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PENDULUM by The Oracle The nature of the NAB Cup dictates that, for a majority of clubs, it's more like a series of exhibition trial games and experimentation once the triple header season opener is out of the way. And so was for Melbourne in 2013. The NAB Cup campaign was over on opening night. It managed to accumulate an irrelevant four points (which the football world rightly ignored because it was the sort of game usually reserved for yesterday's venue at Casey Fields) but if there was a silver lining it had to be that the Demons only put in two poor quarters for the journey and they were undermanned in both of them. The first was against a fresh Richmond in the opening quarter of week one, the other in the the second term yesterday. Of course, that 10-12 minute patch against St. Kilda was a total disaster, reminiscent of all of the worst aspects of the past half decade. Melbourne fiddled with the ball, turned it over too easily and succumbed to pressure in the heat coughing up goal after goal. During that time the Demons were vulnerable in the midfield and gave away too many easy possessions (including an ungodly number of frees) that enabled the Saints to rebound with ease and dominate. In the batting of an eyelid the pendulum swung from a point where Melbourne doubled St. Kilda's score to exactly the reverse and the contest was over. I'm not sure what it means but during the rest of the game, the Dees were good but who knows these days, how much teams are really trying in exhibition matches of this sort? What we do know is that, of the combatants, it was St Kilda that took what was close to its best line-up to Casey Fields with a strong and dominant midfield and its small forwards dominating when push came to shove (Milne and Milera kicking four goals during that purple patch) while Melbourne either rested or was forced to leave out players through injury who will at least be under strong consideration for selection in most post positions on the ground. Three key position certainties were out of the action - Tom McDonald (defence) and Mitch Clark and Chris Dawes (forward). Given the contribution of the opposition small forwards to Melbourne's demise Nev Jetta and James Strauss would have been handy and Jordie McKenzie would have been able to annoy the living suitcases out of one of their dominant midfielders. And if you insert Jack Trengove, Sam Blease, Jack Viney and Rohan Bail into the midfield mix, you might just be able to blunt the sort of run on to which the team was subjected. Also rested this week was the kid from Clackline, WA Dean Kent who has impressed as a medium forward who knows how to kick a goal and who showed some promise in the earlier games. But what about those who took part and what about the other 65-70 minutes of the game? Melbourne started like a house on fire in the hot conditions with Mark Jamar owning the ruck and giving Nathan Jones and newcomers David Rodan first use of the ball. Two other recruits in Shannon Byrnes and Cameron Pedersen were giving the Saints plenty to think about and the Demons were out to a 22-point lead with the aid of the breeze by the halfway mark of the first term thanks to a 9 pointer from Lynden Dunn. They then lost the ascendency in the second half of the opening term and this lull in intensity probably set the scene for the Saints' revival in the second. Melbourne needs to learn from their relentless non stop push once they gained control. You rarely win if you cough up seven or eight unanswered goals to your opponent. The Demons fought back in the third but couldn't peg back the Saints' lead sufficiently to fight their way back into contention despite making a fist of it in the last when the hot and steamy conditions had taken the sting out of the match. The pendulum was never going to swing far enough for the Demons. Apart from Nathan Jones and Jamar (35 hit outs), Melbourne was well served by Lynden Dunn, Dan Nicholson and Colin Sylvia while Dean Terlich showed why he was plucked out of the SANFL to resurrect his career. However, if the day is ever going to be remembered for anything other than the bunfight needed to get out of the car park at the end, it will be for that period during which the pendulum swung so dramatically against a hapless Melbourne. For them to improve this season, the Demons will need to eliminate the lapses although we shouldn't forget that the nature of the NAB Cup means that the makeup of teams will vary and they definitely came up against a team that was much closer to full strength on the day. MELBOURNE1.2.2.23 1.3.4.31 2.5.6.54 2.7.6.66 ST. KILDA 0.1.2.8 2.6.8.62 2.8.8.74 2.10.13.91 Supergoals Melbourne Dunn N Jones St. Kilda Newnes N Dal Santo Goals Melbourne Sellar 2 Byrnes Hogan Rodan Tapscott Toumpas St. Kilda Milera Milne 2 Dal Santo Dennis-Lane Gilbert Hayes Koschitzke Riewoldt Best Melbourne N Jones Rodan, Dunn Terlich Jamar Sylvia Nicholson St. Kilda Dal Santo Newnes Montagna Milne Steven Geary Roberton INJURIES Melbourne Nil St. Kilda Nil Reports Nil Umpires Stuart Wenn Ben Ryan Shane McInerney Crowd 5,000 (est.) at Casey Fields VIEW THE GAME Quarter 1 - http://bit.ly/15FgNKw Quarter 2 - http://bit.ly/15FgSOq Quarter 3 - http://bit.ly/Y7z5B3 Quarter 4 - http://bit.ly/WBNDvq STATISTICS Disposals - Melbourne 247 St. Kilda 250 Kicks - Melbourne 137 St. Kilda 164 Handballs - Melbourne 110 St. Kilda 86 Free Kicks - Melbourne 10 St. Kilda 23 Clearances - Melbourne 23 St. Kilda 27 Centre - Melbourne 11 St. Kilda 7 Stoppages - Melbourne 12 St. Kilda 20 Inside 50 - Melbourne 37 St. Kilda 31 Marks in 50 - Melbourne 5 St. Kilda 4 Contested Possessions Melbourne 87 St. Kilda 94 Tackles - Melbourne 21 St. Kilda 51 Hit-Outs - Melbourne 36 St. Kilda 13 Melbourne [K H M HO T SG.G.B DT] Colin Garland 13 2 8 0 0 0.0.0 64 James Magner 9 8 4 0 4 0.0.0 63 David Rodan 5 7 5 0 3 0.1.0 62 Dean Terlich 6 9 5 0 0 0.0.0 53 Nathan Jones 9 7 3 0 1 1.0.0 52 Lynden Dunn 11 3 3 0 0 1.0.0 48 Mark Jamar 3 3 1 32 0 0.0.0 47 Joel MacDonald 9 7 3 0 0.0.0 47 Colin Sylvia 8 4 2 0 2 0.0.0 43 James Sellar 4 4 3 0 0 0.2.2 40 Jack Grimes 5 4 2 0 2 0.0.0 38 Jeremy Howe 4 4 3 0 1 0.0.1 35 Matt Jones 6 5 3 0 1 0.0.0 35 James Frawley 6 4 2 0 0 0.0.0 33 Tom Gillies 3 8 4 0 1 0.0.0 33 Jack Watts 5 4 2 0 1 0.0.0 33 Shannon Byrnes 5 2 4 0 1 0.1.0 32 Cameron Pedersen 3 7 2 4 0 0.0.1 32 Daniel Nicholson 5 8 1 0 0 0.0.0 31 Aaron Davey 6 0 2 0 0 0.0.1 26 Jimmy Toumpas 6 5 1 0 1 0.0.0 26 Luke Tapscott 3 3 0 0 1 0.1.0 25 Jesse Hogan 2 0 1 0 1 0.0.1 14 Michael Evans 2 2 1 0 0 0.0.0 10 NAB CUP APPEARANCES - 2013 [Week 1 v NM, Rich, Week 2 v PA, Week 3 v STK - square = played game] 1 Hogan, Jesse (new) ■■■■ 2 Jones, Nathan ■■ - ■ 4 Watts, Jack ■■ - ■ 5 Toumpas, Jimmy (new) - ■ - ■ 6 Dawes, Chris (new) ■ - - - 7 Viney, Jack (new) ■ ■ - - 8 Frawley, James ■■ - ■ 9 Trengove, Jack - - - - 10 Byrnes, Shannon (new) ■ - - ■ 11 Clark, Mitchell - - - - 12 Sylvia, Colin ■■■■ 13 McKenzie, Jordie ■■- - 14 Dunn, Lynden ■■ - ■ 15 Rodan, David (new) ■ - - ■ 17 Blease, Sam ■ - - - 19 Strauss, James - - ■ - 20 Garland, Colin ■■ - ■ 21 Pedersen, Cameron (new) ■■■■ 22 Magner, James ® ■■■■ 23 Tynan, Josh - - ■- 25 McDonald, Tom ■■- - 26 Nicholson, Daniel ■■■■ 27 Gillies, Tom (new) ■ - ■■ 28 Macdonald, Joel - ■■■ 29 VACANT 30 Sellar, James - ■■■ 31 Grimes, Jack ■■ - ■ 32 Evans, Michael ■ - ■■ 33 Barry, Dominic (new) -- ■ - 34 Kent, Dean (new) ■ - ■- 35 Tapscott, Luke - - ■■ 36 Davey, Aaron - ■■■ 37 Gawn, Max -- - - 38 Howe, Jeremy ■■ - ■ 39 Jetta, Neville ■■■- 40 Jamar, Mark ■ - - ■ 41 Davis, Troy -- ■- 42 Spencer, Jake - ■■ - 43 Taggert, Rory -- ■ - 44 Bail, Rohan -- - - 45 Jones, Matt (new) - ■■■ 46 Terlich, Dean (new) - ■■■ 47 Couch, Thomas ® - ■■- 48 Fitzpatrick, Jack - - ■ - 49 Stark, Nathan ® (new) -- ■ - 50 Clisby, Mitch ® (new) -- --

DEATH BY A THOUSAND KICKS by Scoop Junior It was the same old story against Hawthorn at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, with the Dees ending a bad week on a low with a thumping 79-point loss. Although the score may have created a feeling of de ja vu for those unfortunate enough to have witnessed Hawthorn treating us like a bunch of schoolboys over the last five years, the manner and pattern of the thumping was different this time. In fact, while the Hawks have totally dominated us since 2007, what is interesting is the fact that it hasn't always been the same modus operandi - it hasn't always been the same type of kill. There have been games against them when their bigger bodies have smashed us around the stoppages and in the contested parts of the game and there have been others where they have applied manic forward pressure to force us into repetitive turnovers in our back half. In this respect, I'm sure I'm not the only one with recurring nightmares of the third quarter of last year's game against them where we could not get the ball out of defence and had they kicked straight could have put through 15 goals in that term alone. This time, however, it was death by a thousand cuts, or make that kicks. Other than probably the first half of the first quarter when we were blown away, I thought we matched the Hawks in getting hands on the footy at the stoppages and were relatively even in the contested footy stakes. However, the difference in composure and ball use was almost comical, with Hawthorn kicking the ball around the ground to unmarked players in what looked like a training drill while we struggled to string together more than two or three uncontested mark chains. The other notable difference between the two teams was in ball handling. I lost count of the number of times a Melbourne player would try to pick the ball up and either fumble or fail to dispose of it effectively, and then a Hawk would swoop, pick it up cleanly and clear the ball all in one motion. Part of this was excellent pressure by Hawthorn around the ball, but this doesn't excuse a really poor execution of one of the most basic and important skills in football - clean hands. However, what was even more disappointing was the defensive side of our game. The way the Hawks shrugged our tackles made it look like men against boys and the way they cut our zone to pieces with their precise chip kicking was really disappointing. Space just seemed to open up for them to run into and we were constantly caught out by their spreading and speed of kicking. It was pretty obvious to anyone that was at the game that on this ocassion our zone was not working and that something needed to be changed to try to prevent the uncontested possession chains that were not allowing us to get near the footy. Perhaps man on man may have helped, or even pressing further up the ground to try to pressure their backs into making execution errors. But if we mug supporters can see this, then there's no doubt the coaching staff are well on top of it. And in this respect I liked Mark Neeld saying after the game that he wanted to stick with our structure and game plan and take advantage of the fact that this was a NAB Cup game where you can afford to try different things. I like a coach who is strong with his game plan and confident in his methods and he is trying to get us to play a brand of footy that he thinks will be successful. I don't think there's any doubt that had this been a home and away game, we would've seen a change in tactics fairly early on (perhaps even from the start of the match given Hawthorn's 'chip the ball through the zone' tactic was one they employed successfully last year). We also woudn't have seen our best tall defender subbed off at half time and we wouldn't have left a 19 year old second gamer on a rampant Hale who was marking everything in sight. And that probably leads me into the only positive of the night, that it was only a pre-season match and that things will be done differently once the real stuff starts. But apart from that there wasn't much else you could take out of this game, other than the Hawks showing what a strong, talented and committed team they are and Buddy Franklin displaying freakish athleticism and football skills. It was just a good old fashioned shocker of a performance from Melbourne and something we can only hope we don't see too often again. As for the players, I don't believe that there were any winners out there. I'm going to take the unusual step of not even naming a best - while some like Lynden Dunn and Nathan Jones worked hard, I just don't think that performance warrants players to be named in the best. I was disappointed with Brent Moloney, who again failed to perform to his best against an A grade midfield. His vision was poor and he blazed away a few times when there were other (better) options available. Colin Sylvia was also disappointing, another who has too often followed up great games with an anonymous performance. Jack Watts was lively and handy in the first half but didn't have much impact after half time. Mitch Clark competed well and was a good target but he really should have taken at least 4 or 5 of the marks he dropped. He had a size, weight and experience advantage over his opponent but could not dominate his position (unlike Hale up the other end). I also thought he was selfish on two occasions - one where he snapped for goal over his head and another where he could have dished off near the boundary but instead chose to attempt a near-impossible shot at goal. After the second one, Hodge let him know that it was a selfish decision, pointing to the top of the square where the kick should have gone. But he did show promise by getting to the right spots and three goals on a night where he didn't play at his best and the delivery was terrible at best is a good effort. It was a pity James Magner was injured early as he had probably been our best player over the last two weeks. I was keen to see how he would fare against an elite opposition midfield. He appears to be the best rookie midfielder available at present. Tom Couch is honest and has a dip but the question is whether he has the pace and class, while I haven't been impressed with Dan Nicholson this pre-season as his ball handling and kicking have regularly let him down. Anyway, strangely enough I am actually looking forward to when we play Hawthorn in the home and away season as I think from a tactical perspective it will be fascinating to see how we try to combat their game style. It would also be nice if we don't give them a five or six goal head start which is what we usually do against them. With the game in Adelaide this week, the next time we see the boys run around in a competitive match will be at the MCG in Round 1 against Brisbane. So what I'd like to hear from the game this week is a real solid effort, a much improved defensive performance and (obviously) no further injuries. The scoreboard is irrelevant this week but I do think it's important that we put in a solid four quarter effort to allow us to build into the new season with a bit of confidence. Melbourne 0.2.3.15 0.4.6.30 0.4.7.31 0.6.8.44 Hawthorn 0.6.2.38 0.10.4.64 1.12.8.89 1.17.12. 123 Goals Melbourne Clark 3 Watts 2 Dunn Hawthorn Franklin (supergoal) Hale 6 Franklin 4 Breust 2 Bruce Hodge Lewis Puopolo Sewell Best Hawthorn Franklin Hale Suckling Hodge Birchall Injuries Melbourne Magner (dislocated finger) Hawthorn Nil. Reports Melbourne Nil. Hawthorn Nil. Umpires McInerney Kamolins Orr Official crowd 10,600 at Etihad Stadium