STONE THE ... by The Oracle

[Demonland 73,140]

The Demons are coming off their biggest loss for the season and a bye only to run into the undoubted form team of the competition, the Adelaide Crows who have won their last five games on end. They are in supreme form and are a credit to their new coach Don Pyke who took over a club that tragically lost its coach around twelve months and then lost their champion player to another club at the start of the season. 

Since the Crows lost their Friday night home game against the Cats some 6 weeks ago, they demolished the Suns (75 points), beat the Giants (22 points), crushed the Saints (88 points), overran the Eagles in Perth (29 points) and toppled the Kangaroos (33 points). That's an enviable record, one that the Demons have struggled to emulate for over a decade.

The question is whether Melbourne can turn things around after its poor last up performance  in the slog in Sydney when the young team was overwhelmed by the stronger Swans and in the end produced barely a whimper in difficult conditions. That 55-point deficit in those conditions translates into a complete beat mugging.

Can the Demons come back and thereby keep in touch with the top 8?

They do have a few things going for them, home ground advantage for starters. The Crows don't play against Melbourne often at this ground - it's been a few years and the last time was when the Demons were at their lowest ebb.

The next thing that Melbourne has in its favour is the competition's in form ruckman in Max Gawn who has his eyes on the scalp of Sam Jacobs. In his last up start in the deluge up in the harbour city, big Max amassed more than fifty hit outs but that huge number was nullified by the conditions which prevented his on ballers from taking advantage. This week should be kinder to him and his midfield headed by Nathan Jones, Jack Viney, Bernie Vince and Dom Tyson. They face some tough opposition with Rory Sloane and Scott Thompson leading the way and feeding a formidable forward line including the likes of Tex Walker, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch and Eddie Betts. 

I can't see Melbourne's young and inexperienced defence holding all of Adelaide's forwards to the point where they can win.

Adelaide by 35 points. 

THE GAME

Melbourne v Adelaide at the MCG Sunday 3 July, 2016 at 3.20 pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Melbourne 12 wins Adelaide 22 wins 

At MCG Melbourne 7 wins Adelaide 6 wins

Past five meetings Melbourne 1 win Adelaide 4 wins

The Coaches Paul Roos 0 wins Don Pyke 0 wins

MEDIA

TV -  Fox Footy Channel Live at 3.00pm

RADIO -  Triple M 3AW SEN ABC ABC Grandstand

THE BETTING

Melbourne to win - $3.15 Adelaide to win - $1.36

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Adelaide 12.8.80 defeated Melbourne 7.13.55 Round 3, 2015 at Adelaide Oval

The 25 point win by Adelaide was somewhat misleading because the Demons were well into the game until they dropped off the pace in the final term against the more accurate Crows.

THE TEAMS

MELBOURNE

B: Sam Frost, Tom McDonald, Neville Jetta

HB: Jayden Hunt, Oscar McDonald, Tomas Bugg

C: Aaron vandenBerg, Dom Tyson, Bernie Vince

HF: Christian Petracca, Chris Dawes, Billy Stretch

F: Jack Watts, Jesse Hogan, Dean Kent

FOLL: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney

I/C: Jeff Garlett, James Harmes, Matt Jones, Ben Kennedy

EMG: Jack Grimes, Viv Michie, Jack Trengove

IN: Jeff Garlett, James Harmes, Matt Jones

OUT: Clayton Oliver (omitted), Jack Trengove (omitted), Josh Wagner (knee)

ADELAIDE CROWS 

B: Jake Lever, Daniel Talia, Rory Laird 

HB: Brodie Smith, Kyle Hartigan, Luke Brown 

C: David Mackay, Rory Sloane, Rory Atkins 

HF: Mitch McGovern, Josh Jenkins, Richard Douglas 

F: Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch 

FOLL: Sam Jacobs, Scott Thompson, Jarryd Lyons 

I/C: Charlie Cameron,  Kyle Cheney, Brad Crouch, Matt Crouch

EMG: Ricky Henderson, Wayne Milera, Andy Otten   

NO CHANGE