ABOUT TIME by Whispering Jack

For this year’s Easter Saturday game at the MCG, Simon Goodwin and his Demons wound the clock back a few years to wipe out the horrible memories of last season’s twin thrashings at the hands of the Dockers.

And it was about time!

Melbourne’s indomitable skipper Max Gawn put in a mammoth performance in shutting out his immediate opponent Sean Darcy in the ruck and around the ground and was a colossus at the end when the game was there to be won or lost. It was won by 16.11.107 to 14.13.97.

There was the battery-charged Easter Bunny in Kysaiah Pickett running anyone wearing purple ragged, whether at midfield stoppages or around the big sticks. He finished with a five goal haul.

Jack Viney was given the role of limiting the output of Fremantle star Caleb Serong and while he got plenty of ball, his prey’s influence was diminished by his usual standards. Meanwhile, Viney himself won his own ball, particularly making the Demons so dangerous at centre bounces and around the ground.

Together with his fellow premiership midfielders Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver, they added to the pressure count, won plenty of football and created many attacking opportunities even though they might not have been at their most prolific in terms of disposal numbers.

Jake Bowey, Trent Rivers, Christian Salem and Charlie Spargo were also turning time back to their past glory days. Tom Sparrow had his moments. The consistent Ed Langdon was running up and down his wing as if it were still 2021.

There were two players who not only turned the time back, but they also changed their positions around to pronounced effect. Tom McDonald and Harry Petty have been trading places from time to time over the years. Yesterday, the former filled the shoes of two modern day star Demon back line legends in Jake Lever and Steven May and held the Dockers’ dangerous goal kicking tall Josh Treacy to a single goal. At the other end of the ground, Petty went back to the future forward line and booted four goals (and gave a Joe the goose away to Kozzie).

More importantly, the Demons went from predictable to versatile in their approach to the game, especially when going forward. They worked hard, ran hard and utilized a variety of ways including more handball, shorter kicks and less of the reckless blazing away to deliver into the forward line. All of this forced the Dockers into errors and an impressive half time scoreline of 12 goals, 2 behinds – a far cry from their usual standard of 2025.

Was it much promised fresh style of play that led Melbourne to surpass its season average of 61 points less than 10 minutes into the second term on the way to recording its equal-highest score of the year with a minute left on the clock in the same quarter?

Only time can tell on that score - one swallow doesn’t make a summer after all.

What we did see was a different Melbourne from the one that has been playing sloppy football for the better part of the first five weeks of the season. They valued the ownership of the ball in play and defended as if there was no tomorrow. The Demons won the tackle count 59-46, they won overall clearances, centre clearances, and contested and uncontested ball. And they used it so much better with 305 effective disposals to 251 and their pressure rating reflected that improvement.

Time has moved on and as much as it was a delight for Demon fans to see the win and a return to the team’s hard nut ways of the past, there were some promising signs for the future with the run and accurate ball disposal of the young guns who the club has recruited with first round draft picks over the last two years - Harvey Langford, Xavier Lindsay, Caleb Windsor and Koltyn Tholstrup. There are others and their time is coming too.

The season is not yet over.

MELBOURNE 6.1.37 12.2.74 15.5.95 16.11.107

FREMANTLE 4.2.26 8.5.53 11.10.76 14.13.97

GOALS

MELBOURNE Pickett 5 Petty 4 Chandler Langford 2 Petracca Rivers Viney 

FREMANTLE Amiss Bolton 3 Darcy 2 Brayshaw Dudley McDonald Reid Sharp Treacy

BEST

MELBOURNE Pickett Viney Gawn Bowey Petty Rivers

FREMANTLE Bolton Brayshaw Young Clark Reid Serong

LATE CHANGES

MELBOURNE Nil

FREMANTLE Heath Chapman (illness), replaced in the selected side by James Aish

INJURIES 

MELBOURNE Daniel Turner (concussion)

FREMANTLE Jaeger O'Meara (hamstring)

REPORTS 

MELBOURNE Nil

FREMANTLE Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS 

MELBOURNE Harry Sharp (replaced Daniel Turner at half-time)

FREMANTLE Isaiah Dudley (replaced Bailey Banfield in the third quarter)

UMPIRES Nick Jankovskis Leigh Fisher Andrew Heffernan Paul Rebeschini 

CROWD 25,202 at the MCG