SENSIBLE, SILLY, SMART, SUCKERED by George on The Outer

[Demonland 65,652]

Sensible, Silly, Smart, Suckered ...

Yes that was the summation of the game in which the Demons failed to pull off what was potentially a surprise victory against one of the powerhouse sides of the competition in Hawthorn. 

But where the Hawks were sensible, the Demons were silly. When the Hawks played smart, the Demons were suckered and in the end it cost them the game, despite leading for a good part of the match.

For the Demons fans it was heartening to see the return of Jack Trengove, and while he struggled with the pace of the game, 19 touches in your first game back after 2 years on the sidelines is highly commendable.

What the Demons didn’t notice was the greasy and wet conditions on the ground. That is why the Hawks played smart. There was nothing too fancy - just get the ball moving by any means.  Scramble it forward, kick it off the ground. Melbourne simply tried to play dry weather footy until they followed the example of Bernie Vince, who just kept putting the ball on his boot. His 21 touches to half time and 36 for the game was the sign of leadership that was needed around the ball. 

The trouble was that Melbourne squandered plenty of opportunity before it woke up to what was going on. Players like Lewis and Mitchell weren’t at the bottom of packs; they just sat outside and waited for the cake of soap to slip out of hands and then they booted the ball forwards time and time again. Not one Demon player was smart enough to stand them and they were still doing the same in the final quarter.

All too often Melbourne players went up in marking contests when not needed.  The smarter Hawks stayed down and accepted the ball as it inevitably spilled over the back. 

That’s smart football.

And like the hardened team that has won multiple premiership flags, they know when to start a fight and distract younger players from playing football.  It happened when Melbourne came from behind and challenged them.  It is all well and good to be tough and physical, and not be intimidated, but not while the opposition have the ball and are running toward goal.

The Demons were simply suckered and while we often use the excuse of being a younger side, the lesson to be clearly learned was how to conduct yourself if you want to be a premiership side. In order to do that you need contributions from all the players in the side. 

Sadly, there were still too many passengers in the Melbourne side.  Jeff Garlett has gone missing in the weeks since signing up for an extended contract, and he hasn’t realized that there is more to a game of footy than hanging out the back and then outrunning the opposition. Only five touches again this week brings his total to 12 for the past two games.  Even if you aren’t playing well you can tackle, but this has also gone missing from his game, as the ball rebounded from the Hawks defence all to easily.

In contrast at the other end Neville Jetta was a standout. How many times he saved goals by simply putting everything on the line or just getting to contests was hard to remember. 

Unfortunately, he seemed to be playing a lone hand in the backline as Frost and Oscar McDonald simply couldn’t put a foot right for the whole game. Defenders they are not at this point in time, and playing at this level is proving to be too costly to the overall team performance.

We have to hope that the return of Aaron Vandenberg, Chris Dawes and Jack Trengove enables them to get some game fitness because they have a long way to go to get back to their best.  Each produced a highlight or two particularly VDB with his tackling efforts that produced a critical goal, but we simply need more output in future games.

Finally, I was able to have a good look at the defensive structures this week.  There was more cohesion with the set-up, and it did work this week.  It was let down by some simply incompetent individual efforts. 

It it has been difficult to work out why we have been broken open so easily in the past weeks.  It is the lack of effort from the wingers who get sucked toward the ball and fail to watch their man folding back to the middle of the ground or the forward line.  It would have happened again this week, but the mids managed to contain the ball movement. 

Only a goal to Brad Hill was the result of poor marking.  It is up to Billy Stretch, Tom Bugg, Dean Kent and James Harmes to stop being one way players and start playing smart football. 

Or we will just keep getting suckered by teams like Hawthorn and other serious finals contenders.

Melbourne 2.0.12 7.2.44 10.2.62 10.4.64

Hawthorn 4.5.29 6.7.43 8.14.62 11.16.82

Goals

Melbourne Kent Watts 2 Dawes Hogan N Jones Petracca Tyson vandenBerg

Hawthorn Gunston 3 Breust O'Brien 2 Hill Puopolo Rioli Stewart

Best

Melbourne Tyson Vince N Jones Watts T McDonald Kent

Hawthorn Mitchell Lewis Gibson Birchall Smith Frawley Gunston

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Hawthorn Nil

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Hawthorn Jack Gunston (right ankle)

Reports

Melbourne Bernie Vince (Melbourne) for striking in the fourth quarter

Hawthorn Nil

Umpires Bannister, Ryan, Pannell

Official crowd 41,833 at the MCG