MATCH REPORT - Round 17

[Demonland 65,297]

A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS by George on the Outer

It has been 10 years since Melbourne beat St. Kilda, and that was in an Elimination Final. During the season the record goes back to 2002!

Not that the Saints are any world/beating side.  Like the Demons, they have inhabited the bottom half of the ladder for the past 5 years, but we still cannot beat them.  And so the record continued on after yet another insipid performance at that woeful stadium known as Etihad.
 
The fact that only 25,000 people could be bothered to turn up for a match against two Melbourne based sides each with nearly 40,000 members, says a lot about this miserable venue.  
 
That St. Kilda have to play artificial crowd noise through the loudspeakers after each of their goals, is an indictment on the lack of natural crowd noise.  That they think a ½ time staring (not blinking) competition for kids is going to bring fans through gate, is an indictment on the boring rubbish that the AFL is serving up as entertainment.  
 
What we all come to see is football, but there wasn’t a lot of that going on either.  Melbourne got off to a flying start to lead by 3 goals at ¼ time but then failed to turn up for the second term and most of the third.  By that time St. Kilda had kicked 8 unanswered goals and the game was as good as over.
 
It wasn’t the Darwin effect as some may claim. With an eight day break for the players, it is more than sufficient to recover, especially as Fremantle were able to take it right up to Geelong with an even shorter time between games.  
 
No we weren’t tired……we were just incompetent!
 
The Saints almost exclusively scored from stupid, sometimes unforced errors by the Melbourne players handballing to stationary targets, or players not in a better position just simply played into the Saints hands. We were getting the ball and led easily for possessions, but we just kept giving it to them.  
 
Dom Tyson needs to be taken aside and told to kick the ball when he can when he is in a pack.  At Hawthorn, Mitchell and Lewis belt the ball out of the congestion without thinking and so open up opportunities up the field.  Of Tyson's 20 disposals only half were on the boot. Simply not enough for a mid.  
 
Unfortunately, the virus spread and others just kept doing the same.  Nathan Jones played an absolutely forgettable game, and his kicking has returned to that similar to the early stages of his career. Ben Kennedy was mostly unsighted, Jeff Garlett kicked a couple but otherwise wasn’t to be seen, VandenBerg looked injured again and could only muster a dozen touches.  Mitch White, Matt Jones and Jack Grimes did little to trouble the statisticians.
 
However, Jack Viney was a solitary standout winner in the packs and he also kept the St. Kilda danger-man in Stevens to a lowly 25 touches, which is well below his usual output.  As well Jack nearly turned the tide in the third quarter with a spectacular courageous mark that gave the fans a glimmer of hope leading into the final quarter.
 
And so it turned out to be, as the Demons got back to within five points, and then returned to their previous lazy efforts to see the game result get blown out to five goals.  
 
The result should have been much more, with the Saints getting 35 scoring shots, but they are simply not good enough to do much better.  
 
The pity was that we were unable to capitalise on their lack of skill, save for being an even worse team when it came to using the ball.
 
While there are few players at Casey who could have improved the overall performance today, at least we found out that Matt Jones, Grimes and White are simply not going to provide any upside in the years to come.  For each of them, their future is bleak.  
 
They may get a couple more games, because the players who are being developed at Casey like Clayton Oliver, Alex Neal-Bullen, Billy Stretch, Liam Hulett, Sam Weideman and yes, Jack Trengove are not ready to take the step up.  We don’t want to fall into the trap that we have done so many times in the past of putting kids up when they are not quite ready. 
 
With this loss, the season has become another sad state of affairs.  It was important for the future to finish on a high note, by winning these type of games.  It gives young players hope, and for those that are yet to re-sign it is important that they can see a positive future to staying with the club. 
 
But with coming games against WCE, Hawthorn, Geelong and Port, it is more likely that the season will be a repeat of last when we simply fell off a cliff.  The fall will be even harder if the games against Carlton and Gold Coast result in defeats!
 
That would be an even sadder state of affairs...
 
Melbourne 6.2.38 6.5.41 9.7.61 11.8.74          
 
St Kilda 3.3.21 8.6.54 10.12.72 15.20.110                                         

Goals
 
Melbourne Garlett Gawn Petracca 2 Hogan Kennedy vandenBerg Viney Watts
 
St Kilda Membrey 4 Weller 3 Geary 2 Bruce Dunstan Montagna Riewoldt Roberton Weller

Best
 
Melbourne Viney Vince T McDonald Jetta Harmes 
 
St Kilda Hickey Membrey Steven Weller Ross Montagna

Changes
 
Melbourne Josh Wagner replaced Sam Frost (ill) in the selected side
 
St Kilda Nil
 
Injuries 
 
Melbourne Hogan (hip) Watts (right ankle)

St Kilda Nil

Reports
 
Melbourne Jesse Hogan for striking Jarryn Geary in the fourth quarter
 
Umpires Bannister Stephens Nicholls