Melbourne traveled across the continent to take on the Fremantle Dockers in sweltering conditions at Mandurah south of Perth in a game that delivered the club both its highlight and its lowlight in the first minute. 

But first, let’s start by doing away with the usual cliches used in connection with the game. It was just a practice match and the result didn’t matter. Bad kicking is bad football. The game was played in severe heat, the swirly breeze played havoc with both teams resulting in the type of game where defensive structures were disrupted and difficult to maintain. The home side managed to get its composure together earlier and won the contest with five unanswered goals in the second term. 

And so, to the highlight which was the return of superstar Christian Petracca who started in the middle and had the opening kick and clearance of the game. He went on to finish with 33 disposals and 12 score involvements in combination with Clayton Oliver who continued his own football revival with a three goal and 28 disposal performance. Together, they got the team rolling in the second half in a team effort that dominated clearances and forward entries but all that was denied a better outcome through wasteful disposal and inaccuracy in front of goals.

The lowlight also came in the Demons’ first foray into attack when key forward Jacob van Rooyen injured his back in a marking contest and was forced out of the game with back spasms. 

The die was cast when the team struggled to convert early, kicking five points in a row despite opening strongly and dominating in attack, during which time Jack Billings and Bayley Fritsch missed gettable set shots. It’s difficult to determine the impact of the loss of van Rooyen but one can surmise that his presence might have straightened up a forward line that repeated the trick of kicking five consecutive points another two times during the game to finish with a lamentable 11 goals 24 from 35 shots at goal against 16.13.

It didn’t help when the Dockers were also having early trouble with conversion and the Demons were super defensive coming out of the backline, that they conceded three goals through lazy turnovers in the first half. 

The defence compounded in the heat and the experiment with the wings was more than somewhat exposed at this stage of proceedings. Steven May showed he has lost none of his lustre down back and Jake Lever will again be a force but it will remain a matter of conjecture as to where Harry Petty and Tom McDonald who were both missing fit into that mix.

Fremantle had established enough of a gap to remain in control but to its credit and unlike its two woeful performances against the same opponent last year, Melbourne lifted and, though the agency of its midfield stars improved their game and started forcing the Dockers into error themselves.

Tom Sparrow showed confidence and continued good signs, Max Gawn dominated the rucks and Christian Salem looked much better at this stage of proceedings than he has since the premiership year. Youngsters Xavier Lindsay and Harvey Langford were not as prominent as they were last week but showed they are clean with their delivery. Aidan Johnson and Harry Sharp showed some glimpses of form but left the jury still out while Daniel Turner kicked a couple late in the game. 

Simon Goodwin held Kozzy Pickett back because he had the extra practice match under his belt and when he finally came on, he amassed nine possessions in the final term. He’ll be missed in Rounds 1 to 3.

The Demons travel home with an injured full forward which brings me to a practice match cliche that I left out - the one about getting through these encounters without injuries to key players. To my mind, “back spasms” feels more like a symptom than an injury diagnosis and therefore, it’s fingers crossed that JvR is free to play in two week’s time. The Dees need him to straighten up the attack and to help bring about some more team highlights.

MELBOURNE 1.5.11 1.9.15 6.15.51 11.24.90

FREMANTLE 2.4.16 7.9.51 11.11.77 16.13.109

GOALS

MELBOURNE Oliver 3 Turner 2 Fritsch Gawn Johnson Sharp Sparrow Windsor

FREMANTLE Walters 3 Bolton Jackson O'Driscoll Treacy Voss 2 Brayshaw Johnson Serong

BEST

MELBOURNE Oliver Petracca Gawn May Sparrow Langdon

FREMANTLE Brayshaw O'Driscoll Walters Cox Serong Chapman Jackson

INJURIES

MELBOURNE van Rooyen (back spasm)

FREMANTLE Nil

CROWD 7,458 at Rushton Park, Mandurah

Great summary.

I would not have had Gawn in the best players and thought he was very rusty, but he sets a high bar of expectation.

I am not convinced we have the skill to chip the ball around in defence like that, but it will be much easier in a large stadium with less wind.

I thought Oliver was much better this week and looked more dynamic. Having Petracca next to him in the midfield gave us the ability to explode out of stoppages.