BANGED UP by George On The Outer

Melbourne v Sydney. City v City. Two top eight sides fighting for finals spots.  Sydney having beaten the Demons in ten of their last twelve encounters. 

In what would turn out to be one of the most hotly contested games for the club in 2022, the physical damage to players was probably the deciding factor in the end.

Once again, Melbourne lost Tom McDonald pre-game to a yet unspecified foot injury.  More importantly was how much his work up the ground and bullocking influence in the pack scenario was missed. The side was already without Steven May and again that strong body and generalship in the backline was missing.  

At least a number of players were returning from their own bout of injury ... James Harmes, Ed Langdon and Christian Salem. The problem was, and  obvious as the game progressed, is that they just weren’t quite right.  Fair enough, given Ed is still carrying rib injury, Salem back with his exquisite skills, but just couldn’t get any penetration with his kicks, and Harmes, just unable to get involved to his usual standard.

Then in an almost repeat of last week, Harry Petty gets a kick to the shin, in the first quarter and then a shoulder injury in the second, to go with his knee injury from last week. Christian Petracca looked much better this week, but still not his explosive self, and Bayley Fritsch is carrying a new knee bandage.  

Still, despite the appearance of the walking wounded, the Demons opened their account with a 5 goal to 1 first quarter.  Their position was helped by inaccurate Sydney kicking, but the momentum swung heavily in the second as Sydney then piled on 5 goals to 2, to lead by 2 points at the major break.  The fans are starting to get concerned when Melbourne lead by 5 goals early in the match, as the same situation occurred the previous week, only to see the side over-run.

Melbourne regained the ascendancy in the third quarter, but could only score a single major while wasting opportunities by kicking 5 behinds.  Still, they held Sydney to a paltry 2 behinds for the quarter to set up an exciting final term.  

Led by Max, the Demons looked threatening, but that was all it turned out to be…threatening as they managed just another single goal for the quarter while the Swans piled on 4 goals to run out eventual 12 point winners.

Max had tried his hardest to get the side over the line with his incredible 6 contested marks but despite kicking 3 for the match, he missed a tight shot from only metres out in that final term which would have swung the game at the time.  Even Bayley Fritsch couldn’t find any score from a “Bayley certainty” as well which would have done similarly at a critical time.  

Even with these misses it actually highlighted one of the major failings the side faced.  Max and Bayley each kicked 3 goals, but the Browns in the forward line failed to score anything.  Likewise the other small forwards weren’t contributing to the scoreboard, although Kozzy Pickett was responsible for creating score out of nothing for others at times.

With a banged up backline, and a rag-tag forward line, the side once again lost the structure that has become part of the “Melbourne way”.  Tomlinson isn’t May, Mitch Brown isn’t TMac and while these players are more than serviceable, when they are surrounded by a banged up group unable to display their best, then perhaps the result was not unexpected. 

What to do?  Realistically, the cupboard is relatively bare.  While May will return from concussion protocols, we can only hope Petty can get on the ground in a fit state.  Weideman has obviously been sent to Casey for a long time, and the rumours suggest TMac may be out for an equally long time.  

The Browns up forward will probably get a reprieve due to the only realistic other forward we have on the list is Jacob Van Rooyen, but he is merely 19 and doesn’t need to be thrown to the wolves like Melbourne had to do in years gone.  

Jayden Hunt will be facing a stint at Casey as well. A 3 possession game just doesn’t come up to scratch, with Hibberd and Rivers available to take his place if needed.

What the side needs is just a bit of a rest, and the 8 days to the next match will help. But what really needs to be found is a little bit of its mojo. A bit of flair and dash, that has simply been missing in the past weeks.  

While it is hard to produce that mojo when arms, legs, ribs, backs, feet, knees and heads are aching, the inspiration is there in the form of Max Gawn and Jack Viney, who just keep on keeping on despite all the bashing and banging that they suffer.  

Time to find that mojo again, and bang up Collingwood’s aspirations in front of a big crowd next week.