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CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS? by George on the Outer Demons Fans boo off team after Round 1 capitulation. A simply disgraceful team performance by the Melbourne Football club where they managed a solitary goal in a half of football, saw them rightly booed from the ground by their fans. And for all the apologists who say the team shouldnt be bagged ... that's rubbish! When a couple of first game 18 year olds show how to play a game of football, as an example, then players who had pulled on the jumper for 50 or 100 games should hang their heads in shame. Once again the supporters turned out in droves with over 20,000 paying their money and providing encouragement. For that they were treated disgracefully as they witnessed half-hearted efforts and lack of simply football smarts throughout the whole game. If it werent for the likes of Mitch Clark, Jack Grimes, Jack Viney and Nathan Jones the result would have been as one toothless Port supporter described after the match -Road Kill. How true that was! Port were prepared to run. Port were prepared to back up their team-mates and keep playing simple football. It was what we have come to know them as. It is their culture. Melbourne players in contrast played like a group of upper-class schoolboys. Avoiding the heavy contact, and hoping someone else will do the hard work, just to avoid getting the hands dirty. Simple tactics of manning up were either not followed or issued, as countless Port goals were slammed through with barely a Melbourne player in sight. Grimes tried hard to rally the troops with some genuine dash, and Blease added that which was missing for the first ¾ of the game. Clark played his heart out, but with no other assistance up forward his output was nullified. Viney will surely win the Rising Star award for this week with 22 disposals. And they were all hard fought and valuable. However, his long time friend Oliver Wines had an equally impressive debut for the Power. A sharp contrast with Col Sylvia (yet again) who simply refuses to cover his or any man, while he is all too happy to let others get the ball to him ... if he feels like it. The fans booed the team off at half-time and again at full time. They could see the sub-standard performance and the lack of effort being shunted out. Any supporter can stomach a team that is better than yours, but they certainly couldnt stomach what they saw today. Melbourne 3.1.19 7.2.44 7.3.45 8.6.54 Port Adelaide 5.3.33 11.6.72 16.13.109 19.19.133 Goals MelbourneClark Howe 2 Byrnes McKenzie Pedersen Viney Port Adelaide Schulz 4 Monfries Stewart 3 Hartlett 2 Cornes Heath Moore Pittard Westhoff Wingard Wines Best Melbourne Grimes Viney Clark N Jones M Jones Port Adelaide Hartlett Monfries Schulz Ebert Cornes Westhoff Injuries Melbourne Clark (ankle) Port Adelaide Nil Changes Melbourne Nil Port Adelaide Nil Reports Melbourne Nil Port Adelaide Nil Substitions Melbourne Sam Blease replaced Mitch Clark (final quarter) Port Adelaide Kane Mitchell replaced Angus Monfries (final quarter) Umpires Farmer Ryan Pannell Crowd 22,924 at the MCG

After six often turbulent months of off season goings on, the season begins in a few hours time and it comes not a moment too soon. The results of round one have demonstrated that pre season form isn't necessarily an indicator of how teams will perform when the real stuff starts so we wait in anticipation to see what the new look Demon team will bring us ...