A 41 point loss to Collingwood, combined with yet another meagre output from the Melbourne forwards, saw the Demons pantsed by the Collingwood in the Queens Birthday match.
For the nth week in a row, Melbourne failed to produce a score that would trouble most sides - it’s inaccuracy alone was again enough to seal the outcome. If that final score of 7.15 were 15.7, the game would have been very different. That sort of output was exactly a repeat of the previous week against Adelaide, when forwards could not muster a goal at the pointy end of the game and a loss resulted.
Once again the selection committee stuffed it up with our own man mountain – Braydon Preuss, languishing at Casey. He is not the answer to everything but neither is Mason Cox, and Collingwood used him to good effect today. Once again, the problem is when Gawn goes off the ground for a well deserved rest. We press-gang either Weidemann or Tom McDonald which depletes the forward line and exhausts them to boot! Today Weidemann could barely get up a trot after having Cox bounce into him for 10 minutes. So we are down another forward, when he has to come off the ground.
To top it off, as an example, in the third quarter, we had Gawn and McDonald off the ground, for breaks or injury attention. Weidemann into the ruck. Petracca into the middle. That left a forward line of Spargo, Hannan, Hunt and Garlett.
Small wonder Crisp, Moore, Howe and Roughead had a party and once again, Melbourne failed to trouble the score during that period.
Failing to score has become the mark of the side. In the first quarter it was only a Jeff Garlett “cheapie” out the back which avoided yet another goalless quarter. We simply don’t have a target, and poor Tom Mac cannot run or jump (and hasn’t been able to all season….wait for the end of season surgery to his foot/feet).
Jeff Garlett refuses to engage with any opponent, and even when moved to the wing for a while, simply let firstly Sidebottom and then Mayne race downfield to set up two successive goals for the Pies. If he hasn’t got the interest in doing his job any more, then Lockhart or even Dunkley who each put in such good performances at Casey, could fill that role more than adequately.
Sam Weidemann is still a work in progress, but he needs support and he sure isn’t getting it at the moment. Charlie Spargo tries, knows where to go, but is he big enough for AFL football? A player of his size needs to have something special, but what is it? Hannan is still returning from a long lay-off and has improved in the past two weeks, as he is getting more of the ball.
Petracca, puts in his weekly cameo, and then disappears. He has to “take the game on”, and that means kicking for goal when inside 50m, not trying to dish it off to someone else. Just do it…as Nike say!
The backs welcomed the return of May and Lever, and there was an instant cohesion among them as a result. Marty Hore continues to impress, as he fills the hole courageously and knows how to read the ball in flight. It helps now that he has May and Lever holding back the main forwards, so we will see him shine even more. The loss of Frost to concussion in the opening minutes hurt badly, and we lacked his drive from the half-back line. Salem was more than useful after that collision with Frost, but not up to his usual standards, considering he had already lost a week with concussion concerns.
Max Gawn put paid to the argument about who is the best ruckman in the competition, for while he matched Grundy in hitouts, it was his 10 clearances and 19 contested possessions which separated the two by the country mile.
Surely the result should have been closer with his output and the fact that the Demons had four players with over 30 possessions against the Pies who only had one in Treloar reaching that mark?
It was the other end of the statistical spectrum where the failing are happening, as not a single Collingwood player failed to reach double figure disposals, but Melbourne had two, with three more on 11 and 12 disposals. In other words, Collingwood had a far better output across the ground, whereas Melbourne depended upon just a few.
With a bye now to come, it is a chance to regroup. The season is well and truly lost, and that was the case weeks ago. We will see the return from injury of even more players, but the remainder of the year should be an exercise in giving opportunity to those who are prepared to take it. We need to still be aggressive, and intend to win each and every game, while not playing young players just to give them a chance.
We want players who want to play senior football each and every week, like Oskar Baker and Marty Hore. This is how you build a winning culture. This is how you build expectations for the following season for players and supporters.
We do not need any more embarrassing games like was played out today. And we have a return game against Collingwood on 10th August, so that is the perfect opportunity to show whether we are serious about where we stand for the future.
Melbourne 1.2.8 3.5.23 5.7.37 7.15.57
Collingwood 3.5.23 6.8.44 11.8.74 15.8.98
Goals
Melbourne Weideman 2 Garlett Hannan Hunt Petracca Spargo
Collingwood De Goey Hoskin-Elliott Stephenson 3 Cox Grundy Mihocek Sidebottom Thomas Treloar
Best
Melbourne Gawn Harmes May Weideman Brayshaw Oliver
Collingwood Moore Stephenson Sidebottom Treloar Hoskin-Elliott De Goey Howe Aish
Injuries
Melbourne Tim Smith (flu) replaced in selected side by J.Wagner Sam Frost (concussion)
Collingwood Nil
Reports
Melbourne Nil
Collingwood Nil
Umpires Stevic, Deboy, Whetton, Ryan
Official Crowd 74,036 at MCG
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