The 10 questions Melbourne must answer from brutal loss to St Kilda
Who was to blame for the Demons’ 6-6-6 blunder? What was Jack Viney doing? Why didn’t Jake Bowey intercept the incoming kick? Jon Ralph unpacks the Demons’ 10 burning questions.
Footy’s most chaotic finish in seasons left everyone exhausted, exhilarated and even a little baffled.
How did Melbourne stuff that up so royally from 46 points up?
What are the rules around 6-6-6 infractions that led to Rowan Marshall having ball in hands with eight seconds remaining?
And who did trigger the free kick which led to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s goal?
Here are the ten unanswered questions that led to an extraordinary contest finishing in remarkable fashion.
1. WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR THE 6-6-6 FREE KICK?
The Fox Footy footage shows a level of total confusion from the Demons with eight seconds on the clock after Wanganeen-Milera’s incredible mark and goal between Bayley Fritsch and Judd McVee to tie scores.
The Demons had seven players in defence so Jake Bowey told Blake Howes to push up onto the wing to ensure Melbourne didn’t have too many players in defence.
The midfield was set with Max Gawn, Jack Viney, Christian Petracca and Kozzie Pickett in the centre square.
But Howes came from defence onto a wing, and went to the same wing where Tom Sparrow was already lined up.
So at the exact same time as Sparrow ran into attack, Viney ran from the centre square out onto the opposite wing to try to even up numbers.
It meant the Demons had seven forwards and only three in the centre square, triggering the 6-6-6 violation.
The Demons had already had a warning so Rowan Marshall was awarded a free kick.
2. WHY WAS MAX GAWN STILL IN THE CENTRE SQUARE INSTEAD OF BOLTING INTO DEFENCE?
Veteran umpire Ray Chamberlain says under the AFL’s rules the Demons needed four players in the centre square
But as the AFL clarified on Monday night, Gawn did not need to be in the centre circle manning the mark.
He could have been at the back end of the centre square waiting for the Marshall kick inside 50.
Said Chamberlain: “The requirements are you need a player in each goalsquare and six in each zone. You obviously need four at the centre bounce and two wings. The wing can’t roll into the D50 arc until the ball is given to the player.”
AFL umpires boss Steve McBurney said the umpire Nick Brown followed the rules correctly, even if neither team had a player in St Kilda’s attacking goalsquare when Marshall was handed the ball.
“A reminder to clubs, for a 6-6-6 breach, play must recommence with starting positions observed, the offending team must rectify their breach, but are not permitted to change personnel from their starting positions for the restart,” McBurney said.
“Both teams must have 4 players in centre square, wings on both sides and not positioned beyond the centre square at either end. 6 players in the 50m arcs.”
Which leads to the question….
3. WHAT WAS JACK VINEY THINKING?
Having just been part of the 6-6-6 violation his brain was probably scrambled.
But he had to line up on the defensive side of the wing and charge hard back.
That is what players train for in situational drills to save a game.
Nick Daicos recently showed his footy smarts against tagger Oisin Mullen with the Pies needing a goal to win with 23 seconds on the clock.
He drew his tagger away by staying well back from the contest to open room for his teammates.
But where Daicos kept his cool, Viney and co lost their minds.
4. WHAT WERE KOZZIE PICKETT AND CHRISTIAN PETRACCA DOING?
Melbourne’s runners were not allowed onto the ground inside the last two minutes to tell the players how much time was on the clock but the players would have known there were only seconds left.
Both Pickett and Petracca were left in no-man’s land when they could have been at the back end of the centre square awaiting Marshall’s certain long kick.
He and Wanganeen-Milera instead benefited from the pocket of space they left to orchestrate a set play where Nas ran inside 50m while the Demons defenders were pulled to the left side of the field.
5. WHAT WAS BOWEY DOING?
Not sure.
He was the loose defender but charged backwards and turned his head away from play, not seeing Wanganeen-Milera charging forward until it was too late.
6. WHY WAS PICKETT MISSING IN ACTION LATE?
He was stuck on the pine, coming off the ground at the 20.59 minute mark and then only getting back on at the 29.57 minute mark.
The quarter went for 32.41.
To have your strike weapon off the ground for nine minutes when so much is happening is hard for fans to swallow. By contrast Wanganeen-Milera was off once for four minutes – from 12.17 to 16.26 then free to spin his web of magic when the game was up for grabs.
7. WHAT ELSE DID ROSS LYON DO RIGHT?
In the last quarter as the Saints kicked 9.2 to Melbourne’s 0.4 mid-season pick Max Hall finally got his chance.
He had only 11 centre square involvements before this match but had 10 yesterday including seven in the last term.
In that final stanza he had seven disposals, six score involvements and four clearances.
Jack Steele played the entire quarter forward as his minutes went to Hall.
Hunter Clark got only one centre square chance as he stayed at half back, while Wanganeen-Milera played 100 per cent midfield apart from throwing himself forward with two minutes remaining.
8. JUST HOW GOOD WAS WANGANEEN-MILER’S OVERALL GAME AND LAST QUARTER?
In that last term he had 10 disposals, 302 metres gained, six score involvements and two goals. He is the second youngest player to have at least 34 disposals and kick four goals after Harley Bennell at the Gold Coast.
Wanganeen-Milera scored an astonishing 63 SuperCoach points in the final minute.
9. HOW DID MELBOURNE LET IT GET TO THE LAST TWO MINUTES?
They lost centre square clearances 6-1, they allowed four goals from the back half, they allowed 31 points from turnover.
They lost the possession game with only seven inside 50s to St Kilda’s 18.
Their pressure was an ordinary 162 while Harrison Petty, Xavier Lindsay, Daniel Turner and Harvey Langford all went stat-less in the final quarter.
Fritsch and Sparrow had a single possession as the side had 67 total possessions in the last term, their fourth worst term this year.
10. WHAT CHANCES DID THEY MISS?
Clayton Oliver running into goal and missing everything by five metres with a checkside kick with 1 min 59 secs on the clock beggared belief when the Demons needed any score to go up by seven points.
A Saint was frantically running across to spoil but Oliver was 30 metres out and almost directly in front.
Only 20 seconds earlier Oliver had kicked the ball to the goalsquare and Harrison Petty dropped the mark while in a position of strength keeping Liam Stocker out.
While he could have simply punched the ball through instead of attempting to mark, the right call with 2 min 20 secs on the clock was to try to win the game with a goal.
He just fluffed his lines when he had Stocker well out of the contest.
11. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR NAS?
Not sure but rivals from teammates including Adelaide and Port Adelaide certainly saw the footage of him being hoisted onto Ross Lyon’s shoulders at a Brighton pub last night in celebration.
All three clubs in the race for Wanganeen-Milera have been told he simply hasn’t made up his mind yet but St Kilda will believe it is the moment he realised how much he means to St Kilda.
READ MORE: BUDDY, JUDD ... NAS? SAINTS MUST AVOID HEARTBREAK
‘DEVASTATED’ GOODWIN OWNS 6-6-6 MISTAKE
— Nick Smart
A ‘devastated’ Simon Goodwin says the 6-6-6 infringement that led to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s matchwinner was a ‘simple’ mistake that his coaching staff must own following the heartbreaking loss on Sunday.
St Kilda pulled off the biggest final quarter comeback in AFL history to topple Melbourne at Marvel Stadium.
The Saints trailed by 46 points at the last change, but two goals to Wanganeen-Milera in the last 40 seconds gave St Kilda the miraculous win against all odds.
The game looked headed for a draw when the Saints drew level with 8 seconds remaining before the panicked Demons gave up a centre square infringement that led to a Wanganeen-Milera mark and goal after the siren.
“We’ll have a look at that but clearly we didn’t get that right,” Goodwin said.
“It’s a pretty simple process to get 6-6-6 done; you need to communicate and get organised and we didn’t get that done and that’s on us.
“We’ll have a look at how it played out, why it played out, but it shouldn’t happen.
“We had seven forwards and two wingers, so it’s a pretty simple process to get right.
“We’ll look at why it happened, how it happened and make sure that never happens again.”
Goodwin said his players and coaches were shattered after his side panicked in the final term and gave up nine unanswered goals.
“It was a devastating loss clearly,” he said.
“At the start of the last quarter we gave them momentum in the game and I thought we didn’t defend and pressure like we did early in the game.
“We didn’t handle the pressure, we didn’t handle the moment and we didn’t handle the tight game scenario like we should have.
“That’s on all of us and we own that together, but clearly a devastating loss in a game that was there for the taking.”
The Demons coach said he addressed the players immediately after the defeat rather than let the emotions subside first.
“We’ve spoken and it’s about developing that ruthless mindset that you need to have to be to be a really good side,” he said.
“But right now, with that last quarter, that’s what we haven’t got and that’s what you’ve got to get.
“Sometimes your darkest moments can be your biggest growth.
“When you have a last quarter like that, it’s a pretty devastated group in there and a pretty devastated group of coaches because we’re here to win.”
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