MARVELOUS PRESSURE by George on the Outer

Is this a new form of Melbourne which has suddenly emerged in 2021? 

In the past, whenever the pressure was applied, the team would falter early and as a consequence, it would more often than not, be forced to confront its own self-inflicted failure.

But perhaps not so this year. The match at Marvel Stadium against the Saints provided an insight into how creating pressure, actually relieves it on the club, players and coach.

Right from the start, Melbourne was there to make a statement. With St.Kilda promising so much pre-season, the hopes were high, and a Demon loss would have seen the club slip back into the pack in the race to secure a finals spot. 

However, the 18 point victory against a finals contender will surely lead the game’s observers to take some notice of what the Demons have been crafting in the past couple of years.

It is the group of young players who are making their mark. Trent Rivers, Tom Sparrow, James Jordon, Kysiah Pickett and Luke Jackson, with barely 1/10th of the games that Nathan Jones has under his belt in his career, are already carving their names into regular spots in the side, and putting pressure on other older experienced players to just get a game.

They can’t be denied, and their performances will keep them in the side.  But it is also the team pressure that was so evident from early in the game, that eventually won the day.  Even when the Demons were 16 points down in the second quarter, they continued to apply the pressure and then got the results with eight of the next ten goals.  That’s not the Melbourne side that the fans have been watching play in the past years. 

Right from the outset, the addition of Jack Viney in the midfield was telling as he kicked the first two goals for the side.  But it was the Jack of old, with his toughness around the ball, which enabled Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca the latitude to be so, so damaging. 

This week they took full advantage of Max Gawn’s ruck dominance and had 17 clearances between them, while Viney chimed in with four of his own.

St.Kilda have a simple sling-shot tactic and game plan, but when you pressure and shut down their small runners, in the same way that Melbourne did to them in Alice Springs last year, they get starved of chances.  Lonie, Billings, Butler and Higgins were barely sighted and it all fell to Gresham to try and create opportunities. But he couldn’t do that on his own. 

The backs just did what they did last week, and the intercept marking of Steven May, Jake Lever and Adam Tomlinson was brilliantly backed up by the ground work of Nev Jetta, Rivers and Christian Salem. More important was the clean delivery they provided further up the ground, which simply kept pressuring the St.Kilda backs. 

The forwards are still missing the fire-power to benefit from these chances, but Tom McDonald did his best and finished with a couple of goals.  Bayley Firtisch had numerous set-shot chances, but could only manage to trouble the goal umpire once. However, Pickett was superb and cut a swathe through the defenders to put in an early candidate for goal of the year.
 
Likewise his constant pressure has them looking over their shoulder all the time, but like the Saints situation, it can’t be left to one or two to “carry the can”.  Hopefully, the long awaited arrival of Ben Brown will soon come to give Tom some help in holding off the big defenders.   

Luke Jackson is still raw, but very talented, and we still have to purloin him to fill in with ruck duties. Still when the side can put together a score of 91 points, we will be in the winner circle most games. 

The pressure and the media attention suddenly moves off the coach and the club. The journalists will find another easy target, but this type of win gives everyone much more breathing space.  It gives everyone the chance to show their capabilities and as we have seen to date, we can start to marvel at what is possible!

MELBOURNE 3.4.22 6.7.43 9.13.67 12.19.91

ST KILDA 3.2.20 6.3.39 8.4.52 11.7.73

GOALS

Melbourne McDonald Pickett Viney 2 Fritsch Jones Langdon Neal-Bullen Spargo Sparrow

St Kilda Steele 3 King 2 Battle, Billings Gresham Higgins McKernan Membrey

BEST

Melbourne Oliver Salem Gawn Petracca May Pickett

St Kilda Steele Howard Gresham Ross Gresham Wilkie

INJURIES

Melbourne Nil

St Kilda Jimmy Webster (jaw)

REPORTS

Melbourne Nil

St Kilda Nil

SUBSTITUTES

Melbourne Oskar Baker (unused)

St Kilda St Kilda Jack Bytel (replaced Webster)

UMPIRES Foot Fleer Mollison

CROWD 25,903 at Marvel Stadium