FINGERNAIL by George On The Outer

[Demonland 73,207]

A fingernail ... that is the difference between winning an AFL match and holding on to 2nd place on the ladder.  Or a spot in the next stage of the FIFA womens world cup.

While one Carlton Blue’s player had a fingernail long enough to deny a Melbourne victory, Le Bleues had bitten theirs down (along with a lot of Australian fans) in a dramatic penalty shootout.

Was the Petracca kick touched or not? 

Which way does a deflection from the woodwork go? It matters no more, because the decision has been made, and one team of Blues goes home happy, while the other just goes home.

Melbourne was on the end of a nail biting finish in this game, and certainly had multiple chances in the dying minutes of the game to take the victory.

But when playing against sides like Carlton who sit 5th on the ladder, these are the games which are typical of the finals football that is to come.

The match will always come down to one or two critical moments.  The coach himself said after the match that it is important to “win those moments”.  The Demons didn’t and have paid the price.

And once again, with rain falling in this match the Demons failed. Almost every loss by the team has been in slippery and or wet conditions. In some games it was a failure to adapt to play wet weather football, but like this game it just causes a drop off in the slickness needed to transit the ball to the attacking end of the ground.

The Demons got off to a poor start in the game, and scored a solitary goal from barely half a dozen entries into the forward 50.  Fortunately, their defenders denied Carlton again and again, so come the end of the first quarter both sides had only bothered the goal umpires once each.

The second quarter was much the same and the two teams went into the break with three majors each and two points separating them.  It was to be a portent of the end result.  The match was simply being played between the arcs, and with over 50 i50’s for each side and only 6 goals it certainly wasn’t a game to be watched by the spectators.

But then most of them were watching the shootout at another game on their phones.

Finally in the 3rd quarter things started to happen.  Australia had won the soccer and everyone, including the players returned their concentration to playing real football.  More goals kicked in 1 quarter than in the previous half, but once again both sides were level pegging, and there promised to be a nail biting shootout in the final stanza.

Well that proved to be the case, and Melbourne gave the Blues a mighty step up in the opening minutes when they simply waltzed the ball out of the middle and put themselves 18 points up, which was the highest margin for the night. To their credit, the Demons clawed their way back and with yet another miraculous goal to Kysaiah Pickett, followed by a great mark and straight kick from Joel Smith, they were back in it. 

A “gimme” chance to Christian Salem surprisingly fell short and then the Petracca shot was adjudged to have been touched on the line. A four point victory to the Baggers. 

All around the ground, there were great contests. Steven May probably won the fight against Charlie Curnow, only allowing him two goals.  He was ably assisted by Jake Lever with 12 intercept possessions. Still, the Carlton smalls were winning the match for them, so we saw Michael Hibberd introduced to quell the rot, and that he did. 

As the coach noted, it wasn’t a night for forwards, and the Gawndy experiment was repeated with no positive outcome. A paltry three marks between the two players for the match, is not what is expected and certainly not needed. While Gawn dominated the ruck for hitouts, the outcome was not to the teams advantage, and it was no surprise that the final quarter comeback from the Demons occurred when Grundy was used in the ruck.

More importantly the same experiment utterly failed when both players went forward.  Does anybody remember them getting a single touch in that area?  Once again they just clog up the space and it caused the coach to move Smith to the forward line to get some presence up there.  It couldn’t be left to a 20 year old Jacob Van Rooyen alone, who was battling against Weitering, one of the best backs in the whole league.

With the fingernails well and truly bitten down to their base, the Demon fans have nothing left now for the final two matches.  A game against a re-vitalised Hawthorn and another against Sydney in the Harbour city, are going to be more of the same. 

Or will  comprehensive victories against these two sides, allow sufficient growth for those with severe cases of MFCSS to endure the finals series?

MELBOURNE 1.0.6 3.3.21 6.6.42 8.8.56

CARLTON 1.3.9 3.5.23 6.6.42 9.6.60

GOALS

MELBOURNE Petracca 2 Chandler Langdon Neal-Bullen Pickett Smith Sparrow

CARLTON C Curnow Owies 2 Acres Cripps De Koning Docherty Martin

BEST

MELBOURNE Viney Oliver Petracca Salem Brayshaw Hunter

CARLTON Cripps Newman Weitering Hewett Docherty Saad

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil

CARLTON Sam Docherty (calf)

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

CARLTON Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Michael Hibberd (replaced James Jordon in the third quarter)

CARLTON Ed Curnow (replaced Sam Docherty in the fourth quarter)

UMPIRES Justin Power Ray Chamberlain Robert Findlay Brent Wallace

CROWD 68,577 at the MCG