Melbourne v Western Bulldogs: Can Josh Schache turn his career around down back?
It was a sink-or-swim moment in the career of Josh Schache on Saturday night and the former No. 1 draft pick didn’t just survive, he thrived.
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AFL football has a funny way of delivering another chance in the most unexpected of ways.
On the night one-time blue-chip draft prospect Josh Schache re-emerged as a defender, the typically durable Alex Keath suffered a hamstring injury before quarter-time to increase his responsibilities.
It was a sink-or-swim moment for the maligned Schache, who was supposed to be contending for Coleman medals by now rather than saving goals.
Swim, Schache did, on a wet night that initially had experts pondering aloud why the Western Bulldogs picked such a tall squad.
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He didn’t concede a goal while playing on any of his three opponents – Melbourne’s Luke Jackson, Ben Brown and Tom McDonald – and amassed 17 disposals and seven intercept possessions.
Coach Luke Beveridge even called it a “new chapter” for Schache, admitting that he saw him as a defender for now, while not shutting the door on him playing up forward again.
With Keath’s status in future games unknown, Schache can expect to keep his senior spot, in what is another chance to prove he belongs, albeit at the opposite end of the ground to what everyone thought.
He booted a record haul of 24 goals at the 2015 AFL Under-18 Championships to convince almost everyone he was the second-best prospect that year, behind future star Jacob Weitering.
But like many prized picks before him, the 23-year-old – originally drafted to Brisbane, where his late father Laurence played 29 games – has walked a difficult road.
There was, of course, the will-he-or-won’t-he sideshow that followed Schache throughout the 2017 season, as rumours raged about the homesick kid wanting to return to Victoria.
He shocked many when he re-signed with the Lions in June that year, after returning from a two-week hiatus at home that followed him being dumped to the NEAFL for poor form.
There was another vicious twist to come, with Schache only months later sensationally requesting a trade and eventually landing at the Dogs for the relatively modest return of picks 25 and 40.
It seemed a match made in heaven, given the Bulldogs were still in need of a key forward – even factoring in Tom Boyd’s 2016 Grand Final heroics – and Schache would be closer to family.
However, opportunities have dried up in the past two years after he was afforded plenty of them without setting the world on fire in his first two seasons, including appearing in a final.
Saturday night’s match against the Demons was just his second of the year and fourth since the start of last season.
Schache was never going to be a physically imposing forward, but it was telling that coach Luke Beveridge said post-match he was still developing his body one month out from turning 24.
A Bulldogs line-up once bereft of tall forwards is now brimming with them – Aaron Naughton, Josh Bruce, No. 1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and with highly touted father-son prospect Sam Darcy on the way.
Tim English spends time up there as well when he’s not rucking.
To Schache’s advantage is he signed a two-year extension in November 2019 that keeps him on the list until at least next season.
But without this defensive switch, it may have been a painfully slow end playing against tradies in the VFL.
Where Schache’s latest adventure takes him remains to be seen, because one game does not make a career – but he suddenly has hope again.
He wouldn’t be the first to turn his football around down back.
Think Darcy Moore, James Sicily, Robbie Tarrant, Jeremy Howe and Tom McCartin among the current crop, while Billy Frampton returned this weekend to Adelaide’s senior side as a backman, too.
Heck, even McCartin’s brother, 2014’s No. 1 draft pick Paddy, is trying to get back on the AFL radar the same way.
Green shoots for former Roo
Ben Brown has many, many more runs on the board than Josh Schache – and has far more security – but it’s been a challenging couple of campaigns for the new Demon.
Last year’s fizzer of a season ended his streak of three-straight 60-plus-goal seasons.
Brown was also sent in for knee surgery before his red-and-blue career began, after North Melbourne declared last year it didn’t want him anymore.
Watching him struggle for form even at second-tier level was a sad sight for such a great footballer, but Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has repeatedly stated he views him as a long-term option.
The proof of that is in the four-year deal the Demons offered Brown, who turns 29 in November.
He kicked five goals across his first two games for Melbourne, but his two-goal effort against the Western Bulldogs was probably his best of the season.
This was Brown’s third match back from his VFL demotion – he is keeping Sam Weideman out of the side – and his aerial competitiveness has been a feature of his play.
The veteran forward clunked six marks on Saturday night, including four inside 50, but will be ruing not finishing with four majors after misfiring on a couple of gettable set shots in the first half.
Goodwin was suitably buoyed despite his team now winning only one of its past four contests.
“I thought he was pretty strong on the night,” Goodwin said of Brown.
“I thought he gave us a really good target. He competed really strongly and I think he had five or six shots at goal for 2.2.
“He’s improving every week and giving us a different target, and you can see that’s starting to pay dividends for us.”
The Demons will hope Brown’s brilliant set shot from an acute angle in the final term spells the end of his unusually wobbly goalkicking.
Three more votes for Bont?
Something familiar happened when Melbourne challenged the Western Bulldogs in the fourth quarter at an empty MCG on Saturday night.
The Demons slashed the deficit to four points with a heap of time left, only for the magnificent Marcus Bontempelli to intervene like he so often does.
Bontempelli slammed through the next goal from close range before winning the next centre clearance and nailing No. 1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan on the lead for another six points.
The result was as good as decided by then, but Mitch Hannan added another to put the game beyond doubt.
The top-of-the-table showdown was another startling reminder of Bontempelli’s talents.
He superbly slotted the night’s opening goal and ended with two, to go with 31 disposals, 10 clearances, 10 inside 50s, eight score involvements and six tackles.
The 11 turnovers meant it wasn’t his most efficient performance, but there’s a reason he’s the short-priced Brownlow Medal favourite.
With Patrick Dangerfield and Nat Fyfe no longer at the peak of their considerable powers and Dustin Martin not performing at his absurd level weekly anymore, Bontempelli’s become the AFL’s No. 1 player.
Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines, Demons Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca, Essendon’s Darcy Parish and Blue Sam Walsh are mounting their own Brownlow cases this year.
But no one lifts his side as consistently at the death as Bontempelli does.
DEES ON THE SLIDE AS WEIGHTMAN DEFIES GRAVITY
A Marcus Bontempelli-inspired Western Bulldogs have overcome a scare from Melbourne to snatch top-spot on the ladder with a 20-point triumph.
In a contest full of momentum swings in front of an empty MCG, the Bulldogs managed to keep the Demons at arm’s length until recruit Ben Brown cut the deficit to four points midway through the final term.
With the game on the line, Marcus Bontempelli stepped up to the plate with a massive final quarter — tallying nine disposals and a goal — headlined by two key moments.
Bontempelli’s second silky finish in front of goal for the night gave the visitors some breathing space, with a sizzling pass to Jamarra Ugle-Hagan allowing the No. 1 draft pick to extend the lead.
Melbourne was unable to fully capitalise on the ruck dominance of Max Gawn, who bullied Bulldog Tim English in the ruck, losing the clearances 41-49, with Gawn racking up 35 hitouts in the first half alone.
Demons coach Simon Goodwin stressed the hitouts do not always correlate to clearances, but said it is an area that the Demons will look to improve.
“Hitouts are a really minor factor of the game, we know we have an asset and we know we can get some territory off the back of that but we need to have a look at how we do it better,” he said.
Caleb Daniel (34 disposals and a goal) provided a touch of class on a difficult night, while Jack Macrae (38 disposals and seven tackles) and Clayton Oliver (38 disposals, 25 contested possessions) had a mountain of the footy.
The win came despite injuries to Ed Richards and key defender Alex Keath, who was subbed out of the game within the first 20 minutes.
The blow gave inclusion Josh Schache a more prominent role in defence, where he looked assured.
Hard nut Tom Liberatore, who was blanketed by tagger James Harmes last time, managed to fight through the extra attention, winning 19 contested possessions among 27 disposals.
The Demons, who will fall to third spot if Geelong defeats Richmond on Sunday, have won one of their last four matches and are averaging 71.3 points per game across this period.
Goodwin put the 20-point loss on Saturday night down to a lack of attacking efficiency and a forward 50 stoppage “anomaly” from the Bulldogs.
“There’s no doubt our belief hasn’t wavered, we still feel really confident in our game,” Goodwin said post-match.
“I’m not worried one bit, our belief is still really strong in the way we play.
“They kicked six goals from forward 50 stoppages, in a game it is usually one or two – so that’s a big differential in a game and it’s an anomaly.
“For the large part of the game we had our chances, we competed really strongly I thought… but we just didn’t get the job done.
“I think as a footy club we’re not far away… There was a lot to like tonight.”
Tempers flare
A strong forward 50 tackle and goal from former Demon Mitch Hannan saw tempers boil over in the dying stages of the first half.
Hannan’s new teammates flocked to him after he extended his side’s lead to three goals, but they quickly turned their attention to Angus Brayshaw, who gave away the free kick, and Demons tagger James Harmes — who was thrown to the deck by Bailey Smith.
Hannan went on to kick the sealer in the closing minutes of the final term with a big contested mark in the goalsquare.
Weightman, you beauty
Young Bulldog Cody Weightman has become the latest player to use Melbourne giant Max Gawn as a stepladder for a mark of the year contender.
The second-year forward soared unassisted onto 208cm Gawn’s shoulders in the third quarter and plucked the Sherrin on his second grab.
Weightman’s specky was the undoubted highlight of Saturday night’s top-of-the-table clash at the MCG, but he had more reason to celebrate soon after when he soccered through an important goal.
Gawn’s become a popular target for opposition aerialists.
West Coast’s Liam Ryan won the 2019 mark of the year at the Demon’s expense, before emerging Power forward Mitch Georgiades snatched a great grab over Gawn a fortnight ago.
The brilliant mark caps a great few days for Weightman, who re-signed for two more years during the week.
Oliver’s night
As the heavens opened minutes before the first bounce, Clayton Oliver was licking his lips.
In conditions made for the ball-magnet, Oliver tallied five disposals within the first five minutes and reached 11 possessions within 15 minutes.
Oliver accumulated contested possessions at will, finishing with 38 disposals, a game-high 25 contested possessions and eight clearances.
Beveridge glowing in praise of Schache
Marc McGowan
A potential career revival down back for forgotten forward Josh Schache capped a brilliant Saturday night for new ladder-leaders the Western Bulldogs.
The Dogs recalled Schache this week for just his second match of the season and fourth since the start of last season and he responded with a strong performance in a new defensive role.
The 23-year-old has never lived up to his No. 2 draft billing from six years ago and looked on the outer when new golden boy Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was preferred to him in recent rounds.
But the decision to switch Schache into the backline at second-tier level could prove an inspired move.
He finished with 17 disposals, six marks and seven intercept possessions while spending time on Melbourne forwards Luke Jackson, Ben Brown and Tom McDonald.
His defensive display in his AFL return helped the Bulldogs exact revenge over the Demons and drew praise from captain Marcus Bontempelli, who described him as “super impressive”.
Coach Luke Beveridge’s call on Schache was made to look even better when Alex Keath went down with a hamstring injury in the first term.
“We’re rapt with ‘Schach’,” Beveridge said.
“He’s spent some time down back in recent games with Footscray … but by and large, he’s probably learned the defensive craft playing against his teammates in pre-seasons and over his journey.
“He gets to the right spots, his positioning is where we want it to be and I couldn’t be any more rapt for Josh tonight.
“It’s kind of a new chapter for him and that versatility we can use in his game becomes even more critical with Alex going down.”
The severity of Keath’s hamstring setback won’t be known until he undergoes scans, but Beveridge said Schache was likely to remain in defence for the time being.
However, he made clear that Schache’s days in attack were far from over.
“Josh is a talented forward and I’ve resisted putting him back for a long time,” Beveridge said.
“The message from me to him is it’s going to take a bit of time as you develop physically and work your butt off in the gym and continue to persevere through some difficult times at state league level.
“But I think probably at the moment he’s a first-choice defender, with the prospect that if we need him forward we can do that.”
Ed Richards will have to miss next week’s clash with Adelaide under the AFL’s 12-day concussion protocols after being on the wrong end of a Kozzy Pickett bump.
But Beveridge tipped star midfielder Josh Dunkley to return, once he emerges from enforced isolation on Wednesday.
SCOREBOARD
DEMONS 1.4 2.7 7.9 9.11 (65)
BULLDOGS 3.2 6.4 10.5 13.7 (85)
BATTEN’S BEST
Demons: Oliver, Gawn, Lever, Petracca, Viney, Pickett
Bulldogs: Bontempelli, Daniel, Macrae, Naughton, Smith, Hunter
GOALS
Demons: Fritsch 2, Pickett 2, Brown 2, Petracca, McDonald, Viney
Bulldogs: Naughton 2, Bruce 2, Bontempelli 2, Hannan 2, Daniel, English, Smith, Ugle-Hagan
INJURIES
Bulldogs: Keath (hamstring), Richards (concussion)
Demons: Nil
VENUE
Marvel Stadium
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
DAN BATTEN’S VOTES
3 M Bontempelli (WB)
2 C Daniel (WB)
1 C Oliver (Melb)
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