I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW

[Demonland 73,140]

by Whispering Jack (with thanks to Johnny Nash)

The morning after a wet night. The rain is gone. So are the dark clouds, the bad feelings and the obstacles that were in my way. There's nothing but blue skies (well almost) and rainbows. It's going to be a bright (bright), bright (bright), sunshiny day.

My apologies for using a bit of poetic licence folks, but that's exactly how I feel right at this moment.

Which is quite the opposite at least to where I was a month ago with regard to my footy team. Even yesterday when I stepped on the V-Line train bound for Richmond Station and the Rivalry Round match between Melbourne and Geelong, I admit that I did so with some trepidation. My mind was full of negative thoughts about how they were going to perform and I fully expected the worst.

My mind kept drifting back to a similarly dirty evening some three years ago when the Demons played the Cats on rain drenched MCG in the late 2003 Heritage Round game. It was a disastrous night for Melbourne fans who watched as their team was demolished completely by a promising young Geelong combination that was obviously going places. From our point of view however, there was nothing but doom and gloom for the foreseeable future with perhaps the only ray of sunshine being the inevitability of a priority draft pick.

It was the ensuing early draft picks and the improved team performances in the following seasons that convinced me that things were getting better for the Melbourne Football Club. However, an appalling performance in the pre season game in Adelaide, some poor early form against Carlton and the Bulldogs and a growing injury list saw dark clouds building on the team's horizon. The club’s 2006 was literally hanging on a thread a fortnight ago with two or three minutes to go in Sydney when scores were even and the following week's win over the Kangaroos was hardly inspiring.

There was something different in the victory over Geelong. Melbourne succeeded against the odds. It went into the game without its skipper, without a number of talls (which effectively deprived it of an entire defensive and attacking spine) and some important defenders. A few of the players were in the side off limited preparations, there was a question mark over the fitness of last year's leading goal kicker Russell Robertson and then Nathan Brown, who was playing well, injured his hamstring early in the second term. How could a young Demon side with a number of fresh teenaged faces and a number of others with limited AFL experience, match it with the early season flag favourites who were welcoming back into their line up some experienced and dangerous players?

Bloody well, I reckon!

The first challenge for the young Demons was to start the quarter well and they did that as they took control for the first fifteen minutes thanks to some great play from Brock McLean who gave them great drive out of the middle aided by up and coming leaders in Cameron Bruce and Brad Green and a solid display by Brown who was in control at half back. Important goals were scored by unlikely types in Mark Jamar and debutant Lynden Dunn and the Dees suddenly held a two goal lead. Geelong braced itself and fought back but the important thing was that Melbourne was thereabouts at the first break and had not cracked.

The second quarter was an arm wrestle with Geelong still barely ahead at the main break but the Cats took the ascendancy early in the third term and, when Cam Mooney was paid the softest of frees against Benny Holland (is there a C. Mooney appreciation society among the umpiring fraternity or what?), he put them in what should have been an unassailable position with a lead of three goals in the wet conditions – a lead that soon went to 21 points and could have been far greater but for some lairising from one or two Geelong players.

It was a time to dig deep and Melbourne struck back through some inspiration cameos of toughness from Byron Pickett and silky smoothness from Aaron Davey. Brock McLean, who was strong all night, worked the packs beautifully, Adem Yze, Bruce and Green continued to do the important linking up around the ground and the young Demons all stuck manfully to the task. Unsung heroes like Daniel Bell (in the absence of Brown) and Nathan Carroll tightened up in defence and Jared Rivers was simply masterful and, in my opinion, overshadowed the AFL's leading defender at the other end of the ground. Since his return to the team in round three Rivers has shown great composure and is one of the main reasons for the team’s resurgence. This bloke is a champion in the making at a club which has produced very few champions in the past three or four decades.

So Melbourne took control of the game late in the third term thanks partly to some brilliance from its rising stars (and you can pencil in the names of Matthew Bate and Lynden Dunn in bold ink among that group) and a goal of sheer brilliance from The Flash. Geelong appeared to be tiring badly while the Demons were full of running and that pattern continued until deep in the quarter. A lucky late term goal when the ball skidded seemingly forever through the goals gave the Cats some hope but the Demons were never going to let this one out of the bag.

A lot of the praise for the win must go to Neale Daniher who used the rotations brilliantly in the tough conditions. If you look at the AFL’s Official Statistics there is a category that goes under the heading "TOG" and this column highlights the length of time the coaching panel utilised the midfield group, particularly its younger members. Brock McLean was on the ground for 85 minutes out of a possible 115 or 74% of total game time for 28 disposals. Brent Moloney was also on for 74% for 22 possessions and Matthew Bate (69 minutes or 60%) for 21 touches (11 of them contested!). These are just three of the stand out examples. In conditions like the ones that prevailed last night, it's important that your players are kept as fresh as possible. It helps the players remain hard at it when they're on the ground and there could be no better example of this than the use of James McDonald and Travis Johnstone who were also used sparingly. In his 83 minutes, McDonald got his hands on the ball 16 times and executed 9 tackles. Melbourne's engine room burned strongly in the cold chilly rain soaked conditions helping immeasurably in getting the team over the line.

I'll finish off with the bright ray of sunshine but preface my comments with the usual warning about young emerging sides and the fact that their performances are often tinged with inconsistency. Last night we saw all of the club's four young horsemen, McLean, Moloney, Bell and Colin Sylvia together in the same team for the first time this year. They are no longer the club's youngest now that we have Clint Bartram, Bate and Dunn playing so well and Chris Johnson likely to join them. Nathan Jones is not that far away either. Soon, we’ll be talking not about a handful of young horsemen but an entire cavalry. The prospects for the future are great. As for the immediate future – the coming weeks see two more games at the G against current top eight sides in Fremantle and Hawthorn before a further test against the Eagles at Subiaco. I know we are, as always, taking things a week at a time but every week, things are looking brighter and more sunshiny.

Melbourne 3.3.21 6.5.41 11.7.73 13.9.87

Geelong 4.2.26 6.6.42 10.10.70 11.15.81

Goals C Bruce A Davey L Dunn R Robertson 2 M Bate M Jamar B McLean J White A Yze

Best C Bruce B McLean A Yze M Bate J Rivers J McDonald

Umpires H Kennedy S Meredith D Woodcock

Official Crowd 36,041 at the MCG.