TURNING BACK THE CLOCK

by The Oracle

We all know that Neale Daniher is a leading advocate of football's "premiership clock" theory but somebody should have told him that at two in the morning before yesterday's season opener against Carlton, the clocks went back an hour because his team didn't know it - they were running slow, out of synch and out of time for most of their game against the Blues at Telstra Dome. To put it simply, his Demons were out coached by a master coach and outplayed by a team that isn't exactly recognised for its skill and talent.

The dispirited performance against last year's wooden spooner answered a question that has been hanging ominously over the team since it went into free fall in mid season last year. To put it simply again, the Demons are not up to it when the pressure is applied both physically and mentally. Last year's flop can no longer be considered an aberration.

Let's start with the proposition about the team being out coached. One of the two main accusations that Neale Daniher has faced over the years is that he is a reactive coach i.e. that he plans games to nullify the opposition's strengths rather than taking the initiative and setting the agenda himself. The second is that he has no Plan B but at least on yesterday's performance by Melbourne, you can't agree with that that - you need a Plan A if you're going to have a Plan B and we didn't have any plan at all.

But let's get back to the reactive part and I'll give one example. The move of Brad Miller to defence was a coaching box reaction to the Blues' forward set up. Admittedly, the selectors were limited because they didn't have Jared Rivers, Clint Bizzell, Paul Wheatley and Daniel Bell at his disposal but moving Miller away from the most important position on the ground was indicative of Daniher's mindset. He was aiming to nullify Carlton's strengths rather than to set the trend of the game himself and in doing that, he played into Dennis Pagan's hands.

With Miller away from centre half forward, Melbourne had to make do with Paul Johnson and we know contested pack marking is not that player's forte. To make matters worse, the team simply shunned the corridor from the very first start making the task of the Blues' defenders an easy one for the night. When the ball comes forward the long way and your forward line's static (and Neitz, Robertson and Johnson were seemingly chained to the spot all night), it's easy for the opposition defence to clear the ball away time and time again. Miller was needed up forward because he is at least a player who presents himself to the ball. Instead, he was forced into an uncomfortable role in a defence where he and his fellow defenders were under intense pressure all evening because the Blues played far more direct football and, after the opening ten minutes of the game, they also controlled the stoppages.

And it was in the midfield and around the packs that Melbourne was also found wanting. The Blues were the true blue collar midfielders who went in and under to get the football. They wanted to get their hands dirty while Melbourne's on ballers were happy to hang around to get the loose balls that didn't come often and when they did, they were delivered with such poor execution that it beggared belief. That poor disposal was often inexplicable but generally, it came from a tendency to overuse the football and in particular, to deliver one or two handballs too many and thereby creating their own pressure on themselves.

That sort of play is usually borne out of arrogance and contempt for the opposition and you got the impression that the Demons have been reading all of those newspaper reports about the demise of the Carlton Football Club. Perhaps they felt that this was an opportunity to make some hay but, to mangle the words of the great American writer Mark Twain, "The rumours of Carlton's death have been greatly exaggerated".

On the other hand, even at this early stage, Melbourne's season is facing oblivion. I know full well that it's only round one and that there are 21 more weeks to go before the finals but yesterday's loss was nothing short of disaster given that the team faces games against the rampant Bulldogs next week and then travels interstate to play Adelaide (who thumped us by 85 points a month ago) and reigning premier Sydney.

A look at Melbourne's better players, the likes of Brad Green, Cameron Bruce and Aaron Davey doesn't do much to inspire. Fresh and enthusiastic young blood is required and I'd be disappointed if the likes of Matthew Bate, Chris Johnson and Nathan Jones weren't being seriously considered for selection.

Carlton went with its number one recruit Marc Murphy and he didn't let them down. Having seen him play at a number of different levels before, Murphy's Victorian Metro team mate from last year, Nathan Jones, would at least have had the necessary fire in his belly and determination to win the hard ball which is more than you can say for most of the wasteful, mistake-riddled, rabble of a side that represented the Melbourne Football Club on an inglorious opening day to the 2006 season.

The clock is now ticking against us.

Melbourne 3.3.21 4.9.33 6.10.46 10.12.72

Carlton 3.3.21 6.7.43 10.9.69 13.15.93

Goals A. Davey 3 D Neitz R Robertson 2 C Bartram C Bruce C Sylvia.

Best C Bruce B Green A Davey

Injury R Robertson (jarred knee).

Reports Nil

Umpires H Kennedy M Nicholls D Margetts

Official Crowd: 31,139 at Telstra Dome.