Mick McGuane: Operation ‘Blunt the Bont’ can give Dees the impetus to overcome Bulldogs
The top of the table clash between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs comes down to one thing – stopping Marcus Bontempelli. But is it even possible?
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Welcome to Operation ‘Blunt the Bont’.
Melbourne’s challenge of knocking the Western Bulldogs off the top of the ladder in their Marvel Stadium clash on Friday night might come down to whether it can stop Marcus Bontempelli.
It is almost the biggest mission in footy right now and it’s a daunting task for the Demons and Simon Goodwin.
There still is room in the game for physical and verbal intimidation to challenge an opposition’s best player. It doesn’t happen enough.
The Demons need to test the Bont’s will, deny him space and take away his strengths.
It needs to happen from the first bounce where Melbourne players must impose themselves on the game through strong physicality, great effort and a ‘hunter’ mentality.
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The Bulldogs jump from the blocks at the start of games, as we have seen this year. They have won every opening quarter in the first 10 rounds — the first time it has happened since Collingwood did it way back in 1913.
On the other hand, Melbourne has won only five of their 10.
Putting the Bont under extreme heat early must be an essential part of their plan.
He is coming off a career-best 4.3 return against St Kilda, he is fresh from signing a new four-year deal at the age of 25, and he will be looking to place his imprint on this game.
His leadership and talent have been instrumental to the success of the Western Bulldogs, so he must not be allowed to get the game on his terms by giving him free reign.
Goodwin must not let this happen.
Bontempelli’s creativity, uncontested ball-winning ability and metres gained must be curtailed … even though that is easier said than done.
At 193cm and 93kg, he is a physical beast who is hard to match up on.
James Harmes (185cm and 85kg) might look a little undersized for the task, but his mental application is strong enough to give him the challenge.
It’s not easy trying to stop the unstoppable, but when Bont plays as a midfielder, Harmes is mentally strong enough and is willing to sacrifice his own game for the team’s needs.
Bont has three perfect scores (the maximum 10 votes) in the AFL Coaches’ Association votes this year. He is also the current Brownlow favourite.
That’s part A of Operation ‘Blunt the Bont’.
Part B comes when he plays as a forward. Communication from Harmes to Michael Hibberd on “hand over” must be clear and concise. No confusion can take place.
Hibberd is the obvious candidate as he is physically strong enough to match him.
Some might suggest Hibberd should go all the way both when Bontempelli is playing forward and as a mid, as he did with Richmond’s Dustin Martin in Round 6.
Before Martin left the ground with concussion, Hibberd had been matched with him for 51 minutes, conceding six disposals, two contested possession, one clearance and zero goals.
But Bontempelli is a harder runner than Martin when in the midfield.
Hibberd is a power athlete, not an endurance one, so he would be much better served primarily picking up the Bont when he ventures forward.
If the two H’s (Harmes and Hibberd) can stop him, the Demons will be better placed to win this game.
OFFENSIVE POWER V DEFENSIVE STRENGTH
The Bulldogs are a high-volume team who like to share the footy by hand, making them a low kick-to-handball ratio team (1.26, 17th in the AFL).
They are an exciting team to watch with so many different facets to their game.
Luke Beveridge’s team is a fiercely contested ball-winning group. They are strong and reliable around stoppages, which equates to them being a good territory team.
They average 57.6 inside 50s, which means their forwards are getting ample opportunities to be efficient and to score.
They are currently the best scoring team in the AFL (103.3 points per game) and the most efficient team at generating scores per inside 50 (rating nearly one in two scores per entry).
The Demons are a very strong contested and territory team, and now have added defensive layers to their game. They concede only 11 goals per game.
Goodwin has put enormous emphasis on their pressure and tackling, with the side averaging 66.3 tackles per game – No. 1 in the competition.
They will want a chaos game so the ball lives in contest after contest, ramping up the heat on the Bulldogs. They could use Richmond’s second half against the Dogs as their template.
Melbourne must shut down the Bulldogs’ uncontested game by taking away their opponent’s shape out of congestion.
Goodwin would be conscious of how dominant the Bulldogs were in their uncontested ball winning ability in their Round 13 clash last year.
In simple terms, the game will come down to the Bulldogs’ possession game and offensive power versus Melbourne’s highly rated new-look pressure and defensive game.
SNAP TRANSITION
The Bulldogs are currently scoring over 10 goals from turnovers, the highest in the comp.
But Richmond was able to have a +10 point differential in scores from turnovers, allowing the Dogs to only score 44 points from this source in the Dogs’ only loss for the year.
That needs to be part of Melbourne’s mindset going into Friday’s game.
Turnovers will occur, but it is about where they occur and how quickly the Melbourne players react to their own turnover and apply pressure as well as how strongly they set up the ground behind that turnover. That’s a Melbourne strength at the moment.
The Bulldogs will want to shift angles with their ball movement as much as possible to bypass Max Gawn, Steven May, Jake Lever and Harrison Petty to limit their impact in the air.
The Demons defended poorly last week against the Crows and paid the price. Adelaide scored 12.4 from turnovers, as a result.
If that return is replicated on Friday, it will lead to successive losses for Melbourne.
The Dogs will bring heat; but so much of this game will be about how Demons go into that snap transition to defend that turnover ball.
The Bulldogs are in rare form. Their 111-point win against St Kilda was the club’s fifth biggest win of all time, so we’ll learn a lot about the Dees and how quickly they can respond from their first loss of the season.
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COUNTER-ATTACK KINGS
Bailey Dale and Caleb Daniel have swiftly become two of the Bulldogs’ most important players.
Much of the attention gravitates to Bontempelli, Jack Macrae, Tom Liberatore, Aaron Naughton, Josh Bruce and Tim English, but Dale and Daniel have elevated themselves into elite ball distributors from the back half of the ground.
What Goodwin does against these dynamic defenders will be an interesting watch.
He has to put some work into both, particularly when the Dogs win the ball back in their defensive half of the ground.
Both are aggressive field kickers and go for attacking options while other defenders hesitate or are reluctant to take risks.
Both accumulate the footy and in space which gives them time to sum up the situation and find teammates which kickstarts the Dogs’ aggressive, fast-moving ball movement.
Goodwin will need to take away Daniel’s short-kicking game as well as Dale’s precision field kicking. They must be constantly pressured and harassed on the way out.
Jake Melksham, as a defensive forward, is the best option for Dale and a combination of Alex Neal-Bullen, Kozzie Pickett and Charlie Spargo can be used on and through Daniel.
They must all work overtime and bring their high forward pressure game as a collective to nullify these offensive weapons out of the backline.
PARK THE BUS, MAX
From a positioning standpoint in general play, Gawn must push back hard into defence to support May, Lever and Petty to help nullify Naughton, Bruce and English (if he is selected).
The Demons skipper needs to spend over 75 per cent of his game-time centre-half back.
The reason is simple: the Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 for goals from marks in the 15 to 30 metres zone.
This is the zone that Max must position himself in to impact marks from opposition kicks or to spoil aggressively.
The Bulldogs have scored the second-most number of goals coming directly from marks this season with 76, two behind Essendon.
You know what you are going to get from the Bulldogs’ forwards. You know where they are going to mark it and where they are going to score from.
His body presence in the avenue to the Bulldogs’ goal will likely push the Dogs wide. Even if the Dogs look to bypass him, it will mean Naughton, Bruce and co could be forced to shoot for goal from more difficult positions than normal.
That could lead to frustration and impact on the Bulldogs’ efficiency to score once inside 50, taking away a strength.
Over to you, Max! Position yourself accordingly!
THE MARVEL FACTOR
We know the Dogs love Marvel Stadium, but Melbourne fans shouldn’t be disheartened.
Even though the Demons haven’t played there that often, their record over the past five years sits at eight wins and three losses from 11 games.
The venue shouldn’t hold any concerns.
What I really want to see from Melbourne’s players and coaches alike is how they respond to last week’s loss to Adelaide.
The coach openly admitted how poor the team was defensively last week.
Here is your chance to rectify that on the big stage of Friday night.
It’s time to create that hunter mentality.
Get after the Dogs from the outset, and start by making the task as hard as you possibly can for Bont, who is the inform player of the competition right now, and must be curtailed.
Originally published as Mick McGuane: Operation ‘Blunt the Bont’ can give Dees the impetus to overcome Bulldogs
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