TO THE SWORD by The Oracle

There was a time when a seven goal first quarter haul against the Demons would be enough to spell doom and disaster - a defeat of in excess of ten goals and perhaps more than 100 points. Similarly, if the skipper failed to get his hands on ball for an effective disposal in the first quarter.

That is what happened to Melbourne against North Melbourne in their Round 19 game - it simply was not in the contest in the opening term and trailed by 28 points conceding nine scoring shots to one (a goal to Chris Dawes) by time on. Viv Michie then missed everything from 35 metres out and a lucky 50 metre penalty and goal to Jesse Hogan temporarily provided some respite but by the first break they were staring down the barrel and 34 points in arrears. Little wonder that four years have passed since Melbourne won consecutive games of football or that it holds the AFL's current longest losing streak against another club, namely 14 on end to the Shinboners!

From the opening, the Demons struggled to hold the little men of the opposition - Lindsay Thomas kicked the first and the last goal of the quarter and scored five for the day which was virtually the difference between the teams in the end, Robin Nahas seemingly revived his career for the nth time against Melbourne and Boomer was Boomer.

What the Demons did next only partly atoned for their weak opening but they, at least showed a capacity to fight back and if the rumours of an illness having swept the club during the week went true and provided a genuine excuse for that weakness, then the comeback was even more meritorious. Max Gawn came back from a bit of an early spanking at the hands of the AFL's leading ruckman to provide an interesting match up and Dom Tyson produced his best game after a stellar 2014 but a lacklustre 2015 season to date. Jack Viney underlined his improvement beyond expectations and these contributions were invaluable at a time when the club's prime midfield movers in Nathan Jones and Bernie Vince were well down on their recent form. Then of course, the two key forwards hit the target and thanks to Chris Dawes playing his best for the season and Jesse Hogan continuing his pathway to the top as a power forward (he's not there yet but how many 20 year olds in their first year can boast such impressive KPI's?), the game turned. By half time, they were three goals down and at various times in the third quarter the margin was only two points but they could never get in front and that goal on the siren to Brown which gave North a 10 point lead really hurt.

However, the thing that hurts a team really badly are the brain fades like the kick off by Jack Watts who is having his best season to date that hit an opponent or the dropped mark by Jeff Garlett only 35 metres out from goal. Those costly errors at crucial times can kill you and their likes did exactly that. The great fightback was cruelled by costly errors and the Roos needed only a few minutes in the final stanza to put the Demons to the sword and effectively snuff out the fightback.

The end result - a 35 point defeat - was disappointing but will be far worse if the team fails to learn the lesson of a slow start and those lapses of concentration that can turn momentum of a game.

Melbourne 2.0.12 6.4.40 11.6.72 14.8.92

North Melbourne 7.4.46 9.4.58 12.10.82 19.13.127

Goals

Melbourne Hogan 4 Dawes 3 Brayshaw Gawn Garlett N Jones Neal-Bullen J Viney J Watts

North Melbourne Thomas 5 Waite 3 Brown Harvey Higgins Nahas 2 Cunnington Jacobs Petrie

Best

Melbourne Hogan Dawes Viney Tyson Cross T McDonald

North Melbourne Higgins Goldstein Cunnington Thomas Jacobs Waite

Changes

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Injuries

Melbourne Howe (ankle)

North Melbourne Brown (corked calf)

Reports

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Nil

Substitutions

Melbourne

North Melbourne

Umpires Shane McInerney Andrew Stephens Leigh Fisher

Official Crowd 30,695 at MCG

outscored by 1 point since quarter time.

first quarter cost us big time.

there were bits and pieces to like about that, but some of it was truly terrible.

Tomorrow at work the smug Roos supporters will come up to me and say "Dees showed a bit".

Like they have done since time started.

Hogan is already close to elite and will be the best player in the competition in a few years.

There's a lesson for Maxy from a very good ruckman. Was monstered.

I frogging hate North and all their shittruck players and shittruck supporters.

That is all.

That game was alternately embarrassing, promising, exciting, frustrating, and disheartening...

...but ultimately ended up with exactly the result I expected. How is that possible?

Asleep in first quarter, good comeback but run out of steam getting back into the game.

Defence was truly awful. Dunn is the stupidest player in the AFL. Lumumba is awful. Assume Grimes/Jetta was playing on Thomas (five goals)?

Very poor from Garlett, Watts and Lamumba. Should be ashamed of themselves.

Lots to like from the younger brigade.

That was really hard to watch. The stupid mistakes in the last quarter were so obvious and cost us over and over. It's like we had two entirely different teams on the ground. The crap side played 1st and 4th and the A side played the 2nd and 3rd. We need the team to get it through their heads that when we don't have the ball we need to man up. It drives me up the wall to see those chains of uncontested marks where our midfielders just don't run with their men and let them get free on the wing. We had them on the ropes at 3/4 time and took the foot off.

We should have won that game. We had the momentum in the third quarter. Junk time goals at the end make the result look worse. Watts not going back and taking a shot from on the fifty instead kicking direct to a north player unforgivable.

infuriating.

I [censored] hate North.

Worst start imaginable.

Decent after that.

Every [censored] thing they threw on their boot went through. Lucky, front running pieces of [censored].

Lumumba is a massive bust. Massive. One of the worst starting 22 recruits I've ever seen. 1 thing he does turns to gold, the rest goes to the Werribee [censored] farm. [censored] him off.

Hogan though.

The team played like they had the flu -- from the sounds of it, half of them did.

We showed lots of promise and there's plenty to be happy about. Unfortunately what kills us time and time again is the little mistakes, the turnovers, the fumbled marks, the decision making... we need a few more years to get that wrinkled out of our players (and yes, it means turning the list over even more).

Thought Watts was past such disappointing performances.

McDonald's kicking was also really poor, Lumumba was bad too.

I've loved Garlett this year but his dropped marks were inexcusable.

We had so many chances in the forward line...probably took us by surprise

We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with turnovers.

Good fight back had a chance to pintch it

Good signs for the future... Some of the kids are looking really good

I would like to nominate Brayshaws goal for "Goal or the Year" and "Goal of the Week"

Looks like a player that young kid.

There's a lesson for Maxy from a very good ruckman. Was monstered.

Every ruck gets monstered by Goldy. Gawn did a better job than 90% of ruckman.

He is going up against the best ruckman in the history of the game, it's a good learning curve.

Garland struggling, Watts worst game for a while, garletts momentum killing dropped chest mark and rebound north goal, not enough support for n Jones. Hogan worth the price of admission

Well, the highlight of my day was telling Petracca he was the Tracattack. He seemed to enjoy it.

Oh and Jesse Hogan is a star.

Just reading the Casey thread, states that Fitzy is out sick and up to 17 players affected with the bug this week, including Jones and Watts.

Something to take into consideration, maybe not for the first quarter, but definitely the last

How frustrating are the turnovers and missed shots at goal.

FMD when will we remedy this cause once we do we are off and running.

Doesn't seem like it will ever happen though.

The AFL stats guys need to visit OPSM I think. They only credited Hogan with 3 contested marks. What does he have to do to get the things recorded, take it with his teeth while both arms are being held?

We needed some talks on their forwards. Fitz might have been handy.

Lack of effort from the regular contributors today. Would've won if that hadn't been the case.

Tyson seems to be finding a bit of his groove back which is good to see.