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Melbourne goes in search of their first win of the season when they take on one-time premiership favourites Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday night. Join us for live scores and blog from the first bounce at 7:50pm AEST.
Both these have had slower starts than expected.
Melbourne is 0-6 and has been incredibly disappointing this season. They were terrible against Brisbane, West Coast and Richmond in the first three rounds of the competition before improving somewhat in the last three weeks when losing to the Western Bulldogs by 21 points, St Kilda by 18 points and to Geelong at Simmons Stadium by 43 points last week.
The Dees haven’t beaten Hawthorn since 2006 but they play their best footy at the MCG.
Barring wins against Brisbane (Gabba), Gold Coast (Gabba) and Port Adelaide (Marrara), Melbourne hasn’t won away from the MCG since 2007.
2011 Preliminary Finalists Hawthorn have been unimpressive this season.
They toppled an injury-hit Collingwood in round one before famously choking against Geelong in round two. They lost to the Eagles in Perth by five points in round four and to the Swans by 37 in round five.
The Hawks accounted for Adelaide by nine goals at the MCG a month back and were good at the same ground when defeating St Kilda last week by 35 points after Buddy Franklin and Cyril Rioli combined for 11 goals.
In fact, Hawthorn has been good in each outing at the ‘G’ this year. Along with those wins against the Saints and the Crows, they beat the Pies at the ground; their only loss at the MCG was to Geelong when they led by three goals at the final change.
Had the Hawks accounted for the Cats and the Eagles, instead of losing by less than a kick, they would be sitting 5-1 and looking pretty.
But at the moment they are in 11th position with a 3-3 record. Victory must be had tonight.
Under-fire Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has made three changes to the team that played the Cats last week.
Lynden Dunn, Luke Tapscott and James Sellar come out of the team, with Ricky Petterd, Jamie Bennell and Jack Fitzpatrick coming in.
The Hawks lose Norm Smith medallist Luke Hodge to a knee problem while Jamie Boumann is also omitted. Stephen Gilham and Clinton Young move into the 22.
Hawthorn has too much class for a poor-performing Melbourne and will win for a ninth-consecutive time against the Dees tonight. I’m tipping a comfortable 30-point win.
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