AFL 2022: Results, news and analysis from Melbourne v St Kilda
Melbourne captain Max Gawn has had scans on Monday and is under an injury cloud for the Demons’ clash against West Coast on Sunday. Here’s the latest.
Max Gawn admits he is battling a knee injury after a centre-square collision with St Kilda ruckman Paddy Ryder on Sunday.
Gawn went in for scans on Monday after a clash of knees against Ryder that also saw him stumble and fall as the pair exited the stoppage.
The Melbourne star ruckman lined up for a long shot for goal only a minute later but instead passed the ball off.
He spent much of the game forward after the contest in the dying minutes of the first half, but was able to play the game out.
Ruckmen including Brodie Grundy and Marc Pittonet have suffered recent PCL sprains but Gawn will be hopeful he has not suffered the same collision-based injury.
The fact he was able to play the game out would indicate even if he has suffered damage to his PCL he might be able to play through the injury.
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He appeared on his usual Nova radio interview on Monday morning with a compression bandage and admitted he should have taken it off pre-interview.
“I did tell myself as I was coming in, make sure I take that compression off before coming in, I forgot to. So it’s my own fault (that the injury has become public),” he said.
“I hurt myself in the second quarter in a ruck contest with Paddy Ryder and then played out the game so it’s not that bad, I managed to play out the game. I did sit forward a lot, Luke Jackson did a lot of the run work in the second half, but I think I’m OK.”
This is the contest where Gawn got injured. The details and his take on the injury 👇 https://t.co/vZAPTxypn7pic.twitter.com/TQJ2SRjEeL
— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) May 9, 2022
Asked why he hadn’t taken the shot at goal from outside 50 he said: “That was literally 30 seconds after I hurt my knee, so I wasn’t going to be able to make the distance which I was hoping one of my teammates sort of caught on but they didn’t.”
“(I played on) because it was fine, it got better and better as the game went on.”
The Demons take on West Coast and then North Melbourne in the next fortnight, so if Gawn was to be rested it would be the perfect time in their season.
Jackson will take on an Eagles side which is desperate for his services this week, but coach Simon Goodwin was confident on Sunday he would sign with the club in the near future.
Stingy Dees expose gap to challengers
– Jay Clark, Ronny Lerner
St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has hailed Melbourne’s defensive unit after the Demons downed his Saints by 38 points at the MCG on Sunday.
Melbourne restricted St Kilda to their second-lowest score of the year — 8.7 (55) — which was just 13 points off the Saints’ low mark of 4.18 (42) in the slog up in Cairns last week.
The Dees have conceded on average only 61 points a game this season and having won their first eight games of the year, as part of a 15-game winning streak dating back to last year, are firming for back-to-back premierships.
“If the ball doesn’t go in there (Melbourne’s back 50), it’s pretty good isn’t it,” said Ratten, who is into his eighth full year as a senior AFL coach.
“Their mids and the way they share the ball and use the ball through their midfield and with (Max) Gawn and (Luke) Jackson in the ruck, they get first hands on it.”
Ratten was at Hawthorn as an assistant coach during their three-peat years of 2013-15, and while he stressed Melbourne had a long way to go before being spoken in the same breath as those mighty Hawks teams, he said the Demons had “the capabilities” to achieve something similar eventually.
After winning five of their first six games this year, Ratten said his improved team got a “snapshot” on Sunday of what it took to be the best, and that the difference between the two teams was that Melbourne strung together four quarters of footy, whereas St Kilda didn’t.
“You can’t just say we’re going to play a half or five minutes here and then drop off — you have to play the full game, and that’s what they did today and we weren’t up to the level that we would like,” Ratten said.
“We need to put in a four-quarter performance like Melbourne and keep pushing because that’s the challenge for every club is we’re trying to bridge the gap of what they can do out there and today they were too good and the gap was a bit big for us so that’s what we’re chasing.
“We didn’t put them under the full pressure we can do, but that’s a credit to them.”
The Saints started the game by chipping the ball around and playing slow, possession footy, and Ratten admitted it was a gamble that backfired as the Demons booted nine of the game’s first 10 goals to basically end the contest before half-time.
“We had a bit of a focus on maybe shifting the ball a little bit but it probably went to the extreme,” he said.
“But sometimes you try things and fail, and it’s OK.”
The Saints tried to put the clamps on star Melbourne quartet Angus Brayshaw (31), Clayton Oliver (38), Christian Petracca (36) and Ed Langdon (39), but those efforts were in vain as they finished with a whopping 144 disposals between them.
“To their credit they performed at an exceptionally high level and were probably the best four players on the ground ... that’s a lot of possessions for four players,” he said.
St Kilda small forward Dan Butler is in a race against time to face Geelong next week after being subbed out with an Achilles issue, but Jarryn Geary, Jack Billings, Tom Campbell and Jarrod Lienert are all in contention to return to the senior line-up after performing well in the VFL.
Be afraid: Dees reveal ferocious intent for all rivals
Premiership favourite Melbourne wants to show the league’s cellar-dwellers no mercy as the club looks to pile on the pain for West Coast and North Melbourne over the next fortnight.
The unbeaten Demons strangled St Kilda on Sunday to chalk up their eighth-straight win by 38 points at the MCG.
It was a defensive masterclass from Simon Goodwin’s men as star duo Steven May and Jake Lever, who suffered a corked quad, kept the Saints to only 55 points.
The Demons take on the two bottom teams over the next fortnight but Goodwin said there was little temptation to let up, or rest players such as captain Max Gawn against two of footy’s easybeats.
“We have never, ever taken a risk with our players, but we want to continue to put our guys out there and continue to forge ahead in our season,” Goodwin said.
“So, we don’t look at that (resting), at this stage.
“We certainly have a group, and a medical team, and a high performance team that manage our players incredibly well, so we will continue to back those guys in.
“We live in a very tough industry of AFL footy and we should never underestimate the challenge and respect the opposition at all times.
“We’ve ingrained that over a long period of time now.”
West Coast has been hard hit by injury and Covid-19 and will this week hand down verdicts on nightclub goers Jackson Nelson and Josh Rotham, while the Kangaroos have an average losing margin of 64 points over their past four games.
The Demons’ top-four possession getters led by Ed Langdon shared in more than 140 touches on Sunday with Angus Brayshaw (31 disposals) thriving in a new half back role in place of injured flanker Christian Salem
But Goodwin said it was the brilliant defensive efforts which deserved special praise for suffocating the Saints “on a nice day at the ‘G”.
The Demons have not conceded more than 100 points in a game since their loss to the Saints in Round 19, 2019.
“Our defence was outstanding right across the ground from the front half to the back end,” he said.
“We just adapt to whatever the opposition do with us, sometimes they will play slow, sometimes they will play fast.
“Our front half defence was in line with our back half and I thought we were really strong on the day.”
Young ruckman Luke Jackson took on more ruck duties after Gawn copped a knock, as the Demons try and secure a contract extension for the gun big man.
Goodwin said he had confidence it would be finalised soon despite the enormous interest in Jackson.
“I’m sure it will be done in the not-too-distant-future,” Goodwin said.
“If you just watch him play, the energy he gives and his love for his teammates — probably no better than the hit-out to Kozzie (Pickett).
“That relationship that he has with his teammates is extraordinary and hopefully we will get something done.”
Will the Demons’ next challenger step forward?
Melbourne has reminded its would-be challengers who the king of the AFL jungle is after a blistering first half propelled the Demons to a 38-point victory over St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday.
On a weekend when Fremantle and Brisbane might’ve fancied themselves as premiership contenders with crushing victories over vastly inferior opposition, the Demons said, ‘Not so fast, fellas’, as they extended their winning streak to 15 games.
And if the improved Saints viewed themselves as heavyweights following their surprisingly strong start to the year, the reigning premier brought them back to earth, kicking nine of the first 10 goals before running out 14.9 (93) to 8.7 (55) winners, and yanking back top spot from the Dockers in the process.
To St Kilda’s credit, it responded well in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 22 points, but Melbourne, as it so often does, found another gear and flexed its premiership muscle to burst clear again in the final quarter.
Boosted by the returns of premiership stars Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Harrison Petty, Alex Neal-Bullen and Tom Sparrow, as well as coach Simon Goodwin, from Covid protocols, Melbourne never looked seriously threatened by the Saints, who were smacked in the mouth early and struggled to get within range of the Demons from then on.
Compounding the defeat was Zak Jones, in his first game back for the year, being reported for striking Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver with a sharp elbow to the chest in the final quarter.
In the end Melbourne thumped St Kilda for contested possessions (149-128) and finished with more disposals (390-361), inside-50s (55-44), scoring shots (23-15) and centre clearances (15-11).
DEES BURST OUT OF THE BLOCKS
St Kilda couldn’t penetrate Melbourne’s great wall of May-Lever-Petty in the first quarter, and the Saints’ slow ball movement made life easy for the Demons’ premiership key defensive troika.
St Kilda was forced to play an unnatural style, consisting largely of chipping the ball around, while Melbourne outworked the Saints and transitioned the ball from defence superbly, allowing them to boot the first five goals of the game.
Pickett was the main beneficiary, kickstarting the Demons with two majors and eight touches in the first term.
STAR DEMON QUARTET TAKES OVER
Things got even worse for the shell-shocked Saints in the second quarter as Melbourne’s pressure completely overwhelmed them, with the margin blowing out to 47 points.
Angus Brayshaw (21), Clayton Oliver (22), Christian Petracca (19) and Ed Langdon (20) combined for 82 first-half disposals and took over from Pickett as the chief destroyers for the Demons, who smashed the Saints in centre clearances for the term 8-1.
Brayshaw (31), Oliver (38), Petracca (36) and Langdon (39) finished with a whopping 144 disposals between them.
BRIEF RESPITE FOR SAINTS
St Kilda then changed things up by getting the ball into their forward line quicker and counterpunching aggressively from half-back, depriving Melbourne’s backline chances to intercept.
Their pressure went through the roof, and they got on top in contested possessions, to get within 22 points late in the third quarter.
But the damage had already been done and goals from Ben Brown and Bayley Fritsch either side of three-quarter time put the result beyond doubt.
MEMBREY’S SET SHOT FAIL
The Saints knew it wasn’t going to be their day at the end of the first quarter when Tim Membrey marked 15m out directly in front of goal.
The Demons had kicked the first four goals, so a much-needed six-pointer appeared a formality for the Saints to steady things. But Membrey incredibly had his shot on goal touched by the jumping Harrison Petty on the mark, in a prime example to footballers everywhere to never give up on trying to stop an opposition goal, no matter how straightforward it seems to be.
Petty’s act restricted the Saints to 0.3 (3) at the first change – their lowest quarter-time score against Melbourne since 1994, when they were held to no score.
SCOREBOARD
DEMONS 4.2, 9.3, 10.5, 14.9 (93)
SAINTS 0.3, 3.4, 5.7, 8.7 (55)
LERNER’S BEST
Demons: Brayshaw, Oliver, Langdon, Pickett, Petracca, May, Hunt.
Saints: Howard, Wilkie, Steele, Crouch, Sinclair, Hill, Ross.
GOALS
Demons: B.Brown 3, Pickett 3, McDonald 2, Harmes 2, Spargo, Rivers, Brayshaw, Fritsch.
Saints: King 2, Marshall 2, Membrey, Ryder, Windhager, Higgins.
INJURIES
Demons: Nil. Saints: Butler (achilles).
REPORTS: Zak Jones (St Kilda) for striking Clayton Oliver (Melbourne) in the final quarter.
UMPIRES: Stevic, Hosking, Howorth
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
LERNER’S VOTES
3 A. Brayshaw (Melb)
2 C. Oliver (Melb)
1 E. Langdon (Melb)
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