David King: What Melbourne must do to turn around season

They are 0-3 and last on the ladder. They don’t win the footy back in the air, at ground level or defend their direct opponents. So what can Melbourne do? DAVID KING breaks down the dismal Demons.

David King has compared Melbourne's back six to 'Joe the Cameraman's' barb against ex Australian cricketer Scott Muller.

Max Gawn is the key to reigniting the dismal Demons.

Gawn has to work back and assist Melbourne’s porous defence, a role the was successfully initiated by Simon Goodwin last year after Jake Lever’s season-ending knee injury in Round 11.

The Gawn of 2019 is a complete contrast to the all-conquering 2018 version.

In the first 11 rounds last year Gawn took six intercept marks in the defensive half of the

ground. He took 21 in the second half of the year.

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Melbourne’s Max Gawn needs to find the form of 2018 to save the Demons’ season. Picture: Getty Images

Gawn was all things to the Demons — winning back possession and becoming a handball distributor.

That attitude seems to have shifted slightly, but it needs to return.

It’s akin to the ruck role of yesteryear, parking the team’s biggest, contested marking frame 60m from where the football is so that he can become the roadblock Melbourne desperately needs.

Melbourne’s back six have become football’s version of Scott Muller — the Australian cricketer, who “Joe the Cameraman” famously stated “can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t throw”.

They basically can’t win it back in the air, on the ground or defend their direct opponent and it’s a large reason why the Melbourne season is in critical condition.

This will change when Steven May and Jake Lever but that won’t be the key post combination for another 6-8 weeks.

David King has compared Melbourne's back six to 'Joe the Cameraman's' barb against ex Australian cricketer Scott Muller.

They have conceded the most points of any team, conceded the AFL’s fourth most marks and conceded the AFL’s most possessions once the football is on the ground.

Sam Frost and Oscar McDonald urgently need support.

The Demons’ defensive 50 has been completely owned by their opposition for the first three weeks and they now appear like rabbits in the spotlight.

But it’s not all their fault.

Gawn, Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw must park their individual ambitions to be the next Brownlow medallist and channel their energies towards team objectives and assist in winning games.

The ball winners’ possession rates and offensive statistics read well but they don’t tell the full story.

It must become victories over votes.

Goodwin must currently ponder if Oliver and Brayshaw can be in the midfield at the same time given their penchant to one-way run.

Melbourne was despondent after a third straight loss — it’ll only get worse if they can’t topple the Swans. Picture: AAP

The Sydney Swans will test their defensive intent tonight. It’s clearly an exposed weakness in the Demons profile.

Can Goodwin realign or correct theses stars to become team-first drivers for the 2019 campaign?

Stories about Melbourne’s midweek powwow — during which they stood in a circle and eyeballed each other — may sound intense but the core of the meeting would undoubtedly question if the group is living/playing to the self- imposed Melbourne trademarks.

Strong leaders would challenge those who are not acting in accordance with those trademarks and I would expect a response tonight at the SCG.

The problems for Melbourne, more specifically Goodwin, is that there are many facets of their game style not working.

Is the correction as simple as amping up the work rate?

If so, then tonight the Demons must pass the “numbers in the screen test”.

At any stage of play when the football is in dispute, pause the vision and compare which team outnumbers the other.

If it’s Sydney more often than Melbourne, then expect more of what we’ve seen in the first three weeks of the season.

In many ways the Sydney Swans are the perfect opponents for the Demons.

A predominantly one-on-one team that rarely use smoke and mirrors tactically, preferring regimented excellence repeatedly, almost bludgeoning their opposition with the contested game.

Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw will be huge keys for the Demons if they are to arrest their shocking slump. Picture: Getty Images

THERE WILL BE BLOOD!

Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney and Andrew Brayshaw will be butting heads with Josh Kennedy, Zac Jones and Luke Parker.

Expect this clash to be super physical and if the Swans midfield gains ascendancy then the result will be a forgone conclusion as Melbourne’s defence faces the Lance Franklin conundrum.

The Swans’ defenders play from their opponents back shoulder and demand their midfielders work hard defensively to assist in outnumbering the opposition’s forward line.

It’s very basic and has stood the test of time both in home-and-away football and finals.

There’ll be no easy possessions, nowhere to hide and, to steal a Denis Pagan quote, “it’ll be war without weapons” at the SCG.

Does Melbourne’s star factor assume control of their 2019 season, or not?

Can Gawn save the Melbourne defence? The 2018 version did.