THE YELLOW AND BROWN JERSEY by The Oracle

For Melbourne, the game against Hawthorn was always going to be as daunting as the toughest mountain bike ride. The enemy presented the most daunting physical and mental obstacles and the Demons lacked the experience and the championship qualities of a Cadel Evans to help them overcome such adversity.

Hawthorn entered the fray coming off the rest of a bye welcoming back three of their finest players in Rioli, Lewis and Sewell - the freshness in their legs placing them all in the top six in the day's Champion Data rankings.

On the other hand, the Demons came into the game recovering from the heat and humidity of Darwin and losing two playmakers in Liam Jurrah and Tom Scully to injury.

It was a tough ask to take on the team that already wore the yellow jersey (admittedly with a touch of brown) but made doubly hard when the young Demons stumbled and fumbled their way through early turnovers to concede the game's first five goals. In those vital early stages of the match when the terrain should have been even, it was Hawthorn's efficiency against Melbourne's ineptitude that determined the shape of the game to come. The Hawks were decisive when going into attack, the Demons predictable, bombing the ball in long when a lowering of the eyes might have made things easier when it came to finding the right target. The decision making was off.

Melbourne mounted a great comeback midway through the opening quarter that started with a long goal from Lynden Dunn. Two more followed and the gap could have been narrowed further but for a costly miss followed by a turnover that resulted in the Hawks' sixth goal. While they were the better team in the first quarter, the lead of 16 points flattered them but it set the tone for the game. The Demons were chasing and the gap would not significantly narrow at any stage of the race. By half time it was already 25 points.

When these teams met earlier in the season, Hawthorn's kicking for goal had been abysmal, particularly in the first half. This time it was the opposite with Cyril Rioli's opener setting the scene and Buddy Franklin capping it off with those long raking shots that never looked like missing. Still, there was some hope for the Demons who kept plugging away and sometimes were on the verge of threatening.

All that was snuffed out in the blink of an eye halfway through the third term thanks to two monumental blunders at crucial times when Melbourne’s opportunities to attack for goals were turned into easy Hawthorn goals, following which the wheels fell off and the race was effectively over.

Firstly, the ball was heading towards the Demons’ goal square when Luke Tapscott clashed with Michael Osborne. As often happens, it was the instigator who was rewarded as a result of impetuous retaliatory action. To compound the error, Osborne won a 50 metre penalty paid when Stef Martin threw the ball back in the wrong direction. Osborne ended up close enough to Hawthorn’s goal for a score.

Soon after, the Demons were again in a position to attack when a Colin Sylvia pass was intercepted and the Hawks streamed forward to goal. The punishment that resulted from two comical errors was enough to effectively put an end to the race with the Demons losing touch and then appearing to run out of wheels.

All the while it was Hawthorn that was more full of purpose, more skilful and able to play according to a well thought out plan while all Melbourne could do was to go into damage control and even that was ineffective. The Demons had hit the wall and the leaders in the yellow and brown jerseys raced away to a comfortable win.

Brad Green toiled hard with four second half goals. Stefan Martin worked hard in the ruck but was shown up by Max Bailey who even ran him down in the last quarter despite starting with an escort. Nathan Jones tried and Ricky Petterd’s goal-saving smother was the highlight of what was an otherwise dismal day for the club whose finals aspirations are slowly fading in the slipstream of other more fancied candidates.

To make matters worse, they have to travel down the highway to Skilled Stadium next week to meet the rampant Cats who, like the Hawks, will be welcoming back three stars in Ottens, Ling and Johnson. Given the club’s abysmal record at that venue, it’s hard to see anything that will break the cycle in the near future.

Melbourne 3.3.21 6.3.39 9.4.58 12.6.78

Hawthorn 6.1.37 10.4.64 16.6.102 20.12.132

Goals

Melbourne Green 4 Howe 3 Dunn 2 Bate Petterd Sylvia

Hawthorn Franklin 5 Breust Rioli 3 Hodge Osborne 2 Mitchell Ellis Hale Lewis Mitchell Smith

Best

Melbourne Martin Green Howe Petterd Jones Dunn

Hawthorn Mitchell Sewell Rioli Lewis Birchall Franklin

Injured

Melbourne Nil

Hawthorn Savage (shoulder)

Changes

Melbourne Liam Jurrah (flu) replaced by Jamie Bennell

Hawthorn Nil

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Hawthorn Nil

Umpires McBurney Kamolins Meredith

Crowd 39,782 at MCG

For some reason i dont feel as bad about that loss as i have with others...

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:00, rhaz said:

For some reason i dont feel as bad about that loss as i have with others...

The team had a real dip...We just have to get better.

Well. No surprise for me. Hawks once again showing us how much we lack big, fit bodies.

I don't think we were ever going to win them when we have Gysberts, Nicholson, Bennell and Strauss. Just far too small against the Hawks stronger, fitter opponents. Although i'm happy those 4 got game time.

Darwin may have played a factor. We looked bloody tired in the last quarter and a half.

Hawks always seemed to have extra bodies around the ball.

In hindsight Bartram would have been a good option.

Can we get a tackle to stick? Please.

Scully, Grimes, Davey, Jurrah out ... a bit too much of an ask, especially after Darwin.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:04, UTAH said:

Well. No surprise for me. Hawks once again showing us how much we lack big, fit bodies.

I don't think we were ever going to win them when we have Gysberts, Nicholson, Bennell and Strauss. Just far too small against the Hawks stronger, fitter opponents. Although i'm happy those 4 got game time.

Darwin may have played a factor. We looked bloody tired in the last quarter and a half.

Hawks always seemed to have extra bodies around the ball.

In hindsight Bartram would have been a good option.

Can we get a tackle to stick? Please.

When we play them the Hawks always seem to have more bodies around the ball; I've noticed in previous games they circle the packs and wait for the ball to come out and then pounce. We seem to have bodies fighting for the ball in the packs but no one on the outside to pass it off to if we win possession.

Out coached again, all I ever hear is that Bailey is a master tactician yet he is by far the worst coach in the year. Has little chance of being re-signed at the end of the year. Hawks had many out and a few coming back from injury. The end margin flattered us should have been closer to 90 points. Embarrassing again.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:11, RobbieF said:

When we play them the Hawks always seem to have more bodies around the ball; I've noticed in previous games they circle the packs and wait for the ball to come out and then pounce. We seem to have bodies fighting for the ball in the packs but no one on the outside to pass it off to if we win possession.

Your not wrong Robbie.

Every time the ball would get knocked out a Hawks player would be there. The frustrating thing is that even when we had more bodies around the ball the hawks would get a lucky tap or bounce and they would get it. Its hard to tell from the Tv but im guessing that we were just not fit enough to get to all the contests. Our tackling was terrible. Hawks players were just too big and strong for us to get the arms around them and would always be able to give a quick handball off to a player running past when we did get hold of them.

We had some shocking turnovers as well. Which cost us a goal every time.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:15, PeterJames said:

Out coached again, all I ever hear is that Bailey is a master tactician yet he is by far the worst coach in the year. Has little chance of being re-signed at the end of the year. Hawks had many out and a few coming back from injury. The end margin flattered us should have been closer to 90 points. Embarrassing again.

Bailey would have had to be the best tactician ever to get a win from that game. Our player were not big or fit enough for mine. Some costly turn overs stifled our momentum too. We looked good when we got our run and carry going. Just didn't happen often enough.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:15, PeterJames said:

Out coached again, all I ever hear is that Bailey is a master tactician yet he is by far the worst coach in the year. Has little chance of being re-signed at the end of the year. Hawks had many out and a few coming back from injury. The end margin flattered us should have been closer to 90 points. Embarrassing again.

Care to elaborate?

Turnovers killed us, plain and simple. I wouldn't blame the coach for that.

Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected result against a ruthless Hawks outfit.

Two positive however,

1) Petterd's smother on Jordan Lewis, late first quarter. Inspirational stuff.

2) Tapscott absolutely wrecking savage with a (legal) hip and shoulder. Wowee.

Otherwise a fairly forgettable day.

I wrote this elsewhere.

Skill errors killed us. If we executed better we would have had more influence on the scoreboard.

Only thing that I would like is a better system for getting out of defense. We really dont seem to have that system bedded down as well as other sides.

I'm not sure why we feel the need to bomb it into the forward line.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:00, rhaz said:

For some reason i dont feel as bad about that loss as i have with others...

Really?

I thought the team were dreadful - how many years do we need to harden up bodies? Bate, Dunn, Moloney, Sylvia, Frawley, Garland and Jamar aren't exactly 90 pound weaklings....

Not good enough, lack of game plan or execution thereof and intimidated by a better team.

A young inexperienced backline (Strauss, Tapscott, Nicholson) got exploited at times but they will learn. Bartram and Macdonald might have been better on the day, but these young guys would learn lots from games like these.

The forward line was as usual dysfunctional, but it never had the legs to do the chasing that is required. We all know we'll have a better set up in the future.

The midfield was probably the big disappointment. No Scully, Davey, Bail but it's still meant to be reasonable, but they leaked possessions and the Hawks first 5 goals came from stoppages. Gysberts is in bad need of a rest but at the moment we just don't have a large number of guys at Casey gunning for midfield spots.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:02, why you little said:

The team had a real dip...We just have to get better.

Yeah sure, they had a dip... for about two a half quarters and then sh*t went against us and then everybody just shut up shop.

I don't care that we lost, I expected it, but it's how we keep losing that is unacceptable.

Why should we sit in the stands and support the players until the final siren when the players themselves don't seem to give a sh*t or want to actually fight out a match?

It's embarrassing and humiliating.

And Dean Bailey, FFS what the hell was that?

Why is his default panic move dropping Watts back into the hole? Why the f' was Trengove in the backline when we were crying out for some talent in the middle? Why can we not play under pressure?

Dumb coaching.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:46, Jaded said:

Yeah sure, they had a dip... for about two a half quarters and then sh*t went against us and then everybody just shut up shop.

I don't care that we lost, I expected it, but it's how we keep losing that is unacceptable.

Why should we sit in the stands and support the players until the final siren when the players themselves don't seem to give a sh*t or want to actually fight out a match?

It's embarrassing and humiliating.

That's what I felt - they were bullied and humiliated...

Wouldn't have happened in Northey's day.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:46, Jaded said:

Yeah sure, they had a dip... for about two a half quarters and then sh*t went against us and then everybody just shut up shop.

I don't care that we lost, I expected it, but it's how we keep losing that is unacceptable.

Why should we sit in the stands and support the players until the final siren when the players themselves don't seem to give a sh*t or want to actually fight out a match?

It's embarrassing and humiliating.

And Dean Bailey, FFS what the hell was that?

Why is his default panic move dropping Watts back into the hole? Why the f' was Trengove in the backline when we were crying out for some talent in the middle? Why can we not play under pressure?

Dumb coaching.

Good call on Watts. I think Dean panicked and wanted Jackie in the game. Hawks were all class, and a little hard for our young boys to stop it.

  On 24/07/2011 at 07:46, Jaded said:

Yeah sure, they had a dip... for about two a half quarters and then sh*t went against us and then everybody just shut up shop.

I don't care that we lost, I expected it, but it's how we keep losing that is unacceptable.

Why should we sit in the stands and support the players until the final siren when the players themselves don't seem to give a sh*t or want to actually fight out a match?

It's embarrassing and humiliating.

And Dean Bailey, FFS what the hell was that?

Why is his default panic move dropping Watts back into the hole? Why the f' was Trengove in the backline when we were crying out for some talent in the middle? Why can we not play under pressure?

Dumb coaching.

id agree with all this. We lack a fwd target(i dont consider Bate and Dunn this) yet he refuses to play Watts out of the square to try and create a target.

Reality is we are at least 2 years and luck with a good new coach from being a good team. Its a long, painful journey.

Sylvia is not happy with a 450K contract so we hear....You gotta earn that kind of coin Col.

Didn't see that today...Club must stand firm on these situations.

Really would have liked Garland and Frawley, to give a little bit of fight back to Buddy, when he was dishing it out. Don't just get pushed around, dig a shoulder in or something, do something!

  On 24/07/2011 at 08:09, tatu said:

Really would have liked Garland and Frawley, to give a little bit of fight back to Buddy, when he was dishing it out. Don't just get pushed around, dig a shoulder in or something, do something!

How about getting Tapscott to lay a hip and shoulder on bloody Rioli?!

FFS he just rips us a new one every single time we play them. He's just taking the [censored] with his performances against us. I just need someone to put him on his ass, make him feel a bit of pain.

Sick and tired of the same old players bending us over every time we play them.

Bennell should have played on him from the first bounce. At least make Bennell accountable and make him actually do something during a game.

Ugh, just so sick of being such a joke.

  On 24/07/2011 at 08:00, why you little said:

Sylvia is not happy with a 450K contract so we hear....You gotta earn that kind of coin Col.

Didn't see that today...Club must stand firm on these situations.

Agreed . Sorry Col , you want a payrise?

Just run through your 7 KPIs and errrrrr....

No .

Not sure you can really say we had a dip - 5 straight goals to none at the start? Very ordinary in the contested and uncontested stakes all day. Hawthorn have us physically and mentally.

Also not sure why Bailey thinks playing effectively the same game plan which has brought us 7 straight losses to the Hawks would result in a different outcome.

It's hilarious that I can not catch a single minute of the game, see the scoreboard and predict exactly what the response on Demonland will be.