THE HOWE JONES INDEX

August 5, 201213 yr

THE HOWE JONES INDEX by Mean Gene

After yet another torrid week in a difficult year for the Melbourne Football Club, the Demons stocks climbed and eventually hit the roof. It started before the game when it was announced that leadership group member Nathan Jones, a certainty to be club champion this year and high flying Jeremy Howe had both signed on for the next three years.

Then, when the team ran out onto the ground, the newly signed duo set the example for their team mates and they blew their opponents off the field. In that respect, they had set the Howe Jones Football Index and it was mostly upward and positive after their club had received a whacking in the media, most of it undeserved and some of it based on sheer malevolence from persons with an agenda against the club, its board and its officialdom.

In the early moments of the game we saw Howe, who is better known for his hangers, setting the example by shepherding perfectly for a team mate (he would keep the best of his highflying exploits for later in the game). Jones was burrowing into packs and laying tackles with as much, if not more, impact than his more celebrated chrome down counterpart from the opposition. Their example and the effect of their efforts told on the scoreboard as the team snuffed out the young Gold Coast Suns with six unanswered first quarter goals to take an unassailable forty point lead into the first break. It was a smashing of a first quarter and even the unlikely Jake Spencer joined in the festivities with his first ever AFL goal (in his first ever winning match after almost four seasons), albeit after a fifty metre penalty!

It's true that, after that first quarter, the plucky Gold Coast Suns with Gary Ablett Junior and Harley Bennell on fire, managed to limit Melbourne's ascendency even as its men were going down like flies, it was still a big win for the home side even if it couldn't shut up the critics in the media who made no concession whatsoever for the depleted nature of a team that went into the weekend with more than a third of its list, 16 players, unavailable.

Despite that fact, had they lost this match, it would have been odds on that those baying for blood last week would have been on automatic pilot droning on ad nauseum about the club's culture.

Make no mistake about it, this was no classic contest in the mould of Friday night's epic between Geelong and Hawthorn but, for the Melbourne faithful starved of success for so long, it was good to see their team lead from go to whoa for once. Brad Green shrugged off his horror start to the season and demonstrated that he had not lost his ability to snag the goals and Lynden Dunn played a sterling game in defence proving that forwards can move back without raising suspicious eyebrows. Colin Sylvia is also returning to the sort of form expected of him and his strong marking and contribution to the goal tally were welcome after some of his earlier disappointments. The skippers are also raising their own personal bars with every week and I expect that the real benefits of the brave decision to give such young men the responsibility of leadership will bring its own dividends in the years to come.

In the end, it was Howe again who soared over a pack and took his latest mark of the day for the highlights reel. The resulting goal saw the Howe Jones Football Index rise another notch.

Melbourne 6.6.42 10.7.67 13.8.86 16.12.108

Gold Coast 0.2.2 4.5.29 5.9.399.12.66

Goals

Melbourne Green 5 Blease Sylvia 2 Bail Howe Rivers Sellar Spencer Tapscott Trengove

Gold Coast Bennell 4 Ablett Brennan Lynch Rischitelli Russell

Best

Melbourne Howe Jones Green Grimes Dunn Sylvia

Gold Coast Bennell Ablett Harbrow Swallow Shaw

Injuries

Melbourne Morton (shoulder)

Gold Coast Hunt (shoulder) Prestia (hamstring) Rischitelli (knee) Russell (shoulder) Smith (ankle)

Changes