INTIMIDATED

INTIMIDATION by Dave from Dianella

On Anzac Day, I sat down in my lounge room with my young son and we watched a riveting contest between Collingwood and Essendon. The Pies got the jump on the Bombers but Jimmy Hird's boys fought back and the two teams fought it out tooth and nail to produce a sensational spectacle. I dare say there would be very few Essendon supporters who wouldn't have been satisfied with the outcome because their team had a dip against superior quality opposition. Last year's 14th placed team is young and it's going places.

Last night, I was able to head down to Patersons Stadium to watch Eagles v Demons and fortunately, I left the young bloke at home. I came with hope and expectation given that West Coast did finish last in 2010 and Melbourne was far more advanced in its rebuild than the local side in my adopted hope city.

Little did I know!

With a few exceptions, what I saw was seemingly a team of rank amateurs caught in the headlights and mesmerised by the atmospheric conditions at the ground. As far as the first quarter was concerned, I haven't seen anything like it in an elite competition of any sport (although admittedly, I didn't take the trouble to view the Gold Coast Suns' debut at the Gabba a month ago).

Most of you have probably seen the game on your television screens and let me say that such a view didn't give the whole, horrible picture that unfolded before our eyes. Nor did the quarter time scores of 5.5.35 to 0.2.2. What you would have seen was the hesitation, the fumbling, the lack of skills or the fear in players to do what should come naturally from a well drilled professional side. They looked intimidated.

However, those of us who were present did see the extent of how badly the team's third rate game plan was executed. From up there in the stands we saw the birth of a new style of football which, for want of a better description I will call the "backward press" in opposition to the more common "forward press" adopted by many successful AFL sides these days. In order to pull off a successful "backward press" you have to have skill, ability, a determination to succeed and raw emotion. Even then, it will probably fail because of its flawed nature against the systems that are currently in vogue but Melbourne achieved the extraordinary because it lacked the lot.

The result was a scenario that saw the ball move from a contested situation at centre bounces in the ruck (where Mark Jamar at least held his own on his own against two big athletic monsters), the ball would be invariably won by an Eagle (this started in the opening play of the game with Nick Naitanui's run towards goal), and end up deep inside the West Coast forward line where it was permanently positioned until the home side scored.

When the ball was won by a Melbourne player, it would be shuffled around deep inside the opposition fifty from player to player until it eventually went either out of bounds on the full or to a team mate under pressure or directly by miskick, bad handball, fumble or all of the above straight to an Eagle for an ultimate score. Lots of West Coast goals were scored by our turnovers and, on the very rare occasion when it did go in the direction of Melbourne's goals, the attack was easily repulsed (however, I defy Buddy Franklin, Peter Hudson or God himself to kick goals when your midfield isn't giving you any service).

The inside 50 count at the first break just about said it all - 22 to 3. Now I remember watching a game a few years ago and the commentators were marvelling at how low one of the team's inside 50 numbers was for a game. The figure of around 30 was being discussed as close to a record low. So if multiply the number 3 by 4 quarters to get 12 you can get a feeling of the depths of Melbourne's ineptitude. No skills, no pressure, no leadership and no direction.

But ... they're a young side and have a few year's development in them before are set to challenge, you say?

Sod that because youth and inexperience is no excuse for rubbish which is what was served up against last night's opposition.

Needless to say, things improved after the first break because they had to, and at half time I was beaming like those Gold Coast people who marvelled at winning a quarter off us at the Gabba a fortnight ago. We had just won the second quarter!!!

Hallelujah, because we happened to be hopeless in winning that quarter and things only got worse in the third and the last.

How we only ended up losing by nine goals is a miracle but I suppose we owe it to Colin Garland and Clint Bartram who battled manfully in defence, Jack Trengove and Jack Watts who can hold their heads up high and the poor old Russian who will at least remember his 100th game if only for all the wrong reasons. If I have to name any others, I'll throw in Nathan Jones and Jack Grimes but for the life of me, I don't know what's happened to coaches who are brave enough to try something different if things aren't working during a game.

All we did was take off Jordan Gysberts and replace him with Lynden Dunn but there was nothing fundamentally different in the way we went about things in the second half. We were rancid and in the end, Priddis with his dislocated finger was showing up our pathetic show ponies in the midfield.

I heard that Dean Bailey said the team would have to work hard during the week in payment for their poor performance last night. What's wrong with working harder during the game next week against Adelaide?

And on that subject. No panic but if there aren't five or six changes in the side for next week then the football department is as soft as they appear to the outside world at the moment.

Melbourne 0.2.2 3.6.24 4.8.32 6.16.52

West Coast 5.3.33 7.8.50 10.12.72 15.16.106

Goals

Melbourne Davey Dunn Jones Moloney Sylvia Watts

West Coast Darling Embley Lynch 3 Kennedy Nicoski 2 LeCras Rosa

Best

Melbourne Jamar Garland Watts Trengove Jones Bartram

West Coast Priddis Ebert Cox Kerr Nicoski S Selwood

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

West Coast Priddis (dislocated finger)

Changes

Melbourne Nil

West Coast Nil

Reports

Melbourne Nil

West Coast Nil

Umpires Chris Donlon Shane Stewart Brett Rosebury

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