HANG ON TO YOUR HOPES MY FRIEND by Whispering Jack

There's a fair chance that not many people on this side of the continent will remember the last game of 2012 in the years to come.  

Mark Neeld took a team of twenty-two players who looked and played as if they were physically and mentally exhausted, washed up, wounded and hurt, and the result they produced against an opponent on its way to the finals was thoroughly predictable. 

At least the game put paid to the idea that there is such a thing as tanking in Australian football. It's actually called "controlling the outcome", as football icon Leigh Matthews declared this week in the media when he suggested that Ross Lyon should take such steps as are necessary to manufacture a home town Derby final against the Eagles for next week. The idea never had a chance of flying anywhere with the Dockers shooting out of the blocks and never being even remotely troubled on their way to their eighth win from their past nine matches to land seventh position and an away final against Geelong. 

It was hard to believe that less than two months earlier, an injury hit Melbourne team already playing on two cylinders led Fremantle at three quarter time in their "home" game at Etihad Stadium only to be rolled over at the end when the capacity to rotate players was stretched to the limit.

And it's the very thought of how the Demons fought in that game that is perhaps a major redeeming  feature as we begin to reflect on yet another disastrous period in the club's history. The events have been well dicumented and don't bear repeating but by Round 16 their season was as good as over with as many players heading for the infirmary as were those heading for the scrapheap but they bested the finals bound Dockers for most of the game. Since then, there have been a couple of consolation wins (against the franchise teams) but the coach has been confined to a short list of players  fit enough to play at their optimum. A number of others were simply not up to performing to required AFL standards. Nor are some capable of preparing themselves to play the game the way the coach dictates. They are, of course, finished. Done. Kaput.

I can think of a few others who would have been better off "rested" for the last couple of games but that would have only invited scorn among the club's enemies amid allegations that the club was ... ahem ... controlling the outcome to improve its draft position. Now that's a total myth as this game proved beyond all reasonable doubt. The Demons were bad enough on their own to make the result an absolute certainty from the outset.

 I will exclude from the "bad" characterisation, the club's two young skippers in Jack Grimes and Jack Trengove who were thrust by circumstance into their difficult roles and who (I have no doubt whatsoever on this) will shame their critics in future years. They were there to learn their roles this year and have shown that they are responding extremely well to the challenge.

Colin Sylvia has also responded well, albeit late in the season, and defied his critics with another solid performance. Nearing the veteran stage, he's no longer "the kid" and it's to be hoped that he can finally put together a solid season of football. Nathan Jones had the solid Crowley tag and, despite having his output reduced to less than twenty disposals, he demonstrated to the rest of this young side the rewards that can be achieved by a solid hard pre season. 

A couple of young blokes in Tom McDonald and Jack Fitzpatrick showed that they have talent and it will be interesting to see how they and many of the other youngsters in this group develop over the next year or two. Let's face it, player development is an area where the club has lagged behind the rest of the field over the past decade or so. It remains one of the club's major challenges as we enter the coming era.

Development, fitness and hard work over the off season is a necessity for all clubs in this highly competitive industry. It's going to be even more important for what is left of the 2012 list and for those who join it in the coming months. It is on that which we will have to hang our hopes over the coming long, hot summer.

 

Melbourne 1.3.9 2.5.17 4.8.32 5.10.40

Fremantle 3.5.23 7.7.49 11.14.80 14.17.101

Goals

Melbourne Fitzpatrick 2 Blease Jones Sellar

Fremantle Ballantyne 3 Griffin Mzungu Pavlich Sandilands 2 Mayne Mundy Walters

Best

Melbourne Sylvia Grimes Jones Trengove Fitzpatrick Garland

Fremantle Mundy Fyfe Barlow Pearce Hill Sandilands

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Fremantle McPharlin (hamstring)

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Fremantle Nil

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Fremantle Nil

Umpires Farmer Dalgleish Leppard

Official Crowd 32,687 at Patersons Stadium.

i just want to ask what sort of goals should we have for next season?

my goal would be to win more than 4 games next season.

Thanks for your thoughtful piece WJ. Feeling a bit forlorn as the Finals excitement mounts for others. Cheers, SF.