DOCKERS WIN WITH DICE LOADED

[Demonland 65,975]

by J.V. McKay

Melbourne was virtually doomed from the start in its campaign to overcome Fremantle on Sunday.

Although both sides were winless coming into the game, the dice were loaded and rolling Fremantle's way. Earlier in the week the Dockers were looking at going into the game without their key midfield menace in Josh Carr and the erratic and slightly whacky but skillful Des Headland through suspension. History tells us that the AFL's judicial genii let them both off and they were available to play. Headland turned in a best on ground, I can do nothing wrong on the field performance (19 possessions in the first half alone and three goals for the game), while Carr put in a handy display.

Compare and contrast that with Melbourne. The club was already undergoing an injury crisis of epidemic proportions missing key forwards David Neitz and Russell Robertson, star midfielder Travis Johnston, up and coming defender Clint Bartram and promising recruit James Frawley whose pre season indicated he might be thereabouts at the start of the season, things weren't looking too flash. Then, from the team selected on Thursday night, three fairly important players in what was left of the team's structure - Jared Rivers, Travis Johnston and Brent Moloney were all withdrawn from the game through injury.

The resultant team was left with four players returning to the AFL for the first time this season and all of them had come in with limited preparation. I'm referring to Clint Bizzell, Lynden Dunn, Byron Pickett and Colin Sylvia (and in the normal course, we would not have been expecting more than three quarters from each of them).

As if that wasn't enough, Melbourne suffered badly again from the scourge of losing players through injury during the course of a game. By halfway through the second quarter it was obvious that Matthew Whelan, Daniel Bell, Nathan Jones and Paul Wheatley were inconvenienced in some shape or form through injury, their collective impact after that was minimal. At some stage during the game Nathan Brown also suffered a corkie and one or two others appeared to be struggling. This again put more pressure on the rest of the team (including the underdone Pickett and Sylvia) because the proper rotation of players was rendered well nigh impossible.

Did Neale Daniher walk under a ladder on Friday the Thirteenth while looking for a black cat?

Taking all of these considerations into account, Melbourne's 45 point loss to Fremantle should not be looked upon as a complete disaster. That the Demons were just 22 points down deep in the third term was a fair effort but it just couldn't sustain a comeback against a team that really won the returning to the AFL for the first time game by playing in surges – achieving quick three or four goal bursts when their freshness and some obvious match up advantages brought about by Melbourne's player distress gave them an advantage in the ability to move and in their confidence.

All this is not to say that the Melbourne team that lost the game was a pretty sight. There was a fair amount of fumbling and mistakes made under pressure, the movement of the ball out of defense was diabolical and in particular the team was exposed from the point kick ins whereby the Dockers moved the ball from defence into attack with consummate ease while the Demons often bumbled their way out around the backline often making fundamental schoolboy errors.

Some rays of light were the return to a semblance of form by Adem Yze and Aaron Davey who started winning possessions, the excellent first up performance of a very much improved Lynden Dunn.

The other thing is that this injury plague cannot go on forever. Sooner or later, the Demons will come across a team that also loses its most valuable players through injury; the law of averages dictates that this will happen during a game at some stage of the season. Perhaps when there's a return to a level playing field we'll finally mange to see them play to their true ability. After all, look at how the Aussie cricketers were travelling recently whilst in New Zealand for Chappell/Hadlee series with a few key players injured and/or unavailable. Slaughtered in every game, they have now recovered to a point where they are on the verge of playing off and winning Cricket's World Cup. Recovery is possible as soon as the dice start rolling your way.

Melbourne 3.5.23 4.9.33 9.11.65 13.14.92

Fremantle 5.2.32 10.5.65 17.8.110 21.11.137

Goals

Melbourne: Dunn 3 Miller 3 Davey 2 Bate Jamar McDonald Pickett Yze

Fremantle: Pavlich 6 Headland Webster 3 Sandilands Tarrant 2 Campbell J Carr Crowley Gilmore McManus

Best:

Melbourne: Yze McDonald Davey Dunn Green

Fremantle: Pavlich Headland Hasleby McManus Sandilands Bell Hayden Parker Webster

Team changes:

Melbourne: Rivers (hamstring) replaced by Bizzell. Moloney (groin) replaced by Bate. Johnstone (hamstring) replaced by Sylvia.

Fremantle: Cook replaced by Campbell

Injuries:

Melbourne: Bell (concussion) Brown (calf) Jones (ankle) Whelan (hamstring) Wheatley (shoulder)

Fremantle: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Ellis Farmer Avon

Crowd: 16,654 at the MCG