CHIPPING AWAY

by The Oracle

Brad Green was on the ground Melbourne on Saturday against Carlton for 86% of the game but he missed its most crucial moments. After playing a significant role in not only bringing his team back into the game but actually into the lead - a rare Demon achievement for season 2008 - Green was taken off for a breather. What transpired after that was a momentous turn around in the game.

Green had just kicked his second goal for the second term and his team's fourth on end after the Blues crashed out of the blocks with the first three goals early in the opening quarter. Melbourne regrouped, pushed players back deep into its defence and used its numbers there to repulse Carlton's attacks and frustrate their momentum. Were it not for its own habit of frustrating its coach and supporters with poor disposal of the ball and even poorer decision making, the home side might have had a much bigger lead when Green's second major sailed through the posts. By that time, several scoring opportunities had been wasted including simple shots from close in by Mark Jamar, Matthew Whelan, Cameron Bruce and Clint Bartram.

As it was, Melbourne's promising push for victory collapsed in a heap in the space of minutes. From the next bounce, Brent Moloney's game started unravelling and turned into a nightmare for his team when he was penalised for what was deemed an illegal tackle. The ball then rebounded backwards and forwards as if in a pinball machine for a brief period when Moloney was in the play on two or three occasions. He missed out on a couple of free kicks and then was penalised again for an allegedly high tackle on Carlton's Darren Pfeiffer. It was a lucky free but Moloney let out his frustration and gave away an unnecessary 50 metre penalty for a goal that leveled the scores.

The Blues had Judd and Stevens in the middle and their most expensive recruit ever decided to let loose. His goal on the run gave his team its second in the space of a matter of seconds. Green was back on but now in defence to help block the onslaught. However, it was already too late as Judd was on fire and Carlton had scored four goals in the blink of an eye to go to a three goal lead. The Demon players' heads dropped and skipper David Neitz, who was having a shocker up forward, went off with a neck injury that looks it might be like a long term problem. With the departure of Neitz, the umpires reinstated the hands in the back rule and the beneficiaries were the visiting team. By the main break they had booted seven unanswered goals to skip away to a 31 point lead.

In the last half, Melbourne looked the better side and, apart from some of the usual brain fades that supporters have become accustomed to in this year of living hell, it could have been well placed for a final grab at victory. They fluffed enough opportunities in a dour and dull third quarter (even Green who is known as the club's sharpshooter skewed a shot from dead in front which was enough for the coach to tear out what remained of his hair) to allow Judd to put the game out of their reach when he marked in front for the first goal of the half late in the third stanza. A scuffle erupted as Judd was lining up for goal with Whelan complaining that he'd been whacked head high by a sheepish looking Brendan Fevola - the result was inevitable and in the end the Demon was reported and the Fev was back in the game with a gift goal. Game over.

The Demons didn't stop however. They kept coming and were well served by their sometimes maligned first round draft picks from 2003 in Brock McLean and Colin Sylvia. McLean had a fantastic duel with Chris Judd and, although he lacked moneybag's brilliance and ability to kick the vital goal when needed, he plugged away with strength and was the game's leading possession winner. Sylvia is finally finding his niche in defence where his powerful running, attack on the ball and his strong marking has been very good in the past few weeks. A run of goals came with Green continuing to stand out and youngsters Cale Morton and Aussie Wonaeamirri making a contribution, Robbo standing up for once or twice and Nathan Jones chiming in with some strong work.

Some might raise their eyebrows at this but I thought James Frawley did well when thrown onto Fevola late in the game. The Carlton spearhead kicked three goals but one was from an unstoppable Judd pass and a soft 50 metre penalty, one from a flukey kick off the ground and the last from a mark on the boundary line and an after-the-siren miracle shot that somehow found its way through the big sticks. Despite that, Frawley showed that he has a fine defensive brain and one can only hope that the selectors persevere with him because the experience gained from playing against top forwards under the team's present adversity is exactly what is needed. Bring some other youngsters into the team as well because they will learn more about the Bailey game plan and how to improve themselves at this level than they ever will at Sandringham.

Still, there's a lot of room for improvement. The players need to get better at their foot skills, their handballing, their decision making, discipline (far too many opposition goals are being scored thanks to unnecessary free kicks and/or 50 metre penalties) and the execution of tactics and strategies. Other than that there's only one problem from my point of view and that's for the coaches to get their rotations right. I'm not sure that the policy of chasing world records in rotations is such a good policy. I've seen players interchanging on the northern stand side when the ball's in play along the southern stand and the team seems to be one or two players short where the action happens to be. On Saturday we saw Mark Jamar almost handball to Nathan Jones who was more focused in running of to the interchange. And then there was the case of Green coming off just when he was firing on all cylinders. I'm old fashioned and I would have kept him on the ground a little longer. Who knows if it would have changed the way the game unfolded but that's football!

All in all, Melbourne is getting closer and with players like Matthew Bate, Colin Garland, Stef Martin and Addam Maric doing well at Sandringham, there's more material to throw into the mix. Sooner or later, they'll get it right simply by chipping away and getting games into the younger players.

We are only a week away from the much awaited reassessment of the team by the football department and the winds of change are blowing at the Melbourne Football Club.

Melbourne 1.3.9 4.5.29 4.9.33 9.14.68

Carlton 3.321 10.6.66 12.10.82 15.11.101

Goals

Melbourne Green 4 Robertson 2 Jamar Jones McDonald

Carlton Fevola 7 Judd 3 Fisher Kreuzer Murphy S O'hAilpin Pfeiffer

Best

Melbourne Green McDonald McLean Sylvia Rivers Bruce

Carlton Judd Fevola Thornton Cloke Murphy

Injuries

Melbourne Neitz (neck)

Carlton Gibbs (back soreness) replaced in selected side by Bentick

Reports

Whelan (Melb) for allegedly striking Fevola (Carlton) in third quarter

Thornton (Carlton) for allegedly striking Bartram (Melb) in fourth quarter

Umpires Schmitt Stevic Stewart

Crowd 44,159 at MCG.