OUT OF THE DARKNESS

by J.V. McKay by J.V. McKay

Melbourne came out of its shell and played truly competitive football for virtually all four quarters of a game for the first time this season but it still fell short of victory by 5 points against Port Adelaide at the MCG on Sunday. Nevertheless, the game marked the end of a dark period for the club and things are starting to look up for the rest of the season.

The Demons lost the arm wrestle in controversial circumstances when a late goal to Aaron Davey was disallowed due to a penalty paid against skipper David Neitz whose hands momentarily touched Shane Wakelin's back as the players were contesting a mark in front of goal. A minute later James McDonald was penalised for deliberately sending the ball out of bounds when his attempted handpass to Jared Rivers went slightly astray.

Demon supporters had reason to be angry at those decisions because they highlighted the inconsistencies of the way the umpires' interpretation varied during the day and how much it has changed since that bleak night that marked the opening of the season. A holding the ball penalty paid against Daniel Bell was identical to at least half a dozen others not paid but all of them would have been penalised in round 1.

Still, I'm not blaming the the umpiring for the defeat. Well, not much anyway ...

I thought the Demons had the game in their keeping at the final break. The return of David Neitz seemed to inspire them to an across-the-board improvement in nearly all facets of the game with the exception of one important one - kicking for goal, which was quite atrocious particularly after quarter time.

Nathan Jones may be one of the youngest players in the team but he was quite an inspiration winning the hard ball while second gamer Ricky Petterd was playing with all the skills of a 200 game player. Matthew Bate also came of age with a much-needed boost in confidence. How much more confident did he appear at half forward knowing he had David Neitz nearby? He led well into space, held his marks and would have Brad Miller feeling somewhat nervous about his place on the forward line.

Although the Demons trailed by a goal with 20 minutes of game time left, they looked to have more petrol in the tank and I felt they needed only to nudge ahead by more than a point or two and the four points would be there for the taking.

But with the game in the balance, Melbourne simply could not come up with a way to forge ahead before the heartbreak inevitably came. Daniel Motlop, who had already kicked a nice goal earlier in the match, weaved around a player in the pocket and pushed through a banana kick goal to put his team back in front with just under three minutes remaining. I had to ask myself was this the same player who had missed an easy set shot shot after the siren to deny his team victory last year against St. Kilda?

For the second year in a row Melbourne was denied its first premiership points for the season when a Davey goal was not paid. If that wasn’t enough, along came the penalty against McDonald. Why would you deliberately push the ball out of bounds when you have a minute to get the ball into your forward line for a winning goal? How different was this piece of play to the two or three occasions during the game when Power defenders pushed towards the safety of the boundary and the umpires mandated a throw in?

It was a too bitter a pill to swallow but the "good" news came a couple of hours later when it became clear that the Demons had been lifted off the bottom of the ladder when Geelong smashed Richmond. Of course, that's not much really but it is something to hang your hat on after the horror of the first five weeks and it's a move in the right direction for a change.

There is also promise of better things to come with the return of more team leaders in the near future. The influence of David Neitz, although still very rusty, was there for all to see in terms of the way he led from the front and inspired his team mates to lift and tackle hard. It was quite a change from the previous two or three weeks of timid football. With Brock McLean and Brad Green set to return to provide additional leadership in the middle of the ground, we can expect the team to improve by more leaps and more bounds in the coming weeks.

Jared Rivers' return to defence in the past fortnight has also been an important factor in the team's improvement. While not officially a leader, he has given the back line the focus it lacked in earlier games. Daniel Bell is relishing his presence and played a terrific game while Simon Godfrey took Shaun Burgoyne's scalp - his second big one in a row.

In the end however, it was a victory for the Power in front of a miniscule crowd whose lack of size spells "shame" for those who would call themselves supporters of the Melbourne Football Club. It's time for the fair weather fans to come out of the woodwork and they will because, despite Melbourne’s poor start, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

MELBOURNE 2.1.13 6.6.42 8.12.60 9.17.71

PORT ADELAIDE 3.4.22 7.7.49 9.11.65 10.16.76

Goals

Melbourne Bate Jones Neitz 2 Brown Warnock Yze

Port Adelaide Pearce 3 Motlop Tredrea 2 S Burgoyne Ebert Krakouer

Best

Melbourne White Jones Godfrey Brown Yze Rivers Petterd

Port Adelaide C Cornes K Cornes Pearce Motlop Lonie P Burgoyne

Injuries

Melbourne Pickett (lacerated ear)

Port Adelaide K Cornes (concussion) Chaplin (foot)

Reports Nil

Team Changes Nil

Umpires Farmer Hendrie Ryan

Crowd 16,266 at MCG