COUNTING by Whispering Jack

On a night of counting, Melbourne captain Max Gawn made sure that his contribution counted.

He was at his best and superb in the the ruck from the very start of the election night game against the West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium, but after watching his dominance of the first quarter and a half of the clash evaporate into nothing as the Eagles booted four goals in the last ten minutes of the opening half, he turned the game on its head, with a ruckman’s masterclass in the second half. 

No superlatives would be sufficient to describe the enormity of the skipper’s performance starting with his 47 hit outs, a career-high 35 possessions (22 of them contested), nine clearances, 12 score involvements and, after messing up an attempt or two, finally capping off one of the greatest rucking performances of all time, with a goal of own in the final quarter not long after he delivered a right angled pass into the arms of Daniel Turner who also goaled from a pocket (will we ever know if the pass is what was intended).

That was enough to overturn a 12 point deficit after the Eagles scored the first goal of the second half into a 29 point lead at the last break and a winning final quarter (at last) for the Demons who decided not to rest their champion ruckman at the end this time around. 

One would expect that the almost identical twin dominance in hit outs (49-27) and clearances (49-26) might have resulted in a 15 goal wipeout of the opposition such as the one witnessed earlier in the day at Mars Stadium when the Bulldogs gave the Power a spanking. But not so with the Demons in this match. Up forward (and particularly early in the game), they continued to struggle with converting opportunities into goals and down back, they permitted the opposition to get loose far too often. 

The resultant 32 point win, while welcomed, will hardly pass muster against much tougher opponents in the coming weeks and will no doubt give Simon Goodwin cause to have some sleepless nights. I checked and discovered that Jake Lever isn’t due to return for a month so the issues in defence will likely remain in place for the short term. With Harry Petty out for at least a week under concussion protocols, even the likely return of a rejuvenated Jacob van Rooyen will not be enough to solve the conversion issues in front of the goals. 

Max will have to battle on and the midfield will continue to rely on Christian Petracca who was firing on all cylinders for 29 disposals and eight clearances and the new “supertagger” in Jack Viney who turned in his usual strong effort in the packs.

Also at the feet of the midfield maestro of the ruck in the absence this week of Clayton Oliver were Kozzie Pickett who was a real livewire when in the guts and emerging young guns Harvey Langford (25 and five clearances), Caleb Windsor (20 and five inside 50s) and, to a lesser extent, the very enthusiastic Xavier Lindsay and Koltyn Tholstrup. Although fumbly at times, you get the feeling that sooner or later, he is going to have a break out game in a big way. No pressure there.

Speaking of which, Kade Chandler is actually finally reaching that point. He is rapidly approaching the point where he is a real threat to opposing defences while the versatile Daniel Turner proved his value with his three second half goals. At the other end of the ground Trent Rivers produced some real important efforts although he had a few shaky moments with his decision-making. 

But in the end, everything paled into insignificance in the shadows of the big man who, after the season’s disappointing start, stood up once again to be counted on the big night of counting.

MELBOURNE 2.2.14 3.7.25 10.12.72 16.12.108

WEST COAST EAGLES 0.5.5 4.7.41 6.7.43 11.10.76

GOALS 

MELBOURNE Turner 3 Fritsch Langdon 2 Chandler Gawn Melksham Petracca Pickett Sharp Spargo Viney Windsor

WEST COAST EAGLES Hewett Waterman 3 Cripps 2 Brockman Hunt Williams

BEST

MELBOURNE Gawn Petracca Langford Turner Chandler Viney

WEST COAST EAGLES Waterman Ginbey Hewett Allan Maric Baker

INJURIES 

MELBOURNE Harrison Petty (concussion)

WEST COAST EAGLES Reuben Ginbey (nose) Jeremy McGovern (concussion) Archer Reid (lower leg)

REPORTS 

MELBOURNE Nil 

WEST COAST EAGLES Nil 

SUBSTITUTIONS 

MELBOURNE Harry Sharp replaced Harrison Petty in the third quarter

WEST COAST EAGLES Tom Cole replaced Jeremy McGovern at half-time

UMPIRES Nick Jankovskis Nathan Williamson Eleni Tee Andrew Adair 

CROWD 41,991 at Optus Stadium