost that is important when 6 teams have a draw this year...

We are not a top 6 team. Probably not even a top 8 team. We are going to make mistakes at times. We are going to look ordinary at times. But that is what you get from a team that is still learning what is required to be the best in the AFL.

Good on the boys. Good win. The bye comes at a time that will allow us to see the early season areas we need to improve on and gives us a chance to work on them in readiness for West Coast who will be very stiff competition over there...

Excellent Post. I got hounded this afternoon for enjoying the game. It is Pathetic really. I am stoked for Wonna...This season is for his Dad.

[stuie 7,374]

Too many posters here going too far either way, good or bad...

We did what we should have done from a results point of view, which is pleasing, but the first 3 quarters were very messy from a clearance and game plan point of view.

While it is a concern that we didn't execute as well as we should, and there seemed to be a lack of a game plan, it was a good practice match for us and we scored some percentage to boot.

When all is said and done, we did our job to expectation, no more, no less, and the bye comes at a good time for Bailey to make some adjustments and for our team to look back and learn from the season so far.

[trout 385]

Yep and good teams get the job done.

We've been ordinary and are sitting 7th, and are out of the top 5 by percentage.

We played two good teams and two terrible teams and have only lost 1 game.

Give me those sorts of results every month of the season and I'll be happy.

Better to be stuck in third and win, than be in first and still lose.

Great post Jaded, we have been ordinary at best yet we still have 10 points from 4 matches that's not too bad at all for mine. God after listening to SEN today anybody would think we have to start rebuilding again ( Wayne Britten is an idiot ).

[stuie 7,374]

Yep and good teams get the job done.

We've been ordinary and are sitting 7th, and are out of the top 5 by percentage.

We played two good teams and two terrible teams and have only lost 1 game.

Give me those sorts of results every month of the season and I'll be happy.

Better to be stuck in third and win, than be in first and still lose.

Sitting 7th after Round 4, including other teams having byes... Get real man, doesn't mean anything at this time of year.

Unfortunately for your logic, we don't get to play the two worst teams in the AFL every month.

We weren't terrible today like some people seem to think, but we are yet to show some clear direction and unity this year.

[beelzebub 23,378]

my my...some are so easily stisfied. I hope that one Dean Bailey isnt. Here we played what amounts to a VFL grade team and theyeven managed to beat us out the gate and take the choccies for a qtr. And some of you lot are crowing like weve done it..weve made thegrade.. weve done nothing.. Yep we knocked some kids around but in all honesty you ought to be giving that lot a 100 pt start each game such is their disappointing standard and yet they manage to string 3 goals together ...no one else has suffered that yet. They actually led at the start...such is our dismal opening ability.

We struggle to hitthe side of a barn with our kicking so attrocisious is it at times you have to wonder whether we're AFL or schoolies.

Imhappy we won. Im happy to take the four points But im not really happy about much more from that game. Some of our defensive pressure leaked like a sieve. Some of our kickins were comical...might as well walk up and hand the ball to the opponents ffs !!

Any other team would have punished our hundred of errors but for the inexperience of the Suns we were made to look OK...not good...but OK

Dont bother with any feeble humidity excuses... there were no ice vests or cool rooms it was just a bit hot and balmy...same for both sides and weve played in far worse. They tired first and we pounced.

In a fashion we were junk time kings.

There was nothing really to get excited about from that game.

We need to play far far better, with more skill and aplomb if were to be taken seriously as finalists

I give a C+

Have ability , need more application and can do far better ( and will need to )

[Hannabal 4]

Here, try these select quotes:

"fans disapointed with that 3rd quarter need to realise its part of the game"

"Every AFL club have talented and quality players. It's insane to expect the better team to always be better than who they're playing. Each team will have their spells of dominance in a game."

"Its impossible to win every quarter in the season. The lapses are just normal ebbs and flows."

No, not reasonable Melbourne fans discussing our game against GC. Reasonable Collingwood fans discussing theirs against Richmond ...

It's amazing how a FLAG will temper emotions.

I can't complain about a 15 goal win. I'm happy to take the 4 points, have some of our youth gain confidence and move on.

[pm24 451]

Watched the whole game on TV and I must admit, I also came away disappointed. Yes we should have won by the margin we did, but had our disposal and intensity been better we should have won by over 100. 6 posters also didn't help, but in the third quarter there were a number of times where we were rebounding out of the back 50 along the wing, only to miss targets and turn the ball over. These missed targets were not small misses either.

One breakaway saw Morton kick it about 1 metre over the head of the a leading dunn. This was not the only time this happened.

To me, based on the evidence we have seen to date, it actually looks as though this team has gone backwards since last season. Disposal has been inconsistent. Defensive pressure, particularly around the stoppages has been inadequate, and I can understand why Bailey has been getting so frustrated about the lack of maintained effort over 4 quarters.

Decision making seems to be a real issue at the moment. Why Dunn didn't fire away at goal from 50 in the 3rd Quarter, instead choosing to kick poorly to a contest in the forward pocket, is beyond me. He kicked 2 goals from almost that exact spot last year against brisbane to help win us the game. The same for Morton who chose to kick short to a contest rather than having a shot for goal when 45-50 out. Have they lost confidence?? I would prefer it if they would back themselves and have a shot on goal rathe than kicking a guaranteed shot on goal for the chance of closer one if we win the contested possession.

Despite this it was great to see Morton playing a full game and doing well, Beamer leading from the front, Green get his hands on it a bit more around the goals, and Bennell using his pace well.

However, despite all this I came away disappointed with the teams effort and fully believe that West Coast will and should be favourites to win at Pattersons Stadium in 2 weeks time.