MELBOURNE coach Mark Neeld says he will speak to troubled forward Liam Jurrah at "an appropriate time" after his side suffered a 79-point NAB Cup loss to Hawthorn.
Speaking after Saturday night's game against Hawthorn, Neeld said he expected that time to be sooner rather than later, adding he did not expect the drama surrounding Jurrah to have any impact on the rest of the team as they prepared for the premiership season.
Jurrah, who was charged after an alleged incident in Alice Springs, returned to Melbourne late Friday afternoon. He is due to appear in court in Alice Springs in May.
"No-one in this room is going to understand all the issues that go with it and that includes me. Right now, it is a matter for the law to sort out and they will," Neeld said after the loss to Hawthorn.
"Footy teams need to be defined by what happens on the ground and I'm his (Jurrah's) footy coach. There are people that are qualified in those areas and they will deal with that."
Neeld was adamant the Jurrah drama had no effect on the team's performance against Hawthorn. The first-year coach admitted the Demons had received a brutal reminder of what it will take to compete with the top teams.
He said Melbourne was bullied by its opponent and shaken by an early onslaught that resulted in the Hawks scoring 38 points before the Demons had troubled the scorers.
Neeld saw very few positives in the performance and said what he saw had caused him to revise his opinions of who might be selected in the Demons' team for round one against the Brisbane Lions.
"There were some areas of our game that were tested and we didn't pass that test," Neeld said. "We were bulldozed a bit. They ran over the top of us. There were some areas of our game that weren't good and don't sit very comfortably with me."
Neeld identified missed tackles as an issue and said the team did not cope with the Hawks' crisp ball movement. Hawthorn led the possession count 345 to 215.
Although Melbourne won the contested possession count 132 to 114, its execution when it had the ball was ordinary. The Demons spilled handballs and failed to protect the ball when they did gain possession, leading to turnovers. The ball also moved inside 50 too quickly for the Demons to quell the marking power of David Hale and Lance Franklin.
While the Melbourne coaching staff would have been well aware of the reality of what its relatively inexperienced team faced taking on a strong Hawthorn side, it did not make what they watched easier viewing.
"It is a reminder of where we're at and where we've got to get to," Neeld said.
Meanwhile, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was pleased with the win, claiming the Hawks got the balance between contested and uncontested football right.
The Hawks gathered more than twice as many uncontested possessions as contested possessions (114 contested to 232 uncontested).
"We had a really good spread on the outside of the contest, but also competed really well with Melbourne on the inside," Clarkson said. "So that gave us an opportunity to kick a winning score."
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The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
