For too long in the past, Demon fans became habitually sick and tired of watching the Hawks hand out thrashings to their side. But Melbourne’s empahtic 55-point win at the MCG on Saturday has truly put a fork in the Hawk and turned that history well and truly on its head. The Demons have now won nine of their last ten encounters with the other result, a draw.  

 

And like a fork, it was the multi-pronged options that Melbourne had all across the ground.  It certainly helped that Hawthorn was playing a game style emblematic of ten years ago, as they tried to play possession football by constantly chipping the ball backwards and forwards to one another.

 

Despite the Hawks amassing a whopping  52 uncontested marks in the first quarter, it was all for nothing as the Demons piled on five goals with the Hawks managing only one point. Mitchell’s men were playing more of a soccer match with their game of keepings off.   

 

The result demonstrates how statistics are only a measure of what happens in a game, rather than an indicator of the effectiveness of those actions toward producing success.

 

Well, the game was as good as over come that first siren, and having punctured any hope the Hawks had to be competitive, they simply had to stop the bleeding. To that end, they put up to two extra players at the contest which resulted in an AFL version of a rugby match. So the scoreline only advanced by three goals between the two sides in the second stanza.

 

Tragically, for the Demons, Steven May was sent to hospital with an injury to his ribs/lung area and not long after Jake Lever did some sort of damage to his knee. Not many teams would be able to recover from the loss of both key defenders with half a game of football to play, but Melbourne is a different case in point.

 

So the fans had been treated to game of soccer, followed by rugby, but from there on in Melbourne played AFL, and piled on another eight goals in the second half, despite the loss of their full back and centre half back.  

 

Fortunately, Marty Hore was substitute and he fitted in to admirably hold his spot in the backline as a replacement. Tom McDonald assumed the full back position, while Christian Salem moved into the backline to assist and Harry Petty swung back to fill the gap left by Lever. The defensive machine never missed a beat and allowed Hawthorn to kick only three goals in the second half.  

 

Yet again the Hawks tried to target Clayton Oliver, but once again those tactics from ten years ago failed to cover the rest of the Demons mids.

  

Centre clearances were a phenomenal 14 to 5, as they simply left other Melbourne mids unattended at the bounce. Once again while the stats were heavily in favour of the Dees, it was the ease and damage that those free flowing possessions from the middle that put yet another fork in the Hawks game plan.

 

Up forward, Bayley Fritsch put another fork in the Sicily bubble, who despite 27 touches (of which 22 were uncontested), allowed Fritsch to kick five goals. Again, it is of little value keeping the stats people busy while your opponent is keeping the scorers even busier.

 

The Melbourne coaches played the game style to force the Hawks until they made mistakes.  All game long it was just a case of rinse and repeat, as the Hawks simply could not penetrate the Demons all ground defence. And when they made the inevitable error, it was always costly since Melbourne move the ball so quickly and open up the field. The Hawks just kept looking sideways or trying to switch without any success whatsoever.

 

With the Hawks being forked, Melbourne now travels to Adelaide for their next two matches including a short turn around of only five days between Port Adelaide and Adelaide. That certainly won’t help with the injury concerns being experienced in the defence.  

 

Having used the forks to damaging effect in this game, the brains trust might have to use the steak knives to carve up the opposition in the coming matches.

 

MELBOURNE 5.3.33 6.5.41 10.7.67 14.9.93

 

HAWTHORN 0.1.1 2.3.15 4.6.30 5.8.38

 

GOALS

 

MELBOURNE Fritsch 5 Pickett 3 Chandler 2 Billings Petracca van Rooyen Sparrow

 

HAWTHORN Breust Lewis McDonald Weddle Watson

 

BEST

 

MELBOURNE Petracca Fritsch Neal-Bullen Salem Gawn Pickett

 

HAWTHORN Sicily Weddle Amon Scrimshaw, Worpel

 

INJURIES 

 

MELBOURNE Jake Lever (knee) Steven May (ribs)

 

HAWTHORN Nil

 

REPORTS

 

MELBOURNE Nil 

 

HAWTHORN Nil

 

SUBSTITUTIONS

MELBOURNE Marty Hore replaced Steven May at half-time.

 

HAWTHORN Jack Gunston replaced Luke Breust in the third quarter.

 

UMPIRES Williamson Heffernan Wallace Adair

 

CROWD 43,960 at the MCG

 

sorry @george_on_the_outer, but sicily their best?

might've topped their stats playing kick-to-kick across the back flank but was completely out-pointed, out-marked, out-performed by his direct oppo who was our #2 bog and booted 5 goals 1

5 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

sorry @george_on_the_outer, but sicily their best?

might've topped their stats playing kick-to-kick across the back flank but was completely out-pointed, out-marked, out-performed by his direct oppo who was our #2 bog and booted 5 goals 1

We get the stats accompanying match reports from the media 

30 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

sorry @george_on_the_outer, but sicily their best?

might've topped their stats playing kick-to-kick across the back flank but was completely out-pointed, out-marked, out-performed by his direct oppo who was our #2 bog and booted 5 goals 1

 

24 minutes ago, Demonland said:

We get the stats accompanying match reports from the media 

Media are so lazy they would just look at the stats sheet which is why umpires should never be allowed to look at a stats sheet before casting votes.

The hawks are forked I quite like that George

11 hours ago, Demonland said:

empahtic

For a moment there George, I thought you’d written ‘empathetic’ 55 point win. Sign of a great culture I reckon, the empathetic win. 

You are the Rudyard Kipling of Afl sports writing George.

Thanks.

Full marks on the title!

20 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

 

Yet again the Hawks tried to target Clayton Oliver, but once again those tactics from ten years ago failed to cover the rest of the Demons 

 

I'll give a tip to all the Demonland punters. If any opposition put a hard tag on Clarry or Trac bet on the other one for everying you can get on them They both go unselfish, drag a player away from the ball and let the other one do it all. It happens everytime. 

We are stronger when one of them gets a hard tag.