AFL Friday Footy Fix: Old Freo tricks not enough this time as Dees get back on Trac

One of the oldest and most tired cliches in footy is ‘don’t get beaten by what you know’.

It’s obviously silly: getting beaten by what you don’t know isn’t any less disappointing for anyone involved than the alternative.

It certainly won’t offer any comfort to Justin Longmuir and Fremantle that the Melbourne outfit which disposed of his Dockers with ruthless precision on Friday night was a far more brutal outfit than the side he’d knocked off nine weeks ago.

But for whatever it’s worth, the Demons kept up their end of the bargain: they came prepared to combat the Dockers’ plans from Round 11 that so memorably brought them unstuck, flipped the script, and came out with premiership credentials substantially enhanced.

If there was any doubt about it, there shouldn’t be anymore: this Melbourne outfit means business again in 2022.

Longmuir as a coach is many things, but chief among them is that he’s a subscriber to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ model. His plans were apparent from the opening bounce: Griffin Logue again sent to occupy Steven May as a defensive forward, as he had done at the MCG before the Demon was concussed.

And from the start this time, the move that turned the game last time was enforced: James Aish went straight to Clayton Oliver and didn’t leave his side from then.

Once again, Aish won the duel convincingly: it took until after half time for Oliver to win a clearance, having been significantly curtailed in that area in Round 11. His possession count remained high for the standards of a regular player, but 12 touches to half time and 21 by full time are most un-Oliver like stats.

Aish, clearly the Dockers’ best, amassed 28 touches of his own, with only a Luke Ryan boosted by taking regular kick-outs surpassing him for his 501 metres gained among the men in purple.

Last time they met, shutting down Oliver ripped the heart out of the Dees’ midfield: the Dockers won the clearances in the second half by 14 back in Round 11, leading to a 12 goals to one half and a famous win.

This time, though, the Demons had a response in mind: a fully fit Christian Petracca.

Petracca’s form slump in the later stages of this year has almost perfectly coincided from the Demons’ transformation from Multiverse of Madness Scarlet Witch to, well, Scarlet Witch in every other Marvel film. (spoiler alert).

Tonight, though, was a poignant reminder of his standing as perhaps the game’s best, and certainly its most dynamic, midfielder, on the scene of his greatest triumph on grand final day last year. From the moment he exploded from half-back, waxed and waned with a teammate, and hit Kysaiah Pickett running towards goal with a pass that couldn’t have been more perfectly weighted, the switch was flipped.

The Trac train was back on, well, track.

Christian Petracca of the Demons in action. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Petracca had three clearances on his own to quarter time; and if there’s a man you want streaming out of the guts less than Oliver, it’s this man. The Dockers still had the edge in clearances, but on the spread, the reigning Norm Smith Medallist was just as devastating.

Jack Viney isn’t a new threat for the Dockers – he was a lone hand back in Round 11 with 28 touches and six clearances – but the man is fast proving he’s no Commissioner Gordon to the Dynamic Duo that is Oliver and Petracca. Like the latter, his toughness in close doesn’t do justice to his explosive power away from the contest, particularly in the second half of the year with Petracca curtailed.

I lost count of the amount of tackles Viney broke, in a performance reminiscent of his game-breaking effort in a similarly emphatic win over Brisbane a few months ago. Nothing he does is overly flash, but on a night where the Demons’ strategy was to move it forward at all costs, and back themselves to win any ground-ball contest that came there way, there wouldn’t be a player in the AFL more ideally suited.

It wasn’t just Petracca that was new on the scene for the Demons; their pressure, a weakness this year even when they were winning their first 10 games, went through the roof.

Their incredible stat line of zero – yep, 0 – tackles inside attacking 50 in last week’s loss to the Western Bulldogs would have been an obvious are of focus for Simon Goodwin and company this week, and with five in the first quarter alone, the Dees were on track for a season high.

The Demons haven’t had that many opportunities to showcase it over the years, but with a midfield full of powerful bodies, a dominant ruck pair in Max Gawn and Luke Jackson, and officially the most miserly defence in the game, they are custom made for wet-weather footy.

The greasy conditions at an Optus Stadium still feeling the after-effects of last week’s deluge weren’t exactly Darwin in monsoon season, but they were enough to dampen the Dockers’ usually sharp foot skills, and close the game in around the contest for the Dees to unleash wave after wave of suffocating pressure.

It meant that despite tying 41-41 for clearances, the visitors won the contested possession count handsomely – 162 to 137 by the close – and were particularly ferocious outside the stoppages. Kick it long, neutralise in the air, win the contest at ground level, kick it long, repeat – and the Dockers had no answer.

Freo had kicked the ball almost twice as much as they’d handballed it against the Dees in Round 11 (257-137), a clear diversion from the usual plan that has seen them top the charts in the AFL for handpasses this year. Get it in, lock it up and profit – helped by the absence of May – was pivotal to their success then.

In far more slippery conditions this time around, the Dockers handballed their way into trouble over and over again, finishing with a 211-181 split – it was 104-106 at half time.

If there’s anything prospective finalists should learn out of tonight, it’s this: frig around with the ball against the Dees and expect to have a bad time.

For Melbourne had May this time, and yet again, the psychological impact he has on other teams was even more impactful than his actual game.

With only three marks, Logue did a decent job in stopping him from doing as he had against the Bulldogs and clunking everything behind the ball. Yet it seemed a mission for the Dockers to keep him out of the game as completely as possible… even if that meant denying him anything to defend by taking an eternity to get the ball down there.

Frequently throughout the evening, the Dockers seemingly had a fast break in process, yet the sight of May patrolling menacingly ahead of the ball caused them to stop, think, and eventually get forced into a long ball down the line for May, Jake Lever or Gawn to cut off anyway.

Considering the only time the Dockers truly looked a chance of forcing a contest in the first half was thanks to a slicing run up the middle from Brandon Walker, driving it long and deep and far from May to create a stoppage that led to a Walters goal, it was either magnificent structure from the Demons or maddeningly cautious play by Freo that brought about the slow-down. Let’s be generous and say it was a bit of both.

Sharp, direct play out of the centre against a May-less Melbourne cut the Demons to ribbons at the MCG two months ago; there was seldom anything of the sort there tonight. The result was that, even though a 27-point half time deficit was only two more than what they trailed by in Round 11, it felt ten times more decisive.

With ball in hand, the Dees were after territory, and the deeper the better. Setting up their forwards right on the 50m arc and leaving space out the back to run into, they goalled repeatedly through that play in the first half, with Bayley Fritsch and Kysaiah Pickett the prime beneficiaries.

By half time, though, the inside-50 differential was 36-16 – it was a testament to the Dockers’ defence that they remained, more or less, in the hunt.

Of course, to get back in the match they’d need a similar contribution from the army of smalls that ripped the Dees to ribbons last time they played. But while Michael Frederick had his moments with two goals and Michael Walters always looked dangerous with a pair of his own, Travis Colyer was invisible and Lachie Schultz not invisible enough to hide a nightmare of an evening.

With Jayden Hunt recalled and Michael Hibberd added to the Round 11 team, stopping the smalls was obviously front of mind for Goodwin. He wasn’t about to get beaten by what he knew.

By the time the Dockers began to get some territory back in the second half, the Demons’ wall was impenetrable; they ventured inside 50 seven consecutive times to end the third quarter, yet mustered no goals for their efforts and just one for the quarter.

The Dockers aren’t the finished article yet, much as their stirring start to the season had us dreaming of ‘Flagmantle’. Their defence will get better, their midfield will keep on building, and their forward line has hope for the future with Jye Amiss and Josh Treacy ready in waiting to replace the surely departing Rory Lobb. Their time at the top will surely not be fleeting.

But the Demons remain near the top for a reason, and every single Docker deficiency was ruthlessly exposed. If last year’s trip to Perth ended in a coronation, this one was a confirmation: Melbourne will need the premiership cup prised from their cold, dead hands this year.