What do you do with the Demons?

Last Sunday, Melbourne Football Club played one of the worst AFL games I’ve ever seen. Think World War II Italy crossed with the dying days of Fitzroy. Three goals, sixteen behinds, in a carnival of sporting poverty.

A few friends and I watched the game, one of them a lifelong Melbourne supporter. By the end of the afternoon we had nothing to offer him but the odd, wordless pat on the shoulder.

Even for the fortunate neutrals it was like watching a three-hour reel of ‘Pets aren’t just for Christmas’ ads. Demons supporters sat with the air of families at Texas executions, that grim sense of obligation to watch to the end.

Afterwards, when the cameras trained on a teenage girl berating Melbourne players, she wasn’t even swearing. She was saying, incredulously, “What was that?” It was a fair question. Another question was how, in this breathless age of child protection, we allow young people to be Melbourne supporters.

This wasn’t just about losing a match. It wasn’t just losing a match badly. It was losing to Greater Western Sydney badly. It was losing to a team in its third season of football, ranked second-last in the league.

It was losing to a team that had won a total of seven matches across three seasons before that day. It was losing for a third time to a team that has never beaten anyone else twice, and to a team that had never won at the MCG.

It was not only losing to that team, but losing to them after they had left half a dozen of their best players at home. It was losing to them after injury continued to strike during the game, not once or twice but three times in the first half.

It was losing to a team that had almost no rotations in the second half, a team missing its two key forwards, a team that had 29 fewer interchanges by the end of the game, but still outran, out-hustled and outworked the Demons all day long.

It was the embarrassment of all the above.

The only thing worse than the game was the literacy of the wire reports. “Defender [Tom] McDonald has played in 47 losses with Melbourne but ‘couldn’t picture a worst feeling coming off a game’ than that which lurched in the pit of his stomach at the MCG on Sunday.”

I hate when those pictures lurch in your stomach-pit.

But McDonald spoke truly that it was Melbourne at their worst, a reminder of the depth from which the club is trying to climb, and of how long it will be before they can feel safe that they won’t slip straight back down.

Going purely by stats you could think the Demons had a reasonable day. They won the hit-outs, clearances and contested possessions. They were headed but not smashed in disposals. They had more inside-50s and close to as many scoring shots.

The problem was they could do nothing with them. Time and again they went wide, wide and wider still as they went forward, looking for marks deep in the pockets, but only kicking the ball out on the full or seeing it punched over.

They barely hit a target all day. Turnovers were rife. Most of their possessions came in heavy traffic amidst a confused mess of attempted evasion. The handful of times they went long and direct, GWS marked unchallenged.

But three goals sixteen? Five and a bit points for every goal? It sounds like there was either a hurricane or a Greg Norman case of yips. Thing is, with Melbourne reduced to ground-level scrambles or wide-angled set shots, it’s no wonder they were kicking points.

Nor could they stick a tackle as the Giants cruised through the centre. The Demons insisted on those diving interceptions that are so easily shrugged while sending the tackler to ground, or full-pelt charges that can be dodged with a sidestep, rather than keeping their feet and staying in the contest.

There were even echoes of Melbourne’s tanking days, with defenders Colin Garland and Lynden Dunn in the forward line, the same way former coach Dean Bailey claimed he was instructed to ensure a loss that would deliver Melbourne a priority draft pick.

Doubtless new coach Paul Roos was acting more out of desperation as the game sagged away, but it was a disheartening reminder. What was most disappointing was that Melbourne have previously showed improvement this year under Roos. They’ve managed wins against four decent sides: Carlton, Richmond, Essendon and Adelaide. They’ve lost several close ones.

Only 6 of their 16 losses have been by over 33 points, while last year 15 of their 20 losses exceeded that margin.

That 2013 run included 12 defeats by 10 goals or more, 6 of which exceeded 15 goals. This year that’s dropped to four 10-goal losses, only one of which has blown out to 15. They’ve cut their average losing margin from 63 points to 35, and their overall percentage is up 15 points.

The problem is that most of those improvements were in the first half of the season. Whether it’s fitness, focus or confidence, Melbourne have slipped. All their wins were in the first 13 rounds. Since then they’ve lost eight straight.

Of their losses exceeding 33 points, only one came before Round 14, the other five in the last eight games. Of losses over 10 goals, only one came in the first part of the season, the other three have been in the last six weeks.

It’s unreasonable to claim you know what a player is thinking, but last weekend looked like the Demons thought they’d done enough – that improvement had been evident this season therefore no further effort was required. They didn’t even look complacent against a beatable side, just indifferent. Fairly or no, this game will mark the end of some careers.

Roos remained zen in the coach’s box, watching with little more evident than an air of resignation. He said later that he didn’t address the players after the game. Further than that, he should have packed up his staff at three-quarter time and gone home, leaving the Demons to a quick exit from an empty change room.

Sometimes there really is nothing to say, and some bad experiences are best forgotten.