Bailey deconstructs dream defence
Melbourne coach Dean Bailey hopes the week's break has not stymied the Demon's momentum heading into the clash against Adelaide
The Demons went to the bye on the back of a magnificent win against Fremantle, coming back from 50 points down at half time, the club's greatest ever comeback from that point.
But then the Hall of Fame Tribute Match showed up, and the Dees, with nobody representing either side, had to sit out of competitive footy for the week. Bailey did a little dreaming of what he would have liked.
"It would have been nice, if you could write the script – we win the way we did the second half against Fremantle, then played another game at the MCG, a home game, it would have been a good test for us to build on that game," he said
"But still, training's been good last week, so the guys are still up a bit, so we'll try to hang it over, if we can, for two weeks."
Bailey also pointed out that the Hall of Fame Tribute Match showed why Adelaide's defence was so hard to deconstruct.
"It'll get down to ball use, especially at AAMI [Stadium] against a really well structured club.
"It's a great challenge at AAMI, and our players are really looking forward to it, you know? There's still a bit of momentum there at training, and I’m keen for the game to get played.
"They had six players, Geelong had nine, so Adelaide were the next best represented club, so they've got some superstars in their team, Adelaide. And four of them played down back – [Nathan] Bock, [Ben] Rutten, [Graham] Johncock and [Andrew] McLeod, so they've got a pretty good defence, the Crows, so we need to be pretty good at going inside 50 to hit the target.
"In the second half [against Fremantle] we were able to move the ball at the speed that gave us space in the forward line, and when you can do that you do open up your forward line, and you have multiple options when you can get in there quick."