Melbourne finals hopes in lap of the footy Gods after poor performance against Fremantle
Melbourne failed the test in “must-win” clashes against young developing sides Sydney and now Fremantle. On the verge of missing the finals for the 13th time in 14 years, was club great Garry Lyon right about their stunning 2018 season?
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For most Melburnians, Cairns annually offers a perfect getaway from a cold and wet winter.
For the Melbourne Demons, their FNQ trip has been nothing but a nightmare, all but ending their finals dreams for season 2020 within five days.
They landed in Cairns on the back of a stirring win against St Kilda. Less than a week later, after losses to Sydney and now Fremantle, they head back to southeast Queensland with their campaign in tatters.
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If they had beaten Fremantle at Cazalys Stadium, the Demons would have been back in the eight, but they lacked the dare in their ball movement and ability to defend a rebuilding Dockers side.
Club great Garry Lyon called the Demons “average” and accused them of playing as a bunch of individuals as the club’s psyche was again thrust into the spotlight.
Lyon said there was great irony in two young and emerging teams derailing the Demons’ season and, at 7-8, they are now on track to miss finals for the 13th time in 14 years.
That would confirm Lyon’s long-held belief that the club’s 2018 preliminary final was in fact the aberration season.
With crunch games against GWS and Essendon to come, Simon Goodwin’s men will need a miracle to get back into the top eight.
In wet and windy conditions, Fremantle did enough to snap their two-game losing skid, 6.11 (47) – 4.9 (33).
After being blown away inside the first half on Thursday night against Sydney, the Dockers put on seven scoring shots before the Demons could score.
Luckily for the Demons, Fremantle could only land a single goal in the early onslaught in the driving rain.
It was a low-scoring affair all night and with their season on the line, Melbourne never looked like a side that had enough desperation and grit to play finals footy.
Dockers youngster Adam Cerra put the icing on the cake late in the first term, kicking a miraculous goal from deep in the pocket as the rain came down.
Fremantle won the uncontested marks by a staggering 69-23 and also applied 20 more tackles.
‘GROW UP AND BE MORE RUTHLESS’
That was Simon Goodwin’s stinging assessment of his own football club after the blundering loss.
“As a club, I think we need to become a much more ruthless club and really grow up,” Goodwin said.
“We need to start to perform in these types of games.
“This is a great position for our club to be in, to experience this again after last year.
“We need to start becoming more mature as a club and more unconditional in the way we go about our business.”
Goodwin was not just talking about his players, but the entire football club.
“It is everyone,” he said.
“I have always said this, we are in this together and we are trying to change shape as a footy club about how we have been seen for a long amount of time.
“To do that, it takes a whole collective of people, but we cannot have results like tonight.”
THE SONNY SHOW
In a contest where everyone battled to kick a goal, Michael Walters was a class above — on and off the field.
The Dockers livewire drew first blood and then put Melbourne’s season on the brink of extinction with two clever third term majors.
Before Monday night’s game, Walters was forced to explain his actions last week against Richmond where he appeared to show frustration towards his own club’s coaches box.
After he kicked his first, the Swan Districts junior gave his jumper a tug to show how much the Dockers mean to him.
And then after the match he provided a classy apology.
“It’s obviously been a big week for myself mentally, with what happened last week and there was no intentions to the coach whatsoever, so I just want to knock that on the head,” Walters said on Fox Footy.
BAD MAX
Coach Simon Goodwin admitted his team was “boring with the ball” in the second quarter of Monday night’s loss as captain Max Gawn committed another critical error in what has become a disastrous trip.
Gawn missed a simple set-shot against Sydney on Thursday while a defensive fumble gifted Michael Walters in the 14-point loss to the Dockers.
Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown questioned whether the bevy of out-of-contract Demons were playing selfish football with their careers on the line.
Brown highlighted Preuss’ set-shot from 55m on the boundary.
“Malcolm Blight wouldn’t have kicked it – why does Preus think he’s going to from the boundary?” Lyon said.
Goodwin pulled seven changes for the Dockers clash to try and combat the four-day break.
They should regain James Harmes (hamstring) against GWS on Saturday.
DRANK THEIR OWN BATHWATER?
The Demons are 12-25 since their 66-point loss to West Coast in September 2018, and Lyon said they were “self-satisfied” after that.
“The heat will come and understandably and rightfully so,” Lyon said on Fox Footy.
“The urgency didn’t come until the last quarter when your season was on the line.
“They’re average. (Joel) Smith and (Braydon) Preuss and (Toby) Bedford and (Alex) Neal-Bullen and (Oskar) Baker – they’re just average players in what now has to be seen as an average footy club.
“You can make a great case for (Clayton) Oliver and (Christian) Petracca and Gawn and (Jack) Viney and (Steven) May – individually.
“Who then brings this together and develops a selflessness and an energy that doesn’t pick and choose every month?”
“They’re good invidiually, their numbers stack up individually, they’re probably going to have an All-Australian (Oliver) and maybe a top-four Brownlow Medallist (Gawn) – individually, collectively we just saw it.”
VINEY’S BRAVERY
Jack Viney is tough, we all knew that, but he took it to another level late in the second term.
The Demons hard nut went back with the flight and copped a Ethan Hughes knee straight to the chin at force coming back the other way.
Former Bulldog Brad Johnson compared the hit to the infamous Jarrod Harbrow and Jordan Lewis incident all those years ago.
But on this occasion, Viney bounced straight back up and fought on like nothing had happened, despite the vicious collision he just received.
The son of club legend Todd was one of Melbourne’s best in the first half, collecting 13 touches, as Fremantle had all the momentum.
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TESTING CONDITIONS
Cairns’ Cazalys Stadium had not hosted AFL footy for almost three years before the last week and in its return, the Far North has delivered a bit of everything.
Thursday’s contest between Sydney and Melbourne was marred by windy conditions that handed the Swans an upset win after they kicked five straight goals with the strong breeze in the second term.
Against the Dockers, it was the rain and wind that caused havoc.
The heavy rain came midway through the opening term as conditions completely changed from when the ball was first bounced just 10 minutes before.
It was wet weather football at its best in the first stanza, the ball skidding along the ground and it took a moment of brilliance from Michael Waters to break the goal deadlock approaching quarter-time.
The silky Walters goaled from just inside the 50m arc on an angle from the left-forward flank in the tough conditions to display his class.
SCOREBOARD
FREMANTLE: 1.6 1.9 4.9 6.11 (47)
def
MELBOURNE: 0.1 1.3 2.4 4.9 (33)
GOALS
Dockers: M. Walters 3, S Darcy, A Cerra, M Frederick
Demons: J. Hunt, S Weideman, A vandenBerg, B Fritsch
JORDAN GERRANS’ BEST
Dockers: M Walters, A Cerra, N Fyfe, T Duman, D Mundy
Demons: J Viney, C Oliver, C Petracca, M Gawn, B Fritsch
JORDAN GERRANS’ VOTES
3 — M Walters (Fre)
2 — A Cerra (Fre)
1 — N Fyfe (Fre)
INJURIES
TBC
Umpires: David Harris (24), Shaun Ryan (25), Andre Gianfagna (27)
Originally published as Melbourne finals hopes in lap of the footy Gods after poor performance against Fremantle