Melbourne slumps to sixth straight loss after raising the white flag against Sydney
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has conceded the club’s fans deserve better, taking responsibility for a season well below expectations as last year’s preliminary finalist hurtles toward a bottom-two finish.
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When Simon Goodwin goes to bed at night, you wonder if he cuddles that three-year contract like the most comfortable winter doona.
Because without that extension, signed before this season even started back in March, Goodwin would be under a furnace right about now.
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Some would still have him under it given the Demons’ shambolic disintegration this year.
This humiliating 53-point loss to a 15th-placed Sydney only two spots above them on the ladder, at home, was as galling as anything Goodwin’s Dees have dished up this season.
On the Friday night stage Melbourne didn’t just get stage fright, they showed zero fight.
Melbourne in possession is as ugly as anything in the game right now.
The skill level is just so poor that the simple is made to look difficult and the difficult is turned over.
Even when Bailey Fritsch turned a couple of Swans inside out to screw a beautiful pass to Alex Neal-Bullen in the second term, Clayton Oliver berated him for not giving the handball.
Melbourne not in possession is embarrassing. The Swans looked like scoring every single time they went forward, where players were often standing in acres of space.
Melbourne’s third goal came at 20 minute mark first quarter. Their fourth didn’t come until six minutes into the last term. In that time Sydney kicked seven straight.
The Demons kicked two goals after quarter-time. There was no anger, no fight and no will to change the course they were on.
Most worryingly, there was an acceptance.
This game was billed as the ugly duckling of a mouth-watering round.
We even got our beautiful swan.
THE CROWD
Small. Very small.
In fact, it was the smallest Friday night crowd — 23,700 — in Melbourne this season as the rain and cold did little to attract punters to a dead rubber between two ordinary sides.
This will be Exhibit A for those arguing for more than one floating fixture at the end of a long season.
Goals were greeted by a meek applause and just about the only thing separating this from a country game was the lack of car horns after a major.
END COMING FOR LEWIS
Jarryd Roughead was at the MCG to watch his close mate Jordan Lewis run around — perhaps the biggest hint yet that Lewis is about to call it quits.
Roughead and Lewis were best man at each other’s wedding and godfathers to their children.
Lewis is out of contract at the end of the season and with the Hawks interstate next week, this was almost certainly the last chance for Roughie to watch his friend play at AFL level.
Lewis’ son Freddie ran out with his dad before the game, too.
DEES ADVANTAGE GONE
With Swans big men Callum Sinclair and Sam Naismith out injured, you would expect Max Gawn to monster Swans stand-ins Aliir Aliir and Sam Reid.
But while Gawn got his hands to plenty of taps — many of them very creative — he couldn’t orchestrate any sort of clearance advantage for the Dees.
In fact, it was the Swans who dominated the stoppages.
NICK BLAKEY
Going to be special, this kid.
Not exactly a revelation, that. But every time you see the son of John do his thing you see a bit more.
He’s skilled and plays with poise, but he doesn’t shirk the tough stuff either and even though he hasn’t got a lot, he’s not afraid to throw his weight around either.
NO POSITIVES FOR GOODWIN
Sam Edmund
Simon Goodwin says Melbourne fans deserve better and that he takes responsibility for his side’s season from hell.
The Demons’ plunge from preliminary finalists to cellar dwellers reached new lows with a 53-point humiliation to a 15th-placed Sydney that Goodwin described as “unacceptable”.
“Without question, it’s been a challenging year, but at the same time it’s been one of my biggest learnings in coaching,” Goodwin said.
“I sit here with a team sitting 17th on the ladder and I take responsibility for where we sit, but it’s reinforced the things I know we need to get right.
“I’ll learn from this experience. I’ll learn from where we got to and where we are now.
“It’s hurting me greatly because I know how much the Melbourne supporters want us to be great.”
It was another Melbourne loss with another depressingly familiar tale — strong at the contest and more inside 50s, but woeful skills and a gross inability to defend their own turnovers saw the Demons ripped apart.
“The great thing about last year … when Melbourne supporters came to the game and you guys came to the game, you saw a style of play that was identifiable,” Goodwin said.
“At the moment no-one can see that and that clearly be frustrating.”
Goodwin repeatedly insisted he had “full confidence” in his players, but asked how he can turn it all around, he said: “We look at every area of our club. We come back to our pre-season as a playing group and a coaching staff with a clear method of play, we get the basics and fundamentals right, we get fit, we get healthy and we come back with a determination to take this club forward again.
“It’s pretty simple. There’s no magic formula, it’s coming back ready to go and doing the work.
“When this season finishes and another starts we’ll be in another phase where we’ve got hope and belief. We’ll get our chance to do something about it.”
“We are in a poor position right now as a footy club, but we’re going to work really hard to get ourselves out of it and the only way we’re going to do that is together.”
SWANS INSPIRED TO FINISH YEAR ON A HIGH
David Davutovic
Sydney coach John Longmire said his team was inspired to find positives before the close of the season, in the wake of his team’s 53-point thrashing of Melbourne.
The Swans dominated from the outset in Friday night’s MCG dead-rubber, with Sam Reid kicking three with Jordan Dawson, James Rowbottom, Tom McCartin, Daniel Menzel and Tom Papley all kicking multiples while Oliver Florent amassed 28 disposals.
While it has been an underwhelming season for a Swans side expecting to play finals, Longmire was thrilled was last night’s consistency.
“We’ve had our challenges this season. But we spoke about it beforehand, and we said we don’t need to wait until pre-season, we can take steps forward as a footy team,’’ Longmire said.
“You’ve got to be able to play a certain style of footy. We’ve been inconsistent, but tonight we put four quarters together.”
While Nick Blakey has stepped up on occasions in the absence of Lance Franklin, he again showed his versatility with Longmire praising the rookie who had 17 touches, six marks and a goal.
“We know he’s a good player, the last few weeks we’ve played him in midfield. He’s got elite running ability and at that size we can see him developing into an elite running midfielder and be hard to match up on at that size,’’ he said.
“He can mark, kick goals, he can go back and support the defence. He’s not going to get everything right, he’s in his first year of footy, he’s played 20 games. But the last couple of weeks he’s been terrific.
“Regardless of what game it is, pre-season or (in-season or finals), we’re looking to play a strong brand footy. That’s what we’ll do (in the last round).”
The Swans will assess Franklin and Jarrad McVeigh to see whether they will be fit for milestone appearances — Franklin is due to play his 300th while McVeigh is retiring — in next week’s final round clash against St Kilda.
SCOREBOARD
MELBOURNE 3.1 3.3 3.7 5.12 (42)
SYDNEY 4.1 7.3 10.3 15.5 (95)
GOALS
Melbourne: Melksham 3, Fritsch, Neal-Bullen
Sydney: Reid 3, Dawson 2, McCartin 2, Menzel 2, Papley 2, Rowbottom 2, Bell, Blakey
BEST
Melbourne: Melksham, Gawn, Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney
Sydney: Florent, Reid, Kennedy, Rampe, Parker, Melican
INJURIES
Melbourne: Salem (leg)
Sydney: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Stephens, Findlay, Glouftsis
Official crowd: 23,700 at the MCG
SAM EDMUNDS’ VOTES
3 — Oliver Florent (Syd)
2 — Sam Reid (Syd)
1 — Josh Kennedy (Syd)
Originally published as Melbourne slumps to sixth straight loss after raising the white flag against Sydney
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