Almanac Footy: Let’s talk about Melbourne

Let’s talk Melbourne.

 

They fascinate me. A flag just several short years ago, most of their top-line players still on their list. Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, May, Lever, Fritch, Langdon, Viney…yet it’s like watching the Titanic sink.

 

I used to adore barracking for them, the players mentioned, Kozzi, Benny Brown, Hibberd…all of them characters. They looked like a fun club to be around, played fast and free and exciting.

 

They chip far more than they used to out of the backline, lack run and penetration, into a forward line that seems deader than a night out in Yuulong.

 

The team’s heading south without breaks on.

 

Why? What’s going on?

 

I took a day or two to think about it.

 

In their premiership year they had a very specific game-plan built around a very specific bunch of individuals. Bomb long to packs with players ten metres front-and-centre to it, charging at the fall. Slap it into a forward-line, anywhere, that was open and full of runners. Slap it out of packs, keep it moving. Slap, slap, slap. Oliver is the champion at it. How he makes room to do so with so many barely legal octopuses hanging off him is nothing short of miraculous. I’m not having a go, but the game has moved beyond that.

 

Beyond all of it.

 

Possession is everything today. The chip rules, patience. It’s way less interesting to watch, but effective. Teams aren’t bombing down the line, like the Dees and Tigers in their prime, they are taking 15 chips to work their way out of it, then, almost always, one more small one back into the middle.

 

The almost poetic free-flowing, game-long run of Langdon feels over.

 

The slap of Oliver and Viney now, more often than not, goes to brilliantly constructed defences, zones that give Kozzie and the like no freedom.

 

Gawn’s gradual fall adds to that. Ignore the AA team, too often it’s simply a marketing tool for the AFL. Max has been slipping over the past few years. He still has the most exquisitely sticky fingers in the game. No palm marking for him, it’s all touch, finger tips and the sweetest timing.

 

Didgits of feathers, arms of iron will.

 

But today’s rucks are much bigger and stronger, more solid. He can’t bully them, and they are getting better at negating his leap. Max’s hitouts, a ruck’s main game, just aren’t as many, or hitting as many targets.

 

Stuff what the back-pocket commentators and coaches say, it all starts with a ruck. And Max is no longer as dominant.

 

This is also why Jackson was so handy. The Van simply isn’t as good a back-up. Yes, Jackson is second tier, but a great second tier. Spargo (is he still playing?), Hibberd, Benny, Jackson, none of them were top line, but they were vital. As I often quote Yabby Jeans; All finals teams have four or five stars, the team that will win the flag has the best bottom six players.

 

It’s easy to be blinded by the big names, as I have been. Meanwhile, Melbourne’s bottom six have dropped considerably.

 

Down forward, they miss big Benny badly. A Catch 22 for the times, surely. Too big and cumbersome, too one-dimensional to be left of the list, I get that. He was run off on the rebound too easily. Yet his, and Tom McDonald’s jobs were, when Melbourne had the ball forward of centre, to lead hard towards the boundary, so it was bombed into a tight zone where the defenders had no room to spread if Brown didn’t mark it. This worked. Ben and Tom were solid enough to bring a pack down at each contest, make it a sea of arms and legs, from which Spargo and Koz could weave magic through chaos.

 

Melksham just isn’t big enough to do that. Not as imposing. Or tall enough to stretch in front of the Harris Andrews of the world, and clunk on a hard lead. He’s a handy third forward, crafty, not a main character.

 

Melbourne still have Fritch, totally elite, all class, but a tall flanker. Not really a one-man forward line. He tries, but no one is. Forwards run to patterns for each other. Their quality spreads zones, making each defender accountable. Nobody can do it solo, and Melbourne don’t have the quality.

 

Down back, Hibberd gave the run they’re lacking. The ability to play on smalls or mids, on anyone, anywhere. He took the best, and was so underrated. Lever doesn’t seem to be what he was, is always injured, May is still a rock, but that bite has gone from their defence. They are all good on the bomb in, but that is less and less common. Hibberd, like Richmond’s Bachar Houli, was great at tidying-up the run-out.
Now, with the best teams, it’s chip, chip, chip until there’s a hole, then run through a zone rather than try and break it. That requires speed. Insane speed that the Giants have, that Brisbane have. Gold Coast. That Melbourne, as tough and hard running as their mids are, lack a little.

 

It’s odd watching May play. He still gets a billion of it, but isn’t quick enough to flick it to runners, so goes back and bombs it down the line, as he always did, as always worked, but now, with spreads around marking packs evolving, and speedy little buggers to chip it to, the ball comes back to him so quickly.

 

The chip game requires insane speed. Melbourne appear to be trying to adapt to it, but simply don’t have the personal to suit. It all breaks down around midfield. Their instinct is the slap, the bomb long, but the game’s moved beyond them.

 

The personal is still there, mostly, but the glue is missing. They need rebuilding.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I still adore the Melbourne players. Barrack for them. They are so much fun to watch.

 

I hope this piece ages badly.

 

 

 

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