TIRED by Whispering Jack

[Demonland 64,419]

The story this week is that the young Melbourne side is now suffering from fatigue. Strangely enough, this came from a young player who was one of the very few at the club who showed no signs of weariness last week against Geelong - Jack Viney.

Viney, who was one of his team's best in the 66-point defeat last Saturday at the MCG, told the club's website this week,

"We started the season really well and were starting to play some real top quality teams now, and its starting to show that the boys are getting a bit fatigued."

He added that "They (Geelong) were beating us in contested footy and all areas, so it was about getting back to playing man-on-man footy, and beating our opponent.

"From my point of view, it was pleasing to see a little bit more fight in the second half, but it was still not as much as we needed."

Sorry Jack, but there's no need to start making excuses for your teammates and the only ones really getting tired are the fans.

Over the past two weeks, against quality opposition in Fremantle and Geelong the team has managed a total of nine goals on the back of a creditable performance in coming close to beating the Western Bulldogs at Etihad.

In the same time span the equally young (and possibly more inexperienced) Bulldogs have shown no sign whatsoever against of tiredness against two teams that are in the finals race. Rather than demonstrating fatigue, that team is bubbling with enthusiasm and full of energy - a team prepared to take the game on and play attacking football rather than be mired in defensive football only.

The Demons' defensive mindset may well be a matter of design; that several months of training and playing in that mode will hold it in good stead in the future but is now weighing heavily on the team.

They take on Port Adelaide this Sunday at a ground where they have already recorded a win this year and against a team undergoing a form slump. Moreover, the Demons have available, all bar one player (the injured Daniel Cross) who represented them so admirably in Alice Springs on 31 May. On that occasion, they missed their suspended and then in form key forward Chris Dawes and it wasn't a matter of tiredness that cost them the game but two lapses at either end of the match (each conceding four goals in a quarter hour of play).

The teams also have history at the Adelaide Oval where they met a few years ago before it was refurbished in preparation for its role as an AFL ground. That was the day when some incredible umpiring decisions went the way of the home team to give them an unexpected victory.

Similarly, this is also a game that could bring Melbourne the four points. It is winnable if the players want it but to do that they need to go for the win and do so for the 120 minutes allocated.

THE GAME

Port Adelaide v Melbourne on Sunday 20 July, 2014 at 1.10pm at Adelaide Oval

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Port Adelaide 16 wins Melbourne 11 wins

At Adelaide Oval Port Adelaide 1 win Melbourne 0 wins

Past five years Port Adelaide 4 wins Melbourne 1 win

The Coaches Hinkley 1 win Roos 0 wins

MEDIA

TV - Fox Footy Channel Live at 1.00pm

RADIO - Triple M 3AW SEN ABC Grandstand

THE BETTING

Port Adelaide to win - $1.05 Melbourne to win - $10.00

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Port Adelaide 14.11.95 defeated Melbourne 11.9.75 in Round 11, 2014 at TIO Tregear Park, Alice Springs

Port Adelaide jumped Melbourne early to race to a 26-point lead but the Demons hit back to take the lead in the third quarter. Port struck back to lead at the last break but Melbourne was in front halfway through the final term before a Power surge saw them safely home.

THE TEAMS

PORT ADELAIDE

B: Cam O'Shea, Jack Hombsch, Dom Cassisi.

HB: Matthew Broadbent, Tom Jonas, Jasper Pittard

C: Jared Polec, Travis Boak, Kane Cornes

HF: Paul Stewart, Justin Westhoff, Matt White

F: Robbie Gray, Jay Schulz, Chad Wingard

FOLL: Matthew Lobbe, Ollie Wines, Brad Ebert

I/C: Hamish Hartlett, Jarman Impey, Benjamin Newton, Aaron Young

EMG: Thomas Logan, Sam Gray, John Butcher

IN: John Butcher, Dom Cassisi, Benjamin Newton, Paul Stewart

OUT: Sam Gray, Thomas Logan, Kane Mitchell (all omitted)

MELBOURNE

B: Colin Garland, James Frawley, Lynden Dunn

HB: Neville Jetta, Tom McDonald, Jeremy Howe

C: Jack Grimes, Bernie Vince, Jordie McKenzie

HF: Jack Viney, Cameron Pedersen, Jack Watts

F: Rohan Bail, Chris Dawes, Aidan Riley

FOLL: Mark Jamar, Nathan Jones, Dom Tyson

I/C: Dean Kent, Sam Blease, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Luke Tapscott

EMG: Viv Michie, Max Gawn, Dean Terlich

IN: Sam Blease, Jay Kennedy-Harris

OUT: Matt Jones, Dean Terlich

Port Adelaide starts the game as the hottest of hot favourites despite having lost four of its last five matches and tumbling out of the top four for the first time since very early in the season.

They disappointed last week against Richmond but missed by only two points the week before against Essendon and the defeat that started their slump was by just four points in Sydney.

Melbourne's stocks have plummeted badly since their win against Essendon with poor performances against North Melbourne, Fremantle and Geelong (losses of 41, 63 and 66 points respectively) with only the single goal loss to the Bulldogs among them for consolation. The disturbing aspect had been the complete collapse of the club's capacity to put goals on the board - a total of only nine scored in the last two goals stands as testament to its forward line impotence.

One wonders what Paul Roos is going to do about the problem this week, assuming he acknowledges that it is indeed a problem that needs to be dealt with in the short term. Earlier in the season, the team performed best when Chris Dawes returned to hold down one key forward placing and James Frawley was moved forward to plug the gap left by Mitch Clark's sudden retirement and Jesse Hogan's ongoing back problems.

Lately, Dawes has been unproductive. He's not holding those marks and he's not kicking goals either. Meanwhile, Frawley has been moved down back where he has been relatively ineffective. On top of that, none of the small crumbing forwards who have been given opportunities around the goals have worried the opposition or been able to kick multiple goals. Instead, we get a buzz when someone, anyone, manages to scrounge a singe goal in a quarter of play.

The only redeeming feature of this game is that it was at this ground earlier in the year against the Adelaide Crows that Melbourne was able to manage a decent run of goals but even then, although it won the game, the goals dried up after half a game of football.

The signs are therefore not good.

Port Adelaide by 50 points.