WHAT THE DICKENS? by George on the Outer

Demon fans could be forgiven for thinking that they were participants in Charles Dickens novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" but the location was not London or Paris this time but rather Alice Springs where their team was playing a "home" game against the mob from the Gold Coast.

It is the opening stanza from the Dickens novel that so beautifully summed up the game:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—

Indeed the comparison of the way that the Demons played in the first half compared with the second half was truly summed up in this text written just one year after the MFC was formed!  

Particularly this line ...

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Once again, Melbourne got off to a shocker of a start in the game. Gold Coast seemed to waltz through easy goals while the "home" team simply played lazy, going through the motions  football. It was an exact repeat of the previous week ... and the one before that ... and the one before that. 

What gives?

Yes, there was a 3-4 goal wind, and really Gold Coast didn’t make much use of that advantage as they only lead by a couple of goals at the first change but in the second, Melbourne had the wind and by all rights should have iced the game with that advantage. 
 
Sadly, forwards played behind their men, dinky kicks were persisted with, instead of long telling kicks, handballs went sideways and the Demons simply fluffed their opportunities by kicking 2.7 for the quarter.  

With the prospect of the Suns having the wind behind their backs, and still holding a three goal lead into the third quarter, it was truly a "season of Darkness" of Darkness" facing the team and its fans.

That was until Nathan Jones decided enough was enough and almost single-handedly turned the game with as good a quarter of hard, tough football as anyone has seen. Ably assisted by Michael Hibberd off the half-back line they simply dragged the Demons out of the foolishness that they had offered in the first two quarters, and as a result Melbourne found itself in front by the time the ¾ time siren pealed.  

The football gods also intervened, taking a liking to the Demons as the previously strong wind dropped to a zephyr and Rodney Eade made a simply disastrous choice of stacking the backline, leaving the Melbourne mids to have a free run from the centre of the ground.  

The coaches also pulled out plan B in that quarter and moved Tom McDonald into the ruck and Cam Pedersen up forward. This had a dual effect because no matter how it can be painted, Tom is not a forward and doesn’t know how to hold front position in a contest.  

Pedersen is a forward and knows how to bring the ball to ground and provide a target. It was McDonald who started to nullify the Suns rucks and Pedo who provided opportunities for the likes of Garlett and Hannan. He also dragged his man up-field to leave these dangerous forwards with one-on-one contests in space.  

Finally, with the epoch of belief now with the Demons, players who had been unsighted suddenly were everywhere, probably saving them from extended periods at Casey in future games.  How we can convince these players that they need to put in 100% from the start, and not play the game like a half paced training run is a major challenge for the coaching panel.

With its tail up, Melbourne piled on nine goals in the final term - the same number as it put on the board in the previous three quarters!  

Jeff Garlett was superb and probably along with Sam Frost and Hibberd they were the only players in the whole side who played for four quarters. Hibberd has been Melbourne's best recruit for 2017 and one passage of play epitomised how important is his contribution. Taking the ball deep in defence, a 40 m drilled left foot pass broke open the Suns, the ball was quickly moved forward down the wing and centred to ... Hibberd, who then drilled another right foot pass to the leading forward, who goaled.  He had run the length of the ground and hit two players on the chest in quick succession.  If someone knows how to clone a player, please forward the instructions to the MFC.

Finally as the Demons romped home with a 39 point win, after being five goals down in the second, the fans at the game couldn’t celebrate the best of times by singing the club song.  It was the worst of times as the loudspeakers blasted out the Suns' theme song signifying a win to Gold Coast. 

Even when the ground staff put the right song on the public address, it was some strange rendition of the Grand Old Flag that sounded like it was recorded at around the time when Charles Dickens was writing his novels ...

Melbourne 2.1.13 4.8.32 9.10.64 18.14.122

Gold Coast 4.5.29 7.7.49 9.8.62 13.9.87

Goals 

Melbourne Garlett 5  Hannan Harmes Jones 3 Neal-Bullen Petracca Tyson Watts

Gold Coast Matera 3 Barlow Lynch Wright 2 Hall Kolodjashnij Lemmens Sexton

Best 

Melbourne Oliver Jones Hibberd Lewis Garlett Melksham

Gold Coast Hall Swallow Kolodjashnij Leslie Matera 

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Gold Coast Nil 

Umpires Williamson, Jeffery, Glouftsis

Official crowd 5,072 at TIO Traeger Park