CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS by The Oracle

This weekend, the Melbourne Football Club was supposed to embark on a tour that started with what looked like an innocent trip to the country’s sunny Gold Coast. However, the Covid19 pandemic intervened to bring them back home for this week at least. Next week, it’s off to the West Coast but conspiracy theorists are already suggesting that this interstate sojourn could take the team all the way across the country over the next month and indeed, there are cynics who even believe that it could become a fully-fledged world tour that will take them far beyond Darwin and our northern borders and all the way to Japan for the 2020 Olympics!

Of course, as much as that suggestion sounds fanciful and far-fetched, it can’t be entirely ruled out in this era of rumour, innuendo and conspiracy theories. With the Demons going through a bit of a slump in recent weeks, nothing could be better than a change of scenery and an alteration to the mix. This is considered necessary because, despite the team's success early in the season, it seems to have dried up in terms of inspiration over the past month or so.

Even if the Demons don’t make it physically to Tokyo, they should at least adopt the Olympic motto of “faster, higher, stronger and kick the bloody thing straight” in the lead up to the finals!

This week, Melbourne has at least done something to adapt to the Olympic spirit engendered by the Aussies by bringing in some new blood at long last. While the Demons have been assisted in their 2021 campaign by the fact that their playing list has remained relatively healthy, there has been a down-side in the sameness and familiarity has led to some of the players starting to look tired and stale. The introduction of Jake Bowey, a live wire small with silky kicking skills, is just the tonic needed by the club. I’m expecting him to make an instant impression in much the same way as the introduction of Ariarne Titmus and Zac Stubblety-Cook have had on the Aussie swimming team. Swimming Australia’s performance consultant Jeremy Hickmans, a former NRL coach, has described Titmus as being as tough as any NRL player and in similar vein, nobody should underestimate Bowey’s approach to the game and what he can bring to the team.

Earlier in the week it was reported that coach Simon Goodwin had “subtly” introduced more goal kicking at training. It didn’t escape my notice that the word “subtly” sounds very much like our new Olympic champion’s surname or at least half of it. And that’s certainly been half of the problem of late since round 12 during which time the Demons have ranked last for goal kicking accuracy at a rate of just 37.5 per cent. Straighten that issue up and you don’t lose or draw games; instead you go directly to the podium to collect gold. I’m therefore suggesting a slight tweaking of names for our forwards this week and predicting that players of the calibre of Ben Stubblety-Brown, Tom Stubblety-McDonald, Bayley Stubblety-Fritsch and of course Alex Stubblety-Neal-Bullen will get their kicking mojos back and put the team back on course in the same way that Jess Fox did in her C-1 event at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre.

I’m not ignoring the Gold Coast Suns in all of this but let’s face it, they’re in heaps of trouble after losing Oleg Markov to a hamstring injury this week. The former Tiger and son of Olympian and World Champion pole vaulter Dmitri was an important cog in his team’s campaign for this Olympiad and he will be sorely missed coming off the back of his team’s disappointing 49-point loss to the Lions. The Demons will still have to keep an eye on the dangerous Touk Miller who dominated when the teams met last year but the young Gold Coast combination appears to have hit the wall after a tough season.

I mentioned that half of Melbourne’s recent issues related to poor kicking for goal but most of the other half has to do with the way the Demons are being treated by the men in white or whatever colour they happen to be wearing on a given day. Not that I’m suggesting the free kick numbers should be 50/50 but the last two games have seen them go down in the count by 11-25 (Bulldogs) and 15-22 (Hawks) which, at 35.6%, representing a poorer result than its goal kicking percentage. One of these days, the referees might bless us with a gold standard percentage.

The Dees might have been going through a minor slump but nobody can deny the power of their “Awesome Foursome” in the midfield — the magnificent Max Stubblety-Gawn, Christian Stubblety-Petracca, Clayton Stubblety-Oliver and James Stubblety-Harmes will get them through by the half a body length or, in football terms, 15 points.

THE GAME

Gold Coast Suns v Melbourne at Marvel Stadium Sunday 1 August, 2021 at 12.10pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall - Gold Coast Suns 3 wins Melbourne 11 wins

At Marvel Stadium - Gold Coast Suns 0 wins Melbourne 0 wins

Past five matches - Gold Coast Suns 0 wins Melbourne 5 wins

The Coaches - Dew 0 wins Goodwin 4 wins

MEDIA

TV - live and on demand on Kayo and live on Foxtel. Check your local guides.

Radio - check your local guides.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Melbourne 12.8.80 defeated Gold Coast Suns 9.9.63 at Giants Stadium, Round 6, 2020

The Demons struggled to shake off a dogged Suns outfit inspired by the debut game of Izak Rankine who stole the show with three goals. Max Gawn was steady in the ruck and Christian Petracca was a major influence in the middle, aided by some strong work from Jack Viney.

THE TEAMS

GOLD COAST SUNS

B: W. Powell 27 S. Collins 25 S. Lemmens 23
HB: J. Farrar 50 C. Burgess 29 C. Ballard 10
C: J. Lukosius 13 T.  Miller 11 J. Sharp 37
HF: J. Corbett 19 J. Jeffrey 40 A. Sexton 6
F: D. MacPherson 44 B. King 34 B. Ainsworth 9
Foll: Z. Smith 32 N. Anderson 15 D. Swallow 24
I/C: J. Bowes 3 B. Fiorini 8 S. Flanders 26 M. Rowell 18
Sub: W. Brodie 7 Emerg: R. Atkins 2 A. Davies 30 C. Graham 46

IN: J. Farrar J. Jeffrey D. MacPherson Z. Smith

OUT: R. Atkins (omitted) C. Graham (omitted) O. Markov (hamstring) I. Rankine (omitted)

MELBOURNE

B: T. Rivers 24 S. May 1 H. Petty 35
HB: J. Hunt 29 J. Lever 8 C. Salem 3
C: A. Brayshaw 10 C. Petracca 5 E. Langdon 15
HF: C. Spargo 9 T. McDonald 25 J. Viney 7
F: A. Neal-Bullen 30 B. Brown 50 B. Fritsch 31
Foll: M. Gawn 11 C. Oliver 13 J. Harmes 4
I/C: J. Bowey 17 L. Jackson 6 K. Pickett 36 T. Sparrow 32
Sub: J. Jordon 23 Emerg: M. Hibberd 14 J. Melksham 18 S. Weideman 26

IN: J. Bowey

OUT: M. Hibberd (omitted) 

Injury List: Round 20

Bailey Laurie (shoulder) — Test
Mitch Brown (heel) — 1 to 2 Weeks
Marty Hore (knee) — 5 to 6 Weeks
Aaron Nietschke (knee) — Season
Adam Tomlinson (knee) — Season