How struggling Melbourne has transformed itself into flag threat after 5-0 start to season
Melbourne is flying despite missing Ben Brown and Sam Weideman. The forwards are playing well, so will Simon Goodwin disrupt it to bring in the pair after recovering from injury?
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It was an almost unimaginable position for Simon Goodwin.
A club which had the worst forward line conversion in the game for the past two seasons went out and landed North Melbourne spearhead Ben Brown because the Dees desperately needed a new No. 1 banana in attack.
Sam Weideman was better as a second tall marking option, Luke Jackson is a developing hybrid ruckman and the club tried, without success, to trade Tom McDonald to any club which would pay his salary.
So when Brown (knee) and Weideman (stress injury) went down in the preseason you could hear the collective groan from the Demons’ hierarchy all the way down Swan St.
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But in one of the most surprising storylines of the new AFL season, the side which couldn’t hit a target in the forward half to save itself at times over the past two seasons has become a dynamite attacking operation five games in.
The pressure gauge is through the roof, McDonald is in almost career-best nick, the Jackson- Max Gawn combination has worked wonders and the whipper snappers at ground level, including excitement machine Kysaiah Pickett, helped fuel the pulsating eight-goal final term which annihilated Hawthorn after three hard-fought quarters at the MCG on Sunday.
So when Goodwin drove home on Sunday night and started to pour a small glass of pinot as he sunk into his sofa to mark a fifth-straight win, the question was clear.
What on earth is he going to do about the forward line, not only for Saturday night’s monster clash against reigning premier Richmond, but for the rest of the year?
Weideman slotted seven goals and Brown dobbed three and had 18 possessions in the VFL on Sunday to bang down the selection door. They are good to go.
What Goodwin is wondering is whether he upsets the apple cart by making personnel changes to a highly-functional yet blue-collar combination. The system will remain the same, of course, but do you need to fix what isn’t broken?
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Even Goodwin after the game gave the impression that he doesn’t know the answer to the question he faces in match committee this week.
The defensive intensity is currently the hallmark of the Melbourne forward line and bringing in more big blokes such as Brown could compromise the red and blue pressure cooker.
Pickett had 22 pressure acts on Sunday, the second-most on the team and Charlie Spargo had 20. Youngster James Jordon racked up 19. Tick, tick, tick.
But where does Weideman and Brown - the club’s big trade recruit fit in - and at whose expense?
“It is a fantastic problem to have,” Goodwin said after the 50-point win over the Hawks marked their best start to a season since 1994.
Certainly, Goodwin suggested Jackson and McDonald are going nowhere, which means the most likely option is to bring in Weideman for Mitch Brown for Saturday’s clash against Richmond.
Then, perhaps after another week in the twos, Melbourne could look at Brown the following week against North Melbourne in Tasmania.
That will be his first game against his old mob.
Weideman is a nice replacement option for Mitch Brown, who would be unlucky to go out in a sense after kicking two goals himself against the Hawks.
Then against the Roos, Ben Brown could start in the goal square and McDonald could be used further up the ground as a more mobile target on the wing where he trained in the preseason.
In any case, this sort of selection pressure and competition for spots is new territory for the club, according to captain Max Gawn who had one of the best games of his career against Hawthorn reeling in eight contested marks.
While the debate about the value of ruckmen continues to ramp up, Gawn produced one of the most dominant ruck performances we have seen in recent years to pull in an equal career-best eight contested marks on Ben McEvoy.
The Gawn-Jackson combination is working a treat.
“It (selection) is a juggling act and I know the talk is all about the tall forwards, but I watched three quarters of the (VFL) game this morning and the two most in-form players are Toby Bedford and Kade Chandler who are small forwards,” Gawn said.
“So Kossie and Spargo are keeping those two out and you have to feel for some of these forwards who are going to be out of the team.
“Honestly, it is a position that I have never been in at this club.
“People would either get gifted games or you are dropping players for players that are out of form.
“We saw Neville Jetta get dropped this week who was in form for Michael Hibberd who was in really good form.
“It is a new space that we are in and the Casey guys are playing really well, I think they smashed it today.”
McDonald has a big enough engine to play as a forward-wingman and Ed Langdon is having a career-best year on the other wing, while Adam Tomlinson is playing an excellent team role alongside Jake Lever in the back half.
Goodwin said he wanted to have a look at a taller forward setup to see if the pressure levels would stay sky-high.
Remarkably, a club which couldn’t find a key forward target last year now has them coming out of their ears.
And on Sunday, the Demons took 17 marks inside 50m to Hawthorn’s five. It was the difference, according to Hawks’ coach Alastair Clarkson.
“I don’t think you would ever find a team winning a game of footy with only five marks inside 50m compared to an opposition’s 17,” Clarkson said.
“A lot of those from them would have come in the later part of the game but that was the difference between the two sides in the end.
“They were able to find their targets and use them a little bit better than we were over the course of the game.”
Ben Brown made clear he wanted to stay at North Melbourne last year and was disappointed to be given the boot at trade time after his contract extension request wasn’t met.
But even though he is yet to play a senior AFL game for Melbourne after the preseason knee surgery, right now would he want it any other way?
The Roos were competitive against the Cats but remained chained to the bottom of the ladder. They’re years away from finals, the Kangas.
His new club, however, is looking like a genuine premiership contender.
We will know more on Saturday night when the Demons take on the mighty reigning premier in Nathan Jones’ 300th match for the club.
Jones weighed up retirement at the end of last season but has had an impact playing a team-oriented half-forward-wing role in every game this season.
While he made a quiet start to the clash against the Hawks and missed a 35m set shot after tweaking his ankle as he took a mark, Goodwin said there was no way he was going to be left out of the team for the ANZAC Day eve clash at the MCG.
Gawn said he spoke to Jones at the end of last season and urged him to go on.
“He had an outstanding last five weeks of the year when he wasn’t playing,” Gawn said.
“He really delved into the young guys and he became a mediator between the coaches and the players and it was super
“I said to him ‘Mate you are too useful for the club, even if you aren’t playing’.
“The funny thing is he has picked a new role and he is playing it to an absolute tee.
“He is keeping Toby Bedford and Kade Chandler, those two guys I mentioned before, out of the team, and he will always be my captain.
“He has done some wonderful things for me in terms of helping me grow into an adult but also a player for the Melbourne Football Club, so I cannot wait to be out there next week.”
Gawn said Jones was a hugely important figure in the club’s history.
“He led us through some dark times,” Gawn said.
“Three best and fairests in a row through probably the darkest three years of our football club.
“He probably got offered to go different places, or he says he did. I’m not sure if that is true or not.
“But he was continually that guys to put his head over the ball and that has cost him now.
“He has probably lost a little bit of pace due to the knocks which he has copped. He has had neck surgery and back surgery, but he is an inspiration.
“I have never seen anyone who is that good at leading and having a view on the game, he has got a great view of the game, and I hope he doesn’t leave the game.”
For Hawthorn, the scoreboard didn’t reflect the evenness of the match. This was tight for three quarters before Melbourne blew them away with eight goals to two in the last term.
Dylan Moore closed the gap to four points when he drilled a clever right foot snap 15 seconds into the final term after McEvoy found Jaeger O’Meara with the perfect centre clearance.
Then, some five minutes later, Tim O’Brien was all alone at the top of the centre square when he dropped a high ball in from O’Meara.
It was a simple mark but the inferred pressure from Jake Lever was enough to worry O’Brien out of an easy goal which would have tied scores and changed the context of the match significantly.
From there, it was all the Demons, but the moment wasn’t missed by Clarkson.
For the bulk of the game, their midfield was up to it against the highly-talented and on-fire Demons.
The Hawks won the centre clearances 15-12 against one of the best centre square setups in the caper.
But the brown and gold forward setup remains rather green.
“We did enough for three quarters to suggest we are on the right path,” Clarkson said.
“Ultimately when you lose a game by 50 points it looks like it’s been a pretty miserable day but we were pretty pleased with what we were able to serve up for the first three quarters.
“We kicked the first goal of the last quarter and then get another opportunity a couple of minutes later to take a mark at the top of the goalsquare.
“We were right in the game and then to fall away like we did was disappointing because it wasn’t a true indication of the contest across the course of the game.”
GAWN EMERGING AS ONE OF AFL’S ‘SPECIAL LEADERS’
– Ronny Lerner
Melbourne has drawn inspiration from Andre Agassi to power its way to its first 5-0 start to the season in 27 years.
Demons coach Simon Goodwin revealed that the tennis legend’s philosophy played a key role in the Demons’ 50-point win over Hawthorn on Sunday – a result that looked a long way off materialising as Melbourne butchered numerous gettable shots on goal.
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The Demons could quite easily have dropped their bundle, especially when the Hawks cut the margin to just four points early in the final quarter, but they held their nerve and finished the job emphatically.
“We’ve worked really hard at resetting ourselves and even this week we got a clip from Andre Agassi that spoke about his ability to reset after every point and we’re no different as a footy club,” Goodwin said.
“Whether it’s game, whether it’s a quarter, whether it’s a contest, our ability to reset in the moment and keep playing is really important to us.
“There’s going to be periods of the game when we’re having [forward] entry where we don’t score, we’re missing shots at goal, but we’ve just got to keep playing the way we know we can.”
Melbourne took 17 inside-50 marks to Hawthorn’s five, but a host of poor shots on goal from the likes of Max Gawn, Kysaiah Pickett, Christian Petracca and Nathan Jones kept the Hawks in it.
For most of the day the Demons seemed to be really missing sharpshooter Bayley Fritsch, who was out due to a broken hand.
And when Dylan Moore goaled for Hawthorn 13 seconds into the final term, the deficit was only four points. However, the Demons responded like good teams do to boot the eight of the last nine goals of the match, to put the result beyond doubt and show that they could very well be a serious player come September.
The 5-0 Demons are just one of two undefeated teams left standing this year, along with the Western Bulldogs, and have now beaten the Hawks four times in a row for the first time in 61 years.
Goodwin said building trust amongst the playing group had been a big focus over the summer, and he lauded their ability to each play their role in making that a reality.
“We just want to rock up every week and play the same way, make our supporters proud of the way we play and enjoy what we’ve been able to do,” Goodwin said.
Their next test doesn’t get much bigger – Richmond at the MCG after the reigning premiers produced their most dominant performance of the year against St Kilda. Goodwin hailed the Anzac Day eve game as a “great occasion” and he implored as many of his club’s supporters to attend the match.
CAPTAIN’S GOAL
With his side having failed to successfully shut the door on the Hawks despite being the better side for most of the afternoon, Melbourne captain Max Gawn stood tall early in the final quarter when he showed his teammates how it’s done by splitting the middle with a beautiful set shot from 50m.
Moments earlier Hawthorn’s Tim O’Brien had the chance to level the scores, but dropped a mark he should’ve taken 20m out from goal.
Gawn’s goal capped off a brilliant game from the ruckman which saw him register 26 disposals (19 contested), 10 marks (eight contested), 24 hit-outs, nine intercepts, seven score involvements, five clearances and a goal assist.
Goodwin described his performance as “sensational” and labelled him a “special leader”.
DEES MAKE IT HARD FOR THEMSELVES
Despite dominating the contested possessions in the first quarter (44-28), and controlling the game with 10 more marks (30-20), the Demons really let themselves down up forward, booting 2.5 while Hawthorn booted 4.3 to take a 10-point lead at quarter-time. The slow start set the Dees back and prevented them from getting a hold of the Hawks until late in the game.
HIBBERD TO THE RESCUE
Late in the third quarter Tom McDonald put the Demons up by 10 points with a goal from the goalsquare and he had Michael Hibberd to thank, because moments earlier the returning defender’s desperate lunge at the ball metres out from Hawthorn’s goal denied Chad Wingard the chance to soccer it through in what amounted to essentially a 12-point turnaround for the Demons.
FEND-OFF MIXED BAG
Early in the game, James Worpel produced a fend-off that Dustin Martin would have been proud of as he denied would-be tackler Alex Neal-Bullen to set up Hanrahan’s first goal. But early in the third quarter, Neal-Bullen got his revenge as he teamed up with Petracca to gang tackle Worpel, who tried to repeat the dose deep in Melbourne’s attack but failed. Petracca kicked the goal from the resulting free kick to put Melbourne in front.
FROST FIRED UP
Sam Frost seemed to relish the opportunity to ruffle the feathers of his former teammates late in the second quarter.
First he grabbed Clayton Oliver by the scruff of his jumper, before having an intense nose-to-nose “conversation” with him and ultimately throwing the midfielder to the ground with disdain. Frost was probably lucky not to give away a free kick 30m out in front of Melbourne’s goal. And moments later after Pickett ran into him, he grabbed the young Demon WWE style and flung him over the boundary line, which prompted Petracca to charge at him like a freight train.
SCOREBOARD
HAWKS 4.3, 5.3, 6.6, 8.6 (54)
DEMONS 2.5, 4.7, 7.10, 15.14 (104)
LERNER’S BEST
Hawks: O’Meara, Mitchell, Impey, Scrimshaw, Hanrahan.
Demons: Gawn, Oliver, Salem, Langdon, McDonald, Lever, Hibberd.
GOALS
Hawks: Hanrahan 2, Breust 2, O’Brien 2, Moore, McEvoy.
Demons: Langdon 3, Melksham 3, McDonald 2, Brown 2, Petracca 2, Pickett 2, Gawn.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
LERNER’S VOTES
3. M.Gawn (Melb)
2. C.Oliver (Melb)
1. C.Salem (Melb)
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