Jordan Lewis puts Melbourne players’ mind on the job after bing win against West Coast
MELBOURNE players were accused of celebrating too hard after breaking their finals drought against the Eagles. But any danger of a lasting effect were wiped out by an email from Jordan Lewis.
Melbourne
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THE email hit the Melbourne players’ inboxes on Monday night.
It was Jordan Lewis and, unsurprisingly, there was no mucking around.
The Demons had beaten West Coast in Perth only 24 hours earlier and enjoyed a few moments of joyous celebration on the siren after booking their first finals berth in 12 years.
Champion midfielder Chris Judd said the Dees went a bit overboard with their fist-pumps and bum-pats.
But Lewis’s email on Monday night to the rest of the playing group made sure all of his teammates had their minds on the job for the start of training on Tuesday.
Co-captain Jack Viney said the four-time Hawthorn premiership star wanted to send a message that “boys, it’s time to get to work now”.
And they did.
“It was a pretty serious email, and when Jordy is serious you don’t really try and create any banter on the back of it,” Viney said on Triple M.
“It was pretty much, ‘You don’t get any satisfaction out of making finals, you get it from winning finals’.
“Let’s understand what we have got to play for this week (against GWS Giants) and we want to hit the ground running (in finals).”
To the Demons’ credit, today at the MCG they picked things up exactly where they left them off the week before, to roll into September with even more momentum.
They piled on seven-straight goals to bury the Giants and the man who flicked out the email, Lewis, was in the thick of things with 22 classy disposals.
But now, their attention turns to the Cats, and the Dees will get hard nut Viney back from a serious foot injury for the first final against Geelong at the MCG.
Geelong will have a considerable advantage in the finals experience stakes, and Melbourne has been on the end of plenty of drubbings from the Cats over the journey, including that famous 186-point shellacking in 2011.
The Cats have twice narrowly pipped the Dees this year, by two points in Round 18, and three points in Round 1.
Both were sealed at the death.
Perhaps, it’s time for another email.
Subject? Revenge.
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