Melbourne Demons will be looking to rebound from last Sunday’s abomination of a defeat when they face Essendon at the Melbourne Cricket Ground tonight. We’ll have live scores from 7.40pm AEDT.
It’s not the first time it’s been said, but Melbourne’s 79-point collapse to Port Adelaide at the G last Sunday was truly a new low.
The Dees have been mired in a re-building phase for the past five years and on the basis of last Sunday they’ll be there for a while yet.
Things weren’t helped by hamstring injury to former Collingwood key forward Chris Dawes, who will miss a month a football, and an awkward fall that ended Mitch Clark’s afternoon.
Essendon opened the 2013 AFL season all the way back on March 22, when they overcame a fast Adelaide start and some inhospitable conditions to claim what ended up being a dominant 35-point win.
It should be another routine shellacking for Mark Neeld’s side, but sport simply just does not always play out to the script that we expect.
A quick glance at recent history would indicate why a Bombers win might not yet be a foregone conclusion.
The Dees have won their past three matches against Essendon, including a six-point victory in round ten last year that virtually derailed the Bombers’ season.
Given that Melbourne have been rightfully slated by all and sundry this week, you’d expect them to come out throwing punches tonight.
But anybody that saw them play last Sunday would have trouble believing that statement, and it isn’t any wonder why.
If Melbourne turn up to play they might keep this close – but if they play like they did against Port this could easily be a triple-figure deficit.