NO ILLUSIONS by The Oracle

The euphoria of last week's dramatic final minute victory over Essendon was quickly well and truly consigned into past history not long after the Melbourne team ran onto the MCG for its game against North Melbourne.

The reason for this was that the Demons' pedestrian style of football, limited skills and an insatiable capacity to constantly turn the ball over into an opponent's lap was never going to be enough to win them a game against quality opposition. Indeed it was only their accuracy in the first half that fully prevented the game from turning into a 2013 style blowout of epic proportions and instead they were left with a reality check and a 41-point defeat.

The Kangaroos applied the early heat but thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Bernie Vince who maintained great composure throughout the game, the Demons were still in the contest at the first break and clawed their way back in the second term after they fell four goals in arrears through some sloppy football. Early in the third, they threatened again when Chris Dawes goaled to leave them only seven points down despite being far inferior in almost every aspect of play.

It was at this stage that North upped the ante, applied the blow torch and booted six goals in ten minutes, most of them on the back of fumbly turnovers caused by poor disposal and stupid decision making. To its credit, Melbourne managed to regroup thanks to some positional changes at the end but the mistakes continued and prevented it from making any semblance of a come back.

The truth is that there is still a lack of players with the quality and flair of Vince who produced a stunning 41-possession game and the attack simply does not have the potency or depth of the better sides in the competition. There were times when one wondered where the next goal would come from. The ball was constantly bombed into an attack where the team was outnumbered and if the ball hit the ground there were no crumbing forwards to finish off the goals as we saw from the Kangaroos who had twelve goal kickers on the day to Melbourne's six.

This imbalance of forward strength was a major difference and a problem that will continue to dog the club for the remainder of the season with games against some of the competition's big hitters including Port Adelaide, Hawthorn, Fremantle, Geelong and a return game against North Melbourne to come. Despite the club's big steps forward the result of this game should leave us with no illusions that there is a long way to go.

Melbourne 3.0.18 6.0.36 8.4.52 10.6.66

North Melbourne 4.5.29 7.8.50 14.12.96 15.17.107

Goals

Melbourne Dawes Vince 3 Bail Frawley Pedersen Reilly

North Melbourne Greenwood Mullett Thomas 2 Atley Black Brown Cunnington Harvey Nahas Petrie Swallow Ziebell

Best

Melbourne Vince N Jones Cross Dunn M Jones Pedersen

North Melbourne Greenwood Dal Santo Thompson Petrie Harvey Ziebell Cunnington

Changes

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Injuries

Melbourne Watts (back)

North Melbourne Nahas (shoulder) Swallow (knee)

Reports

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Umpires Rosebury Bannister Fleer

Crowd 26,615 at the MCG

well the good kangaroos turned up today. Thought we could have won and wouldnt have seen this margin coming. Why does this team have the wood over us?

Bernie obviously our best. over 40 possessions and 3 goals.

Did roos give them a spray at 3/4 time?

Roos rues Roos' ruse.

A work in progress.

Back down to Earth this week, but nevertheless it was an 80 point turnaround.

Lest we forget, we're coming from a LONG way back. It's not going to be sunshine and roses every week.

Too much handpassing, not enough players taking the game on.

The Paul Roos game plan is demanding and a lot of our players are starting to tire

To be expected i guess

god i hate Norf

Bernie what a gun

Great game bern!!

Disposals sigh... What could have been

Edited June 22, 201411 yr by Unleash Hell

Think it's time to give Michie and Blease a go. Salem isn't ready, McKenzie will be rubbed out and Bail is going backwards. Kent had a shocker but needs to be given more time.

Frustrating game. The amount of fumbles, missed kicks, missed handballs. Decision making Gahhhhhhhhh

North were pretty good though, the good North are way better than us. Boomer Harvey will still be carving us up when he's 80 years old.

Unfortunately we are going to have ups and downs and this was a big downer.

Turnovers killed us.

its funny a week ago we were delirious now we are shot back down to earth. But compared to what they trashed us by last year this wasnt a bad result. One day we will beat them one day

Edited June 22, 201411 yr by dees189227

Farts.

Bulldogs next week. Hope we make the same mistakes. Kick it long and kick to the middle.

Was always worried about this one.

The one and only positive I take away from this loss is that we've basically kicked Essendon in the guts two weeks running by keeping them out of the 8. Life is poetry, even in defeat.

I don't know why, but I hate North with a passion.

I just cannot stand that club.

On the upside, Bernie Vince killed them today.

Sadly not much else to say.

Salem to the VFL, kid has no tank.

Tried to play like we finished off last week. We are not up to playing an attacking game for 4 quarters. Premature experiment. Haven't got the clean slick game yet. Roos is trying to wean us off the ultra defensive game. Time is not right but had to see where we are at. Does this means Frawley stays since he went back to defence? I think not.

its funny a week ago we were delirious now we are shot back down to earth. But compared to what they trashed us by last year this wasnt a bad result. One day we will beat them one day

Just the way footy is. Especially when your side is coming from so far back. If we knock the Kangas over at Etihad later in the year delirium will return. A masked stranger will have to bust Boomer's kneecaps before the game though.

Second week in a row that I've missed the match due to work timing. Might not bother trying to watch this one.

They had Peter Jackson on pre game and the host asked about Frawley and Macca.

He said something like we are talking to Macca but Frawley has put it off to end of season. Said something like its hard to negotiate when the other party don't want to talk.

I think IMO we can all say he is gone.

Second week in a row that I've missed the match due to work timing. Might not bother trying to watch this one.

My advice would be to enjoy your Sunday night...give the game a miss.

Second week in a row that I've missed the match due to work timing. Might not bother trying to watch this one.

It would be less painful sticking needles in your eyes Nasher.

At least u wouldn't c all the turnovers and bad hand passes!

Think it was more about us than them. We could've beaten them but for our horrendous errors. The demons of old (last year) rocked up this arvo and it was frustrating to watch. So much good work unravelled through poor, wasteful disposal.

We looked really flat today. Really flat.

Positives for mine: Bernie was great and I was happy with Frawley and Matt Jones.

Lots of work to be done this week.

Second week in a row that I've missed the match due to work timing. Might not bother trying to watch this one.

Knowing the AFL, this match will be up on the website in about 15 minutes.