ANGRY by The Oracle

[Demonland 72,186]

Spring is just around the corner and it's rather inspirational that the Demons have the opportunity this year to contest a game in September.

It won't be a final but next week's "home" game at Etihad Stadium against the Giants will provide them with the opportunity to prove that the events of the month since their last win against Collingwood hasn't been an aberration.

Against Fremantle at Domain Stadium in Perth, the recurring nightmare of the month duly eventuated after the team which was instructed to play angry managed to make its supporters (who are the cause of all their problems after all) really angry by conceding the first 10 goals of the game to lead by 60 points when the second quarter was a little more than ten minutes old.

Jeff Garlett kicked their first goal at the mid point in that term and Melbourne came back a little to have four goals on the board by half time. By then, it had lost skipper Nathan Jones to an ankle injury which soured his 200th game and second ruckman Jake Spencer had followed him when a head knock caused him concussion leaving the team one short for the remainder of proceedings.

In the normal course that would be a major issue in a game of football but, in this instance, it was offset by the circumstance that Fremantle was assured of top position going into the finals (meaning they're unlikely to have to front up to Hawthorn in a fortnight's time) and they let the intensity drop off dramatically. As a result, the Demons were able to stumble and fumble their way to an even par finish for the rest of a game that had long been rendered meaningless. Indeed, had they managed to hold on in the final ten minutes and avoided conceding the last three goals when the fatigue had really set in, they might have even won the second half and added a false aura of respectability to the outcome.

As it was, the 54 point defeat was a positively better result than some of the hidings handed out to the competition's other lesser lights and when you consider that there a difference of 1352 in games played between the two sides and Melbourne had 10 players on the ground who had played less than 50 games including promising Oscar McDonald in his first, you have your answer - it's not not negativity but rather, a lack of experience and know how, particularly when you're another 200 games down when your skipper gets subbed out. More so, when you consider that the club rested two of its promising youngsters in Angus Brayshaw and James Harmes and there's a fair whack of other good players missing from the mix.

In those circumstances, the Demons would be encouraged that some of their better players were their youth. You couldn't go past the 30 possession game of Jack Viney (with 12 tackles and six clearances) and the hard work in the ruck of Max Gawn agains one of the AFL's maestros or the run of Christian Salem. Daniel Cross had a standout 39 touches and worked his butt off belying his age.

Unfortunately, the depth just wasn't there and the bottom half dozen weren't good or interested enough for this standard and consequently might be angry at themselves in a month or two's time when they're told their truth that their AFL careers are over.

Melbourne 0.1.1 4.2.26 6.5.41 8.6.54

Fremantle 5.1.31 11.3.69 14.5.89 17.6.108

Goals

Melbourne Garlett Hogan 2 Gawn Grimes Vince Watts

Fremantle Pavlich Pearce 3 De Boer Neale 2 Barlow Hill Ibbotson Mayne Mzungu Sandilands Sheridan

Best

MelbourneCross Viney Salem Dunn Gawn Vince

Fremantle Mundy Neale Barlow Hill Suban D Pearce

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Fremantle , M Walters (calf) replaced in selected side by P Duffield

Injuries

Melbourne N Jones (ankle) J Spencer (head)

Fremantle C Sutcliffe (shoulder)

Substitutions

Melbourne N Jones (ankle) replaced by J Grimes in the second quarter

Fremantle M Pavlich replaced by P Duffield in the third quarter

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Fremantle Nil

Umpires Dean Margetts Luke Farmer Nick Brown

Official Crowd 33,529 at Domain Stadium