WHO SAID A WEEK'S A LONG TIME IN FOOTBALL?

by the Oracle

I love cliches but I'm becoming a bit like the late Samuel Goldwyn who once complained he was sick of hearing the same old cliches; he wanted to hear some new ones. So this is my assault on the time honoured one about a week being a long time in football.

A week?

Let's forget "week" and concentrate on "year".

At this time last year, the Demons were riding high.

I remember it well.

A Friday night at the MCG and the opposition was the team from down at Sleepy Hollow on the other end of the Princes Highway. Melbourne gave that mob a touch up to the tune of 48 points and, at the end of the round was sitting on top of the ladder. Undefeated after three rounds and with a percentage of 151.3. Where were the Cats who are currently riding the crest of a wave and seemingly invincible at this stage of the journey?

They sat in 10th spot with one win, the same number as St. Kilda which had a lower percentage and in 12th place. The Crows and Sydney had two wins each and were sitting fourth and fifth. Sydney lost its next three matches and by round 6 was 2-4, playing "ugly" and 12th on the ladder. Twelve months earlier, the Cats lost their first three games and were last with a percentage of 59.5. Yet they recovered to make it to a top four berth and a narrow preliminary final loss to Brisbane. We all know what the ugly Swans did in 2005.

A year ago, Cameron Bruce was on fire. A best on ground display against the Cats had him as favourite for the Brownlow. We didn't know it at the time but he had already polled 8 Brownlow votes - a fair launching board for any player with aspirations for the highest individual award in the game. As it happened, the wheels fell off for him in the first 30 seconds of round four when he was pole axed (fair tackle?) by Brent Guerra who had one object in mind. The Demons lost for the first time in 2005, Bruce missed a month and a half, never returned to his previous stellar form and was injured again later in the season.

Melbourne recovered but stuttered badly through some games it should have won (Hawthorn and Fremantle on the MCG) but still sat at an impressive nine wins and three losses by the end of the Queens Birthday Round. This left the Demons second only to West Coast, their opponents for Round 13. Along the way, they beat the ultimate premiers by 34 points on the SCG as well as the end of season ladder leaders Adelaide by 24 points on the MCG. Both of these games were tight dour struggles. A win over the Kangaroos at Manuka by 36 points was equally impressive while a 57 point demolition of Richmond at the Dome wasn't bad either as the Tigers were on a roll at the time.

The aforesaid Queens Birthday party win over the Magpies by 45 points with Adem Yze rampant was a real special. The Demons were winning respect in the football world and a good indicator of this was a Fox Footy Viewer Poll taken the night after that game which showed the club had the best midfield in the competition according to those who voted on the White Line Fever programme. Better than the midfield of the Eagles!

Looking back on those heady days, it's hard to believe that the Demons are now second last as they go into round three. In the thirteen games since that victory over Collingwood, they have won only three (by an average of five points each) and have suffered a number of crushing losses. That spiral into freefall has been well documented. When it happened, we put it down partly to injury and the constant travel to interstate venues (four times in 6 rounds) and the mini revival late in the season gave us some fresh hope for a better 2006. So did the fact that the team had an almost 100% fit list going through the summer pre season months.

Well, that's in the past now and the start to 2006 has been so demoralizing.

But look at what beckons over the coming weeks!

This Sunday, it's Adelaide at Carrara (our home game thanks to the Commonwealth Games) and the following week, it's the Swans in Sydney. The big question now is whether the Dees can find new legs and grow new wings, and find new inspiration where there has been precious little over the past fortnight?

How on earth can they make this recovery against a team that ran rings around them only a month ago in the semi-final of the nab cup - especially in the last half of that game when they were held to a meagre three points and ran around AAMI Stadium like headless chooks?

There are, of course, numerous precedents for massive turn arounds in form, some of which have been alluded to above. In Melbourne's case we need only look at the start to 2004 when the team staggered through the season opener against Hawthorn and lost by a massive 49 points. Skipper David Neitz spent most of that afternoon immobile masquerading as a wooden Indian in the Demon forward line, the midfield was slaughtered and the defence leaked like a sieve. Six days later, against Richmond, a new Melbourne emerged. Neitz kicked nine goals straight, Brad Miller stood tall at CHF, the midfield reigned supreme and Alistair Nicholson (bless his heart) tore Richo to shreds at full back. Had it been a horse race, they would have called in the stewards and the result would have made the Cole Enquiry look like a Sunday school picnic.

Later on that year, Melbourne, sitting on 10 wins and 3 defeats travelled to the City of Churches to take on a dispirited Adelaide (4-9) for Neil Craig's first gig as coach after Garry Ayres had been summarily dismissed. Who would have predicted the final score line of 22.13.145 to 10.13.73 in favour of the Crows? A 12-goal flogging!

Back in the present, it's a bit too early to see what the Melbourne brains trust has in store for the Crows but there are signs that the defence is going to get a major overhaul this week with Jared Rivers and Nathan Brown returning and Matthew Warnock making his debut after a month on the sidelines with a broken thumb. This is a courageous piece of selection as the Demons looked as if they ran out of puff after half time against the Doggies. To bring in a bloke who has missed five weeks is a bit of a risk in those circumstances, but we know that Warnock can add a bit of height and dash - and he's not short on enthusiasm either.

And on the subject of dash, one would haved hoped for the inclusion of Matthew Bate in final selection because he's done enough to deserve it. Unfortunately, the selectors thought otherwise and went with the old and the slow.

This just proves the coaching mindset that for Melbourne a victory can only be eked out if its core players start firing some shots. It would be nice to see Neitz taking some grabs again instead of allowing the ball to bounce freely out of his hands when going for marks. Perhaps a bit more pace on a lead and some better placement from players further afield might help. So would some better accuracy from his kicks inside 50 metres. It would also be nice to see Brad Miller settle down at centre half forward instead of going down back where he has floundered so far this year. Likewise better form from Jeff White, a return of the Davey dazzle and the Johnstone magic, the Robbo zest, enthusiasm and high marking (he hasn't gotten off the ground yet this season), some of the toughness Byron Pickett used to display when he was against us, a bit of Matty Whelan courage and dash and could new dad Adem Yze please play as he did a year ago or better still, four year's ago? For heaven's sake, the whole team has been relying too heavily thus far on two players - Cameron Bruce and Colin Sylvia - without them things would have been even more ugly to date.

And that's the key. The Demons have had too many passengers, too many individual efforts and far too few hard workers in their opening games. When they travel to Carrara for Easter they must surely know that they can turn things around only by performing at their best and as a team. A week or a year may be a long time, but in football there is always some chance of redemption for the players if they want it bad enough.

MELBOURNE v ADELAIDE

THE TEAMS

MELBOURNE

B Wheatley Carroll Whelan

HB Warnock Rivers Ward

C Green McDonald Bartram

HF Robertson Miller Davey

F Bruce Neitz McLean

FOLL White Sylvia Johnstone

I/C Brown Jamar Pickett Yze

EM Bate C Johnson Moloney

In Brown Warnock Rivers

Out Ferguson (punctured lung/broken ribs) C Johnson Moloney

New Matthew Warnock (Sandringham Zebras)

ADELAIDE

B Hart Rutten Johncock

HB van Berlo McGregor Reilly

C Burton Shirley Mattner

HF Bode Perrie Thompson

F Edwards Hentschel Ricciuto

FOLL Biglands Goodwin McLeod

I/C Bassett Clarke Doughty Skipworth

EM Massie Porplyzia Vince

In Hentschel Skipworth

Out Knights (shoulder) Stevens

Field umpires: Stevic McLaren Jeffrey

Where & When: Carrara Stadium, 1.10pm, Sunday 16 April.

TV & Radio: Channel 9 (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane), Fox Footy Channel (Adelaide, Perth), ABC Radio

Head to Head: Played 22 Melbourne 8 wins Adelaide 14 wins

Last time: Adelaide 13.22.100 defeated Melbourne 7.4.46 in round 19, 2005 at AAMI Stadium

The betting: Melbourne $2.90, Adelaide $1.35

My tip: A sunny day but a gloomy result. Crows by 34 points.

This happens to be their average winning margin and our average losing margin thus far in 2006. In view of what I've written above, that's a farly average summation and I can only hope my prediction turns out to be less than average!