DEEP HEAT by George On The Outer

The smell of linament around football change rooms is pervasive. Be it Deep Heat, Goanna Oil or Tiger Balm, the aroma creeps into the very makeup of every football team.  

And in this ANZAC Eve game, Richmond brought along their Tiger Balm but it was the Demons who eventually applied the Deep Heat to the game that resulted in them being victorious to the tune of 18 points.

Make no mistake, this was a tough hard and telling game. The Tiges opened up a 25 point lead in the second quarter, leaving the Demons looking way out of sorts in the same way as they appeared in their previous losses in Brisbane and last week in the Adelaide Gather Round. Fortunately, they had the Deep Heat with them to bring into the contest and courtesy of Brodie Grundy and Jack Viney they applied the heat and started to produce results.  

Down back Noah Cumberland threatened to blow the game apart after three first quarter goals, but once the heat was applied by Michael Hibberd, he disappeared from the game. Further,  Hibberd became a defensive wall on his own with 12 intercept possessions to add to his 23 disposals overall. The other bricks in the wall, namely Steven May and Jake Lever contributed with 11 and 10 equally important intercepts of their own.  

And lest we forget the contributions of Angus Brayshaw in his defensive roles, popping up at the most critical points in the game preventing the opposition from bringing their heat to the game.

By way of a similar comparison at the other end of the field, Jacob Van Rooyen was virtually unsighted for ¾ of the game, but applied all his efforts to produce a final quarter barrage of three goals.  This brought the Demon fans to their feet with chants of “Roo” rebounding throughout the near 84,000 strong crowd. 

Equally important was the contribution of Kade Chandler around goal, with desperately needed three majors,given the quiet games of  Kozzie Pickett and Bayley Fritsch, who usually fill the roles of major goalkickers.  

The experiment of Harry Petty up forward will probably be parked for a “break glass” situation as he could only manage four marks for the game and by the final quarter found himself back in his role in the defensive structures.  Likewise, the resting ruck forward experiment can be put to bed as, despite their height advantage, Grundy failed to kick a goal and Max Gawn managed to snag one lucky one late in the piece. Their skills are more useful around the ground and of course in the ruck roles.  

The wingers Ed Langdon and Lachie Hunter, keep on keeping on and the only question of heat would be how hot the opposition players get chasing them around the ground. Twenty disposals each, covering the defensive roles and driving the ball deep into attack is emblematic of the heat which the Demons brought to the game when needed.  

Melbourne was genuinely fortunate that Richmond were unable to kick straight in a grinding game, particularly from set shots which saw them kick 6.9 while the Demons scored 9.5 from their set chances in front of goal.  In the end this was the difference between winning and losing.

Once again, it was when Grundy finally got on top of the opposition ruck in the latter stages of the game, in exactly the same way as he did against Brisbane and Essendon, that the side came back into the contest. Except this time it produced the winning outcome in the game.  Once he brought the heat, the likes of Clayton Oliver, Viney and Christian Petracca were able to do their best as well.  The Richmond lead slowly evaporated to see a mere 2  points separating the sides at ¾ time after an Oliver goal after the siren.

The final stanza then became a question of how much courtesy of the Van Rooyen show while the Tiges could only manage a single goal late in the game.

The Demons’ Deep Heat melted the poor Toiyges like the butter that they are made of according to the old Fairy tale. For Melbourne it was the type of heat that they need to bring to each and every game.  

But with some very tired legs, cramps and plenty of body contact in this game, they will be needing bucketloads of the lineament version during the 5 day break before their next match against North. 

MELBOURNE 2.2.14 6.2.38 10.5.65 15.6.96

RICHMOND 5.2.32 8.4.52 10.7.67 11.12.78

GOALS

MELBOURNE Chandler van Rooyen 3 Fritsch Gawn Jordon Langdon Neal-Bullen Oliver Petty Pickett Viney 

RICHMOND Riewoldt 4 Cumberland 3 Hopper Mansell Martin Ryan

BEST

MELBOURNE Viney Oliver Petracca Gawn Lever Sparrow

RICHMOND Short Riewoldt Taranto Martin Hopper

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil

RICHMOND M.Rioli (hamstring)

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

RICHMOND Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie (replaced Trent Rivers in the fourth quarter)

RICHMOND Hugo Ralphsmith (replaced Ben Miller in the fourth quarter)

UMPIRES Brett Rosebury Robert O'Gorman Curtis Deboy Jamie Broadbent 

CROWD 83,985 at The MCG