THE SILVER LINING

by The Oracle

Those who turned up to Skilled Stadium yesterday (or watched it on television) expecting Melbourne to win against a reasonably strong Geelong combination with the final selected line up of 26, please stand up.

It's good to see you all remain seated.

That's right, although the objective in most matches is to win the four points or to go on to the next round of competition, this was highly unlikely given the unavailability through rest, rehab, injury and club imposed suspension of 18 MFC listed players. And that was reflected accurately in the result of the game.

The rest of the list all played against the Cats, eight of them in the first AFL games ever - Kyle Cheney, Tom McNamara, Adamm Maric, Stef Martin, Shane Valenti, Isaac Weetra, Austin Wonaeamirri and Trent Zomer while another, John Meesen (2 games for Adelaide) was wearing the red and blue (and silver) for the first time ever. Then we had Jace Bode, Simon Buckley, Colin Garland, Michael Newton and Matthew Warnock whose senior AFL experience is yet to pass double figures. And it doesn't stop there because included in the team was also a couple of seasoned 20 year olds in Matthew Bate and Nathan Jones, the latter having moved out of his teens less than a month ago.

And in the stands watching sat at least a dozen of the more talented players including a majority of those in the leadership group. That sounds like game set and match to me when, despite signalling his indifference to the Nab Cup concept and particularly some of its rules, Mark Bomber Thompson then chose close to his strongest team.

Geelong was on show on its own patch of turf and in front of the faithful for the first time since it crushed Port Adelaide to win last year's premiership. The Cats were on song from the beginning while the young Demons were a bundle of nerves. The predictable happened and the home team blew them away in the first 10 to 15 minutes despite Melbourne enjoying the wind advantage. With their greater skill and experience all over the ground and with their control over the centre bounces and the stoppages, they kicked 8 goals to 2 in the opening stanza and late in the second term the margin was 63 points. Melbourne played its best football to reduce that margin to 48 points at the main break and reduced it even further to 26 points after that before Geelong surged again.

In the final term, the stronger bodied Cats took complete control again and Steve Johnson added to his highlights package to finish with six goals.

There were few highlights from Melbourne's point of view but there was some silver lining (apart from the obvious silver material in it's hideous uniform).

The Demons did achieve something. They managed to get through the game with no apparent injuries and will now move into the NAB Cup Challenge where there is no limitation on interchanges and the list of players being nursed through their pre season can build their on their preparation for the coming season.

Coach Dean Bailey was also given a pointer as to where some of his teams strengths and weaknesses lie and he also had the opportunity of looking closely at how his younger players are progressing (although his top two draft picks in Cale Morton and Jack Grimes were also out injured and Adamm Maric was a late inclusion after missing last week's community camp in Canberra with school commitments).

After the game, Bailey told reporters –

"We played a lot of kids. We put them in important positions on the ground and that's the only way you can learn and develop – don't hide them and don't put them on the bench."

He would have been impressed with some of the youngsters and knows that he goes away with a lot of the raw material for success in the future. The big plus to my mind was the way 17-year-old Tom McNamara went about his game. He's the youngest player in the AFL competition and possibly might have even been lucky to get a run but he held up well in the back line in a true baptism of fire. He showed he can mark, kick and he contests the ball well. Rookie Shane Valenti has his detractors who claim that he is too small and too slow but he certainly burrowed in for the football and gained a lot of fans from a performance that saw him at the top of his team's possession gatherers. If he doesn't make it then it won’t be for the lack of trying. Basketball convert Stef Martin showed a bit and, if he can work on his kicking, he could become a key tall. Colin Garland showed that he has improved his game over the summer and his three goals (including a super goal) highlighted his potential and versatility. The other youngsters flashed all in and out of play.

Bailey would also have been pleased with the performance of three 20 year olds in Nathan Jones, Simon Buckley and Matthew Bate who all stepped up to the plate in difficult circumstances. In the absence of most of the club's midfield stars of last year, it was Jones who copped the brunt of the tagging and he proved himself under intense fire. Former Adelaide (and before that Geelong Falcons) ruckman John Meesen, returned to home territory and played in a number of positions around the ground. Whilst he didn't star, the big man looks to be a real acquisition and given the poor form of the Demon rucks on the day he will be a much-needed one.

When you get beaten as badly as Melbourne did in the end, there's usually a lot about which you can’t get excited and there were quite a few lowlights for the afternoon.

I thought the rump of the club's more experienced players were poor, the rucks in particular disappointing. They were easily brushed aside by Geelong's big men and failed to give their mainly inexperienced on ballers the service they required. Although Jeff White managed to get a bit of the ball around the ground, I'm concerned about how he will fare against the AFL's powerhouse ruckmen on a weekly basis throughout the season.

The experienced Russell Robertson and Brad Green were disappointing. Robbo hit higher notes with Kate Ceberano during the week on television than he did yesterday at Skilled Stadium and Greenie's disposal let him and his team mates down on the day although to his credit, he improved his output later in the game.

Adem Yze, in his comeback game after last year's hernia and last week's poke in the eye, toiled hard in defence and should be much better from the run.

The umpires were as rusty as the players and produced an ordinary display with some inconsistency in decision making and the level of confusion at their decisions among the crowd was high.

The other lowlight for mine was the innocuous combined Nab Cup/clash strip, which was an absolute shocker and actually clashed more with the Cats' colours than the club's traditional jumper. The club does penance for losing to Geelong by travelling to the far reaches of the country next week so thankfully, I probably won't see that abomination for a while.

Geelong: 0.8.1, 1.12.4, 1.15.7, 2.22.10 (160)

Melbourne: 0.2.4, 1.4.4, 2.8.5, 2.11.5 (89)

Super Goals:

Geelong: Byrnes Wojcinski

Melbourne: Buckley Garland

Goals:

Geelong: S Johnson 6 Davenport 2 Lonergan 2 Gamble 2 Byrnes 2 Kelly 2 Mooney Milburn Hunt Stokes Prismall Wojcinski

Melbourne: Newton 2 Garland 2 Robertson Green Weetra Meesen Valenti Zomer Sylvia

Best:

Geelong: S Johnson Ling Prismall Stokes Bartel Byrnes Wojcinski Milburn Taylor

Melbourne: Jones Buckley Valenti Yze Meesen Garland

Injuries:

Geelong: G Ablett (calf)

Melbourne: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Rosebury Sully Kamolins M Nicholls