TAKING THE HONOURS by George on the Outer

[Demonland 72,176]

On the Queen's Birthday (or rather, King George V’s) it is customary to hand out the honours to those most deserving members of the community for their achievements in life.  

Since Melbourne was playing Collingwood on the day that commemorates the royal birthday, there could not be a more deserving recipient of the honours than Melbourne. Collingwood deserve and get nothing.

With the season at the half-way mark and the Demons on 5 wins and 5 losses, the second half of the year really depended on a successful outcome of this game - a win would move them into sixth place but a loss would be a disaster for it meant dropping to 11th position on the ladder and more importantly, a game outside the top eight. 

And therefore, when called upon to perform, the Demons delivered. In doing so they have now put themselves into a realistic position to play finals.  With the 9th, 10th and 11th teams all facing difficult opposition in their next-up games Melbourne has the opportunity to go eight points clear IF they can beat the Western Bulldogs in six day's time.

Now to the match at hand. The Demons finished the first quarter slightly ahead after a pretty even thirty minutes which was encouraging because, for the first time in ages, they actually turned up to play and weren’t four goals down at the break ... of course, they saved that for the second quarter!

Collingwood kicked six unanswered goals in that second term which saw the Demons playing some abysmal football. All of their worst was on display, yet again, with dinky too smart kicks, stupid handball overuse, and players simply not putting in; the game looked as good as over at half-time.

Fortunately, Simon Goodwin was there to right the ship and he once again instituted some critical changes. Tom McDonald into ruck (he simply cannot play forward which he did in the first half). Jake Melksham out of the middle where he had been tagging Pendelbury - the coaches realised Pendelbury was doing little, and so by keeping Melksham in the middle it was like virtually playing with a man down.  A move for him to the forward line yielded a goal, but little else and he will surely be left out for next week in favour of Josh Wagner. 

Oscar McDonald put in a shocker in the first half, and then played a blinder in the second …go figure! Completely all at sea he was going at half pace and turning the ball over with monotonous regularity. Then he came out and spoilt everything in the air and took a truly telling mark in the third which would otherwise have resulted in a certain opposition goal.

With Pedersen and Tom McDonald holding Grundy to the status of hitout king but to little or no advantage to their mids and the stronger Melbourne mids slowly took over. Clayton Oliver, Nathan Jones and Jack Viney began to get their hands on the ball and for the first time in the game started kicking it forward.  This exposed the Collingwood backline, and Melbourne piled on six goals to two in the third to once again lead by the narrowest of margin at the final break.  

It then came down to an arm wrestle with both sides within a couple of points of each other, until the Demons managed to find Jack Watts on his own 50 meter line out on the flank.  He then slowly and deliberately moved toward goal and split the majors sending the final dagger into the heart of Collingwood's hopes.  While they dragged one back in the dying seconds, it was the Demons in the end by four points.

The injury room at the end wouldn’t fill us with confidence as Jayden Hunt had extended treatment for an ankle, Watts for his back in addition to a previous ankle injury, and Sam Frost spent and inordinate time off the field in the third. We won’t see Jesse Hogan for another two weeks at least and Max Gawn is positively not ready yet.  

However, the Demons have now shown they can match it with anyone, that it can win close games and are becoming the comeback kings.  

The club must stop these quarters of football where the team seems to go to sleep and lapse into appalling habits. Against the Bulldogs with their ferocious attack style of play that would be a recipe for disaster.  

Melbourne took the honours today by a bare margin. It now must learn to take the honours emphatically and without assuming that they will be handed out without the difficult inputs that hallmark successful sides. 

Melbourne 4.3.27 6.6.42 12.9.81 15.14.104

Collingwood 3.2.20 10.5.65 12.8.80 15.10.100

Goals

Melbourne Petracca Watts 3 Bugg Garlett 2 Hannan Harmes T McDonald Melksham Pedersen 

Collingwood De Goey Fasolo Greenwood Moore Phillips Sidebottom 2 Aish Crocker Treloar 

Best

Melbourne Petracca Jones Viney Hibberd Watts Hunt Garlett

Collingwood Sidebottom Grundy Treloar Howe Maynard Broomhead

Changes

Melbourne Nil 

Collingwood Nil 

Injuries 

Melbourne Jack Watts (back)

Collingwood Nil 

Reports

Melbourne Nil 

Collingwood Nil 

Umpires Rosebury, Stephens, Ryan, Mollison

Official Crowd 70,926 at the MCG