CLIFFHANGER by George On The Outer

Twice in the game against Richmond, Melbourne found itself down by 20 points but it kept on coming. By the ¾ time bell, the Dees had their noses in front in a game that was turning into a cliffhanger. The Toiyges persevered and found themselves again in front early in the final quarter. 

All of a sudden however, the game changed — in a short space of time, it turned from a cliffhanger into a deep chasm with the Demons eventually running out winners by five goals. For the Tigers, not only has the cliff loomed up following their three premierships in four years, but in the same way as this game panned out, their aging stars have reached the end of their useful life. They simply are unable to do what they had done in the past. 

Cotchin, with a meagre nine touches, Grimes six, Riewoldt eight, Baker eleven. They were all the movers and shakers from those glory years, yet in this game could not amass more possessions combined than Jack Viney.  

Viney on his own was better than those four Richmond players, but a collective gasp went through the Melbourne supporters as it looked like he had done some sort of serious injury in the third quarter as he lay motionless on the ground.

As doctors and trainers rushed to him, it appeared to all that he was finished for the game but like the legendary Lazarus, he wasn’t down and out for four days before resurrection. He returned to the battle straight away, without even taking a break on the bench.

Things got even worse for Richmond in that final quarter, when Max Gawn grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and kept blasting the ball forward from centre bounce and around the ground ruck contests.  In no small measure his dominance came when Ivan Soldo fell off the cliff, couldn’t run any more, and Richmond were forced to use Balta and Martin as substitute rucks. Max finished with 28 possessions of which an incredible 22 were contested, and 10 score involvements.  

Feeding off the Gawn masterclass were Viney with 32 touches, 10 contested while Christian Petracca kept racking up similar numbers with 29 of his own, and 14 of those contested.  And then Angus Brayshaw chipped in with a leisurely 22 touches and nine contested.  

While the lead changes kept coming until that final stanza, the much doubted Melbourne forward line hit a frightening high for other teams in contention, with 130 points scored including six in the final quarter.  There is now no other place in the side than forward for Harrison Petty who slotted six goals straight from ten marks, while his partner in Jacob van Rooyen kept putting it straight over the goal umpires cap four times without a miss. The accuracy, which had been missing earlier in the season became infectious and Jake Melksham sent the ball sailing over the same goal umpires hats four times without missing.  

Of course, Kysaiah Pickett had to have some influence and he put through two majors, but blotted the forwards copy book with a solitary point, unlike the others. But we will forgive that …

The backs struggled for a good part of the match, and kept giving up silly goals to keep the Tigers in the match.  To change things up, Judd McVee was struggling with Dustin Martin, when he was playing forward, but Simon Goodwin then moved Steven May on to him, and like his other premiership team-mates, he simply went missing in the end. 

This change could have been damaging to a young player, but not Judd, who was simply sublime in that final challenging quarter, dancing through opposition players, and delivering the ball accurately to those upfield. Jake Lever, of course, was back to his best with nine intercept possessions and eight marks, but the really damaging player in the backline is becoming Trent Rivers with 22 touches, and with his long kicking an extraordinary 427 metres gained.

Melbourne now sits comfortably in the top four and nothing is likely to change from that position from here to finals time.  Can they slide into the top two spot? It’s possible given that the other top three sides lost this week, so a lot depends upon their results in the coming games.

The Demons are looking to climb the mountain again, and are in the perfect condition at the right time in the season.  

For the Toyges, they simply nosedived, not only out of contention for the eight, but into a very deep hole for the future. There was no cliffhanger in this game, no hanging on by the finger nails; they were booted well and truly over the edge.

At the end their players were truly “yellow and black” from the beating they took and the hard landing at the bottom.  

MELBOURNE 3.5.23 8.5.53 14.6.90 20.10.130

RICHMOND 5.4.34 9.7.61 13.8.86 15.8.98

GOALS

MELBOURNE Petty 6 Melksham van Rooyen 4 Pickett 2 Chandler Hunter Neal-Bullen Petracca 

RICHMOND Martin 3 Baker McIntosh 2 Balta Bolton Coulthard Prestia Riewoldt Rioli Soldo Taranto

BEST

MELBOURNE Petty Gawn Viney Melksham van Rooyen Rivers


RICHMOND Martin Bolton Taranto Prestia Baker

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil


RICHMOND Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

RICHMOND Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Joel Smith (replaced Adam Tomlinson in the third quarter)

RICHMOND Matthew Coulthard (replaced Ben Miller in the third quarter)

UMPIRES Daniel Johanson Mathew Nicholls Nathan Toner Andre Gianfagna

CROWD 52,294 at the MCG