Demonland

Melbourne’s twenty eight point loss to Geelong down at Taxpayer Funded Park provided plenty of cat-nip for the Geelong fans and their team. After all, the Cats go away thinking they have now got the Demons sorted after the embarrassments heaped upon them last season and their taste of this cat-nip will get even stronger in the coming weeks, courtesy of the AFL draw which gives them three more home games at the same venue in the six remaining rounds. Yet Melbourne, despite this loss, were within a kick half way through the final quarter, and were they to steal a win, would have truly put terror into Geelong’s future prospects when playing the Demons. It wasn’t to be, but just as equally it should be recognised how well Geelong prepared for the game and executed that tactic so well. Within the skinny confines of Mordor oval, the Cats have completely changed their approach and tactics. Last season it was all about possession, chip and kick, move around the flanks until sending the ball to the tall forwards. In this match it was all about territory, something at which Melbourne has been the exponent experts for quite a while. Equally, Melbourne were forced into the “robbing Peter to pay Paul” scenario with its forward structure. Without a second tall, the plan was to move Petracca forward more often and deeper. Yes, it produced three goals from him, but what was the cost to the midfield? Centre clearances 16:8. …. Clearances around the ground, 54: 36. Problem for Melbourne was that with this skinny ground, and losing particularly the centre square, is that the ball finished in the Geelong forward line again and again. Putting Harmes into the middle means Petracca wasn’t there. Petracca finished with only 2 clearances for the game. Two!! Can’t blame him because he was cooling his jets trying to mend a forward line hole. No Petracca made it doubly easy for the Cats. Stick a tag on Oliver, and while you can’t hold him back, he has no partner in crime to get the ball to, when things get tight. And it releases Guthrie from having to go head to head with the best in the competition. The backs simply played magnificently considering the onslaught coming in from the middle. At one point in the game the ball stayed in Geelong’s forward line for 15 minutes straight!. The Demons simply couldn’t get the ball out of there….why? Skinny ground and compounded by Geelong defenders, particularly their tall ones moving up the ground. De Koning, Blicavs and Henry only had to worry about Ben Brown, and they could set a wall up across the centre. And with Gawn and Jackson returning from injury, their output proved to be severely curtailed with Gawn not managing to record a single mark in the game! But Geelong were smart. They moved the ball through the centre with long kicks to gain territory. This completely nullified the advantage of James Jordan and Ed Langdon on the wings, and more importantly stopped the up-ground pressure from the likes of Alex Neal-Bullen, Toby Bedford and Kozzy Pickett. Without that pressure it has to be questioned the value of a couple of those players to the overall performance, if they can’t do anything else other than run around. Not much use if the ball has gone over your head and is 40 m away in the opposition forward line. Cameron was playing a long way up the ground instead of out of the goal square. This dragged the Melbourne defenders further forward, but while they didn’t follow blindly, it just left Cameron free-wheeling in the middle of the ground, with his long kicking capability. Melbourne goes away licking its wounds from this game. However, the problems they faced in this game will not be replicated on grounds where finals are played. There is also the lesson questioning the role allocated to certain players, when the environment has changed, and the opposition utilise different tactics. But the Cats have exposed themselves now. This plan works in one location only. Their ageing legs are not producing as they once were. Hawkins 1 goal for the game. Selwood barely 60% time on ground. 15 minutes of attack without barely a score. Just getting over the line against a side bereft of tall forwards. When the next meeting comes the flowering hopes of the already cat-nipped Geelong supporters will be nipped in the bud! MELBOURNE 3.1.19 5.4.34 7.6.48 9.9.63 GEELONG 3.3.21 5.8.38 8.12.60 12.19.91 GOALS MELBOURNE Petracca 3 Bedford Brown Fritsch Neal-Bullen Oliver Pickett GEELONG Duncan C Guthrie Rohan 2 Atkins Close Hawkins Holmes Smith Stengle BEST MELBOURNE Viney Petracca Oliver Neal-Bullen Brayshaw Petty GEELONG Atkins Henry C Guthrie Dangerfield Smith Duncan INJURIES MELBOURNE C Oliver (thumb) GEELONG Nil REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil GEELONG Nil SUBSTITUTES MELBOURNE J Hunt (unused) GEELONG Q Narkle (unused) UMPIRES Justin Power Simon Meredith Robert Findlay CROWD 21,501 at GMHBA Stadium

Who comes in and who goes out?

It’s a long way from last September.

Kindly let us have your votes folks 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …

We’ll get murdered from here. Lot of passengers.

Salem is not himself.

Can we buy a holding the ball?

Purple patch from the umps.

We are so unclean by hand and foot.

Why are we outnumbered all over the ground?

They get them

Why don’t we get rewarded for tackles?

Would also be great if we could stick a tackle.

Could really use another key forward or at the very least kick to our own players inside 50.

Our disposal is atrocious

What has happened to May’s disposal?

Worked a treat for me last week and will be using it again today. Not a bad view for the match either. 32 degrees to boot.

QUIRK IN EAGLES' JACKSON CHASE WEST Coast would need an AFL exemption to trade for Luke Jackson if the Melbourne young gun decided to go back to Western Australia. The Eagles are the only club not allowed to trade their first-round pick at this year's draft under the AFL's rules, which force clubs to use two first-round picks over a rolling four-year period to ensure they don't trade away all of their future selections. West Coast has used one first-round pick in the past four years – Campbell Chesser last year – and could only trade their first pick if they secured a second first-round selection. However, clubs are also able to apply for exemptions to trade out their top picks if they haven't reached the two-in-four requirement, with the AFL then able to decide. The Eagles using their top pick at this year's draft – likely to be No.2 or 3 – to try to lure Jackson back to Western Australia would be expected to be approved by the AFL, though, considering Jackson was a No.3 pick just three years ago and will only be 21 at the end of this season. Another option would be to split their early pick into two multiple first-round picks, which wouldn't require AFL approval. The star young ruckman has been weighing his decision to remain at Melbourne, where he was a central member of its premiership win last year, or return to Western Australia, with the Eagles and Fremantle both ready to make a play. – Callum Twomey

Who are you tipping this week?

INS – Max Gawn, Luke Jackson OUTS – Sam Weideman, Mitch Brown (omitted)

Please don’t talk to me about Melbourne’s lack of ruckmen last week at the Adelaide Oval. Or the discrepancy in the free kick numbers. Those things might have played a role in the way that the game unfolded but if you focus on them, then you are missing some truly significant pointers as to how the rest of the season is going to pan out for the Melbourne Football Club and in particular, on what happens on Thursday night when the team plays against Geelong at the Cattery. Here are some of the things that happened at the Adelaide Oval that should send shivers down the spines of opposing coaches. Clayton Oliver — after inking a playing contract to set up his career, he might have been forgiven for slacking off a little against a team in the bottom third of the competition but that was the furthest thing from his mind as he continued to amass a 36 possession game (a game high) with 13 tackles (equal game high) and plenty of score involvements. Clarrie is playing at a different level to the rest of the competition. Christian Petracca — after several weeks playing well below 100% fitness and spraying his shots at goal, Tracc produced the best ratings game of his career, kicking three goals, causing havoc with 11 score involvements and amassing bundles of contested possession. He’s back in town. Jack Viney — he might have trailed Oliver and Petracca (and Ed Langdon for that matter) in the number of touches but he’s been in good form of late and never drops his intensity and aggression at the football. When the game was still in the balance, he bustled his way through for the goal that finally settled the issue. Collectively, Oliver, Petracca and Viney are the toughest starting midfield at the elite level of the game. They're not just back in town — they are brutal as a combination of players. The stuff of nightmares for opposing coaches. Speaking of being back in town, Ed Langdon, who was almost lost in the bush after being subbed out with broken ribs against North Melbourne a month or so ago, has finally found his way back to the Bourke Street Mall after his 33 touches against the Crows. The modern day Demons have been good defensively but experienced a few shaky weeks in the absence of Steven May. Now that he’s settled back into the side and the rest of the key defenders are spending more of their time on the ground than in the hands of the trainers, they’re playing with that purpose again. Last Saturday’s effort in breaking the club’s intercept record was outstanding. There’s been some criticism of the Demon forwards but the two Browns contributed two goals each and the small forwards continued to bring their low possession, high pressure system to the game. With the likelihood of at least one, if not both of the club’s tall giants returning to the team for the Cats on Thursday night, the side is regaining the look and feel of September. The question therefore is whether we can gauge if the home side has improved enough to recover from the “wave of illness” that covered them when they were comprehensively smashed by the rampant Demons as they headed towards a premiership flag late last year. I’m not convinced by the Cats. They somehow have managed to score a sensational fixture given they finished top four last year. They have two major additions to the side that capitulated in the Preliminary Final, namely Tyson Stengle and Sam De Koning but the balance of the side are still old men who are going to be put under immense pressure. This should be even more so given that their most recent game wasn’t particularly challenging and therefore not much preparation for a top-of-the-ladder tussle against the reigning premiers. As long as Melbourne’s defenders can stay out of the way of the odd errant elbow, I think they have the strength and ability to hold the Geelong twin towers of Hawkins and Cameron to manageable levels of scoring. And if they do that, the Demons should beat the Cats by 27 points at at GMHBA Stadium. THE GAME

 Geelong v Melbourne at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday 7 July 2022 at 7.20pm HEAD TO HEAD

 Overall Geelong 132 wins Melbourne 88 wins 2 draws
 At GMHBA Stadium Geelong 40 wins Melbourne 19 wins 1 draw The last five meetings Geelong 2 wins Melbourne 3 wins
 The Coaches Scott 5 wins Goodwin 4 wins

 MEDIA

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 LAST TIME THEY MET 

Melbourne 19.11.125 defeated Geelong 6.6.42 at Optus Stadium in the 2021 Preliminary Final You couldn’t ask for more than a 14 goal win in a Preliminary Final, could you? Chris Scott sooked about his players being sick which demonstrated as much, if not more, poor form from the coach than from the Geelong players on the night. THE TEAMS

 GEELONG B: Z. Guthrie 39 S.De Koning 16 J. Bews 24 HB: J. Henry 38 M. Blicavs 46 Z. Tuohy 2 C: M. Duncan 22 J.Cameron 5 I. Smith 7 HF: T. Atkins 30 T. Hawkins 6 P. Dangerfield 35 F: B.Close 45 G.Rohan 23 T.Stengle 18 Foll: R. Stanley 1 C. Guthrie 29 J. Selwood 14 I/C: M. Holmes 9 S. Menegola 27 G. Miers 32 M.O'Connor 42 Sub: Q.Narkle 19 Emerg: F.Evans 31 M.Knevitt 10 S.Neale 33 In S.De Koning J. Selwood Out S.Higgins (omitted) J.Kolodjashnij (concussion) MELBOURNE B: H.Petty 35 J.Lever 8 S.May 1 HB: C.Salem 3 M.Hibberd 14 J.Bowey 17 C: A.Brayshaw 10 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15 HF: K.Pickett 36 L.Jackson 6 T.Bedford 12 F: A.Neal-Bullen 30 B.Brown 50 C.Spargo 9 Foll: M.Gawn 11 C.Petracca 5 J.Viney 7 I/C: B.Fritsch 31 J.Jordon 23 J.Harmes 4 T.Sparrow 32 Sub: J.Hunt 29 Emerg: J.Melksham 18 A.Tomlinson 20 S.Weideman 26 In: M.Gawn J.Hunt L.Jackson Out: M.Brown (omitted) A.Tomlinson S.Weideman (omitted) Injury List: Round 17 Max Gawn - Ankle | Test Luke Jackson - Knee | Test Blake Howes - Foot | 1-2 Weeks Andy Moniz-Wakefield - Groin | 1-2 Weeks Daniel Turner - Face | 1-2 Weeks Joel Smith - Ankle | 2-4 Weeks Tom McDonald - Foot | 8-10 Weeks