Hands up if you thought, like me, at half-time in yesterday’s game at TIO Traeger Park, Alice Springs that Melbourne’s disposal around the ground and, in particular, its kicking inaccuracy in front of the goals couldn’t get any worse.

Well, it did.

And what’s even more damning for the Melbourne Football Club is that the game against St Kilda and its resurgence from the bottomless pit of its miserable start to the season wasn’t just lost through poor conversion for goal but rather in the 15 minutes when the entire team went into a slumber and was mugged by the out-of-form Saints. Their six goals two behinds (one goal less than the Demons managed for the whole game) weaved a path of destruction from which they were unable to recover. In short, they blew it.

Ross Lyon’s astute use of pressure to contain the situation once they had asserted their grip on the game, and Melbourne’s self-destructive wastefulness, assured that outcome.

The old adage about the insanity of repeatedly doing something and expecting a different result, was out there. Two years ago, the score line in Melbourne’s loss to the Giants at this same ground was 5 goals 15 behinds - a ratio of one goal per four scoring shots - was perfectly replicated with yesterday’s 7 goals 21 behinds. 

This has been going on for a while and opens up a number of questions. I’ll put forward a few that come to mind from this performance.

The obvious first question is whether the club can find a suitable coach to instruct players on proper kicking techniques or is this a skill that can no longer be developed at this stage of the development of our playing group? 

Another concern is the team's ability to counter an opponent's dominance during a run on as exemplified by the Saints in the first quarter. Did the Demons underestimate their opponents, considering St Kilda's goals during this period were scored by relatively unknown forwards? 

Furthermore, given the modest attendance of 6,721 at TIO Traeger Park and the team's poor past performances at this venue, is it prudent to prioritize financial gain over potentially sacrificing valuable premiership points by relinquishing home ground advantage, notwithstanding the cultural significance of the team's connection to the Red Centre? 

Melbourne started off as if on cue with a dominating opening ten minutes but managed only a solitary goal. The momentum turned when Kozzy Pickett’s shot for a second goal was taken on the line, and the Saints made their move with their opening goal and the torrent that followed until the shadows of quarter-time when the Demons responded with their second. 

Then it was the Demons’ turn to take control of the play, but their 4 goals 7 behinds wasn’t enough to translate into what could have been a half-time lead. Despite some outstanding work in the ruck of Max Gawn and Christian Petracca on the ball, they were let down with some diabolical misses when it came to scoring goals. Some of the notable examples were those of Kade Chandler from inside 40 metres, Gawn himself from closer still, and Xavier Lindsay hitting the post late in the term, again from in close.

And, as indicated above, it only got worse as the time progressed so that well before the final siren, most Demon fans had put their hands up in resignation and despair. 

MELBOURNE 2.2.14 6.9.45 7.13.55 7.21.63 

ST KILDA 6.2.38 9.4.58 11.6.72 14.7.91

GOALS

MELBOURNE Petracca 2 Chandler Fritsch Johnson Melksham Petty

ST KILDA Butler 4 Keeler 3 Hall 2 Clark Higgins Hill Owens Travaglia

BEST

MELBOURNE Gawn May McVee Petracca Bowey Turner

ST KILDA Wanganeen-Milera Wilkie Windhager Sinclair Butler Hill 

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil

ST KILDA Phillipou (calf)

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

ST KILDA Nil

SUBSTITUTIONS 

MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie (replaced Aidan Johnson in the fourth quarter)

ST KILDA Jack Carroll (replaced Mattaes Phillipou in the first quarter)

UMPIRES Robert O'Gorman, Nathan Williamson Cameron Dore, Jordan Fry

CROWD 6,721 at TIO Traeger Park

The only thing missing yesterdays was the commentators saying if you font come to play , anyone can beat you.

I’ve been pretty calm with Oliver situation but currently would have him outside top 100 players.

Nailed the votes.

As usual an insightful analysis despite how damning on our kicking. It needed to be.

Well said.

What intrigued and saddened me simultaneously was that with ten mins to go we were only three goals down despite the Saints dominance. I think they had around 100 more possessions.

But how we had finished our two previous games suggested our fitness had improved. Maybe the last two big wins have exhausted us. It saddened me because with ten mins left and about 18 measley points to acquire, we look stone cold disinterested.

This is a club that kicked 18 points in under a minute in 21. We looked like that club again against the lions but now look like the team that lost our first five.

Who are we?

I would not be surprised if we beat the pies next week to only collapse the week after.

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

In short, they blew it.

Yep … they blew it

Absolutelty spot on there Jack. This was an abject coaching failure.

Lyon gave our coaching group a barbed wire enema.