ENTERING Saturday night’s clash against the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium, it’s fair to say it was a genuine 50/50 contest.
Given both sides had won three matches for the season – Gold Coast won its first three rounds and Melbourne had claimed victories in rounds one, four and five – it loomed as an intriguing contest.
Two key questions were raised before the match.
How would the Suns bounce back on their home deck after suffering a massive 120-point loss to Geelong at the Cattery? And how would Melbourne fare on the back of a loss and not having played at Metricon Stadium for three years?
On top of that, there were also several sub plots thrown into the mix.
At half-time, the story was still emerging. The picture wasn’t entirely clear.
Gold Coast led Melbourne by 11 points and Melbourne regained the lead by five points at half-time. The game was up for grabs.
It wasn’t until the second half when the story of the night became clear: 16 goals to six after half-time.
In the end, Melbourne produced an emphatic 73-point victory over Gold Coast – an outstanding win on the road and one that broke several streaks and records.
So many positives emerged from the night for Melbourne.
One of the really interesting things to note from this game was that of Melbourne’s top 13 ball winners against the Suns, 10 of them did not play in the corresponding round seven game last year against Hawthorn at the MCG.
Two things immediately stood out from that: the team has injected several new players and others have improved their game.
No question, the amount of possessions won by Melbourne was also significantly improved, when comparing the team a year ago.
But it’s interesting to note that skipper Nathan Jones was the top disposal winner in both round seven matches in 2015-16 – he won 33 against the Suns and 26 against the Hawks.
Bernie Vince was second with 28 disposals against Gold Coast; Dom Tyson had the second most with 25 against Hawthorn last year.
But when you look at the players on the list from No.3 to No.13 on the weekend, it is vastly different to this time last year.
James Harmes, who had a career-best 26 disposals and was subsequently awarded this round’s NAB AFL Rising Star, was behind only Jones and Vince against the Suns.
Next was Tomas Bugg (25 disposals), Josh Wagner (25), Christian Petracca (24), Jack Viney (24), Clayton Oliver (23), Tyson (21), Jayden Hunt (19), Max Gawn (17), Neville Jetta (17) and Ben Kennedy (16).
Four of those players weren’t at the club last year. Some have pushed their way into the team and others were injured against the Hawks last year.
If you push the list to players No.14 and No.16 on the stats sheet, Dean Kent was sitting at No.16 with 14 touches. He didn’t play against the Hawks last year due to a long-term hamstring injury.
So 11 of the top 16 disposal winners against the Suns didn’t play in round seven last year against Hawthorn.
Tall forwards Jack Watts and Jesse Hogan were the only other two ‘new’ players to this year’s round seven side, after they didn’t play against the Hawks last year.
Even though Watts (11 touches) and Hogan (nine) had quieter games, they are still Melbourne’s top two leading goalkickers this year.
Hogan has 17 goals and Watts 14.
It only emphasises the genuine improvements in the club’s list this year.
And given the fact eight of Melbourne’s list – Angus Brayshaw, Matt Jones, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Mitch King, Heritier Lumumba, Jake Melksham, Christian Salem and Aaron vandenBerg – were sidelined for various reasons on the weekend, it only shows there is genuine talent to come back into the side.
Add to that, the Casey Scorpions have won four of their first five rounds and are sitting on top of the VFL ladder – reinforcing the players who are on the cusp of selection, and are ready and waiting.
A host of quality, seasoned performers played for Casey on the weekend and it only adds to the depth growing at the club.
Selecting Melbourne’s best 22 was a tricky task pre-season.
It’s only got harder as the season has progressed.
And that’s a good thing.
