﻿PANIC by Whispering Jack

April 6Apr 6

I was disappointed to hear Goody say at his post match presser after the team’s 39 point defeat against Geelong that "we're getting high quality entry, just poor execution" because Melbourne’s problems extend far beyond that after its 0 - 4 start to the 2025 football season.

There are clearly problems with poor execution, some of which were evident well before the current season and were in play when the Demons met the Cats in early May last year and beat them in a near top-of-the-table clash that saw both sides sitting comfortably in the top four after round eight.

Since that game, the Demons’ performances have been positively Third World with only five wins in 19 games with a no longer majestic midfield and a dysfunctional forward line that has become too easy for opposing coaches to counter. This is an area of their game that is currently being played out as if they were all completely panic-stricken.

There is absolutely no connection between the midfield and a forward line that continually fails to do what it’s meant to do — attack the football with intensity and purpose rather than to stand behind their opponents and hope against hope that the man in front is going to mess up.

Yes, when the team gets the footy it’s problematic when Bayley Fritsch and Kozzie Pickett each manage three behinds for a game, but there’s even more to it. They know they can perform but they’ve lost the capacity to play the sort of relaxed football that can turn the current situation around.

To its credit, Melbourne was in the game for almost a full three quarters and had opportunities to be very close at the final break. Max Gawn worked hard without adequate back up and when he was off the ball, there was nothing. The club recruited Tom Campbell to fill in for him when he needed a break. Unfortunately, Campbell himself seems to be struggling to see out half a game at VFL level.

The old guard midfielders are working their hearts out but are no longer able to dominate. The club needs the likes of Windsor, Pickett, Langford, Rivers and Lindsay in the fray but the first two were just back after an absence and the latter was out. It’s bleedingly obvious that we need more pace and more skills in that mix.

The game produced a glimmer of hope in the right direction but in the end, they were overrun and finished the game completely under Geelong’s thumb. It wasn’t just poor execution that brought the team undone, the effort was often insufficient to even get in a position to execute.

Goodwin spoke after the game about the need to overcome the panic: “The message is stay calm, we’re four weeks in. Stay calm but get urgent - that’s been the message.

“We’ve got work to do. Get urgent with that work … “

And stop the panic!

MELBOURNE 1.2.8 4.5.29 6.7.43 6.10.46

GEELONG 3.5.23 6.8.44 8.11 59 12.13.85

GOALS

MELBOURNE Petracca 2 Langdon Langford Turner van Rooyen

GEELONG Dangerfield 3 Bowes Stengle 2 Cameron De Koning Mannagh Neale Stanley

BEST

MELBOURNE Oliver Gawn May Petracca Pickett McDonald

GEELONG Dangerfield Guthrie Smith Dempsey Atkins Stengle

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil