- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It amazes me how a team can be utterly thumped one week, and then come out like world beaters the next. As terrible as the Melbourne Demons were last Thursday, they were phenomenal on Sunday.
I guess it’s easy for me to say this from the comfort of my living room sofa, but why did it take a week of incessant media bashing for the Melbourne players to respond?
Surely the young players have endured enough football sufferings to realise that a stand needed to be made last week at quarter time.
Yes, I admit that a 96 point thrashing of an in-form team is a decent enough response. But does it really take the words of Jimmy Stynes or the advice of an inconsequential rugby player for the Demons to show that their hearts really do beat true?
The same could be said about Adelaide.
No doubt Neil Craig and his troops will be put under the spotlight this coming week. They were dreadful on Sunday and the media should – and will – let everyone within the club know that. In all likelihood, the Crows will respond in a couple of day’s time with an emphatic victory over Gold Coast.
But why do they have to wait a week to redeem themselves to the football world? Why do football clubs procrastinate their efforts of atonement when they could start the work immediately?
The answer, of course, is that every opponent is different. A new opponent means that it’s a new week; the scores are reset, and the slate is clean.
Furthermore, different clubs do different things differently. You don’t need to be an expert to work that out.
In the Crows, Melbourne was opposing a team that was lacking in almost every facet of the game. Subsequently, it can be observed that they were playing a team that didn’t do what other Demon oppositions have done. That is, they only kicked five behinds.
To date, Melbourne has only lost two games this season. In the game that we no longer speak of, West Coast kicked 16 behinds. In Round 2, the Hawks kicked a whopping 26. On both occasions, Melbourne was demolished.
On the contrary, Melbourne’s only other mentionable win came against Brisbane in Round 3. The Lions kicked a miserly five behind that day.
The same amount as the Crows did.
Such statistics may seem unimportant at first glance. After all, behinds matter little to the game; they are only because this great game’s inventors were feeling particularly generous back in the 1800’s.
What punters don’t realise is that behinds are in fact crucial. Well, they are in regards to Melbourne, anyway. The reason for this is that for every behind kicked against the Demons, somebody has to bring the ball back in. And if you’ve ever watched a Demon game, you’d realise that such a task is easier said than done.
Melbourne faltered against Hawthorn and West Coast because they lacked midfield hardness and intensity. They also lost because they had a faulty game plan. The Hawks and Eagles respectively were able to run over the hapless Demons with ease because the Melbourne kick-outs simply weren’t hitting targets.
Players would run with no direction, and leads were almost non-existent. Time after time, the defender with ball in hand would be resigned to bombing the ball long and wide. And the ball would unsurprisingly fall in the middle of a pack.
With Melbourne’s primary kicker – and undeserving culprit – Jack Grimes now out for the season, one might expect Melbourne’s kicking-in woes to be resolved. But watch a Dees game closely and you’ll find that it doesn’t matter who is assigned the duties.
Give the ball to Colin Garland, Luke Tapscott or Aaron Davey – three of Melbourne’s most potent ball-users – and the outcome remains the same.
Perhaps it’s harsh of me to attack the team I love after what was arguably the greatest Melbourne victory in a long, long time. But the truth of the matter is that this is still the same Demon outfit that everybody was criticising no less than three days ago. As comforting as big wins are, they only cover up holes that need to be fixed.
In fact, if the Demons were to play an inaccurate West Coast side tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost.
There is no doubting that the talent is there. Likewise, there is a strong will and desire in amongst Melbourne’s skillful and youthful brigade
All that needs to happen now is a subtle tweak of the game plan. Put some structure into the Melbourne defensive setup and, all of a sudden, you might have a team that’s – mind the pun – worth getting behind.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
Things getting spicy in Adelaide!
Tex had plenty to say to Sam Berry after kicking the Crows' second goal.
"Wasn't meant to go there!"
Round 5 of the AFL provided plenty of action, from big scorelines to upset wins and pressure starting to build on some clubs and coaches already.
Former great David King has blasted Match Review Officer Michael Christian's decision to not suspend Port Adelaide star Zak Butters for his high bump…
