WATTS PAYS HIS WAY by George on the Outer

It was only 10 days ago that Jack Watts signed on with the Demons for another 3 years. They say that for many players a contract extension almost always ensures a subsequent drop off in form but not for our Jack. Against the Gold Coast Suns, he single-handedly won a game that was all but lost in the dying two minutes when he calmly slotted through a shot from a difficult angle to put the Demons in front and that was despite him being absolutely exhausted to get to the space and take the mark. Then a minute later, to take a match saving mark down the other end right in front of the opposition goal, meant that he has already paid Melbourne back for his contract extension.  

Those efforts from Watts gave the Demons the match, the four points and produced the best season performance for the club since 2006 although it was all nearly thrown away by Bernie Vince, who kicked a shocker to Tom Lynch with just seconds to go. The subsequent kick after the siren fortunately missed but for Bernie, that was the culmination of a simply forgettable game; his inability to provide any game influence over this and the preceding weeks is now becoming problematic.

In the middle, the Suns were missing their six best in Ablett, Prestia, Rischetelli, Hall, Saad, McKenzie and Currie all missing, plus O’Meara and Swallow unable to play all season.

With Max Gawn absolutely dominating hitouts (60!), both in the middle and around the ground, it should have been a one-way procession for the Demons all game.  But it was not to be, and despite the fact that Dom Tyson had 31 disposals, not sufficient of them were effective.  

It is worthwhile comparing the handball to kick ratio for Melbourne with that of Hawthorn this week, who are the benchmark in just about everything.  

Tyson 12 Kicks 19 Handballs.  
Shaun Burgoyne 16 kicks 9 handballs.  
Nathan Jones 9 kicks 14 handballs.  
Jordan Lewis 12 kicks 15 handballs. 
Jack Viney  7 kicks 10 handballs.  
Sam Mitchell 10 kicks 12 handballs.

The ratio should be about 1 to 1 for the mids, but Melbourne's are simply overusing the ball with silly handballs that cause turnovers and delays.  

In this match, they did exactly the same as the previous week against West Coast. Melbourne absolutely dominated nearly every statistic and at one stage had 50% more possessions than Gold Coast but again there was no equivalent domination on the scoreboard.  

We have fallen for the trap of trying to retain possession at the cost of attack.  Only Jayden Hunt and Christian Petracca seem capable of “taking the game on”.  There has become an unwillingness in recent weeks to take the risk, and reap the rewards. Without the skill levels of Hawthorn overuse of the ball will result in turnovers. Today five goals seven behinds of the Suns' score (more than 50%) came from Demon errors.

Against Hawthorn next week, we will see what the benchmark is like in reality.  Performances like those of the last few matches will result in a rout.  And we are facing the reality of many players putting in performances which are simply sub-standard.  

Jesse Hogan is surely injured and could barely raise a trot today after twisting and ankle early, and then crashing a goal post later.  Vince is running up and down on the one spot for most of the game. Chris Dawes had eight touches for the whole game: Jeff Garlett - 6!

The mantra coming from the coaches is that we only have a young side … which is true, but it is not the younger players who are letting the side down at the moment.  

Tom McDonald notched up his 100th game, and it is important to remember how young he is as well.  Brother Oscar and Josh Wagner are obviously being groomed for next year, but there is a lot of grooming needed, particularly for Oscar, who simply loses his man too often. 

Melbourne is better performed than last year and has uncovered some seriously good talent for the future but next week will show us exactly how far we have to go.  

Would it be a little bit too much to expect Jack Watts to pull another rabbit out of his hat?

Melbourne 1.3.9 6.6.42 7.10.52 9.12.66

Gold Coast Suns 3.3.21 4.6.30 6.8.44 9.10.64

Goals

Melbourne vandenBerg Watts 3 Dawes Kent Petracca 

Gold Coast Suns Garlett Lynch Matera 2 Grant Malceski Shaw

Best

Melbourne Tyson Watts Harmes vandenBerg O McDonald, Gawn

Gold Coast Suns Miller Rosa Lynch Harbrow Shaw 

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Suns Nil

Injuries 

Melbourne Hogan (left knee)

Gold Coast Suns Shaw (left ankle)

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Suns Nil

Umpires Fisher, Margetts, Foote

Official crowd 20,627 at MCG

No it would not be George Jack is going to do it on a regular basis in the future.

IMO he now believes he is good.

There have been so many occasions in the past when we have lost games such as this one but for once we won "ugly". 

It's a concern but this is a young team that's showing signs of tiring as the year draws to a close. 

I would like to see some of them rested a couple at a time over the coming few weeks and others brought in to give them an opportunity to show if they have what it takes. It would seem that the die is cast for some but for others like Sam Weideman and Clayton Oliver their time is coming.

 

45 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

There have been so many occasions in the past when we have lost games such as this one but for once we won "ugly". 

It's a concern but this is a young team that's showing signs of tiring as the year draws to a close. 

I would like to see some of them rested a couple at a time over the coming few weeks and others brought in to give them an opportunity to show if they have what it takes. It would seem that the die is cast for some but for others like Sam Weideman and Clayton Oliver their time is coming.

 

With injuries I would not be surprised to see  4-5 changes WJ

Just a thought on the over use and inability to score issue that has appeared in the last few weeks. Is it a case of (sorry for quoting Roosy) getting the balance right. We were all arguing that our defence leaked like a sieve yet our attack was good, although we did still over use it. Have the coaches identified this after some of our poor games and are now simply trying to get the balance back by telling the players we need to defend better and this has cost us our attack. 

If this is the case it would make sense that our leaders were the ones going defensive, which is evident by not taking the game on, as they are the ones trying to implement what the coaches want whereas the kids may not be as disciplined.

I think if we go all out attack we are very good at it, we are also pretty good at all out defence, we just suck at combining the two at the minute. 

If you look at the WC game we defended and held the ball in very well all game, we just couldn't bloody score yet the saints game we couldn't defend at all it seemed. Now against GC we kind of did both bits OK but neither very well. 

18 minutes ago, old dee said:

With injuries I would not be surprised to see  4-5 changes WJ

Leaving aside, Jesse's knee, the only injuries we have at the moment are the mystery injuries of the week and we don't know about them yet.

12 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Leaving aside, Jesse's knee, the only injuries we have at the moment are the mystery injuries of the week and we don't know about them yet.

Spot on WJ.

I get the feeling ( From Roos comments ) that a few players might get a rest this week after travelling to Darwin and Perth followed by  a couple of six day breaks.

That probably means no change.

 

15 minutes ago, old dee said:

Spot on WJ.

I get the feeling ( From Roos comments ) that a few players might get a rest this week after travelling to Darwin and Perth followed a couple of six day breaks.

That probably means no change.

 

I'm thinking a few changes this week on top of Jessie one. I also still think VDB was pumped for his game and came through the test quite well. It's wiser to say test rather than rest.

They have already mentioned travel problems so will be looking at a few this week no problems. Oliver in Bernie out for a start with lingering soreness. And more....Maybe Trengove for another look.

A different perspective -

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