Inaccurate kicking costs Dees
In the wash-up, Melbourne lost to the Gold Coast Suns by 13 points – its ‘best’ loss for the season. But the Demons could’ve easily won their third match of the season, given they had two more scoring shots and booted 17 behinds. Melbourne’s final term was particularly telling, when it booted 2.6 to 3.1. Several gettable goals were missed by the Demons, adding to the frustration.

Leader Colin Garland said it was not a true reflection of the team’s goalkicking ability. “The forwards do a lot of work on their goalkicking,” he told melbournefc.com.au. “We know we’ve got to be better than that - there were a few ball handling errors in the back half and through the midfield and a few [poor] decisions that the boys had [that proved costly]. It’s hugely disappointing.”

Welcome back Jordie!
The return of Jordie McKenzie proved significant. The leader had battled an elbow injury in the second half of the season and hadn’t played since Mark Neeld’s last match as coach against Collingwood in round 11. But he returned to play a critical role on arguably the game’s best player and one of the all-time greats: Gary Ablett. McKenzie not only kept Ablett to 19 touches, with the assistance of defenders Colin Garland and Mitch Clisby - he also restricted the brilliant midfielder to his lowest number of disposals since he joined the Gold Coast – aside from round 16, 2011, when he suffered a knee injury and had just three touches against the Swans. Coach Neil Craig labelled McKenzie’s efforts as “outstanding”. For the record, McKenzie had 16 touches – only three fewer than Ablett. Given Ablett averages 31.93 disposals at the Suns, it was a mighty effort from the much-underrated, but integral Demon.

The Jones boys lead the way
With Jeremy Howe withdrawing before the match due to a calf injury, it left just two Demons to have featured in every game this season: Nathan and Matt Jones. The duo has produced fine seasons and has been among the better stories from a dismal season. Nathan has backed up his best and fairest winning year to be a leading contender for consecutive Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Memorial Trophy winners. Matt’s ability to play every match so far in his first AFL season – after being selected as a 25 year-old at No.52 in last year’s NAB AFL Draft – is also a fine achievement.

Nathan Jones, who collected 29 disposals against the Suns, said a win was all that mattered and he was frustrated a broken nose interrupted his play. “I was disappointed I missed about 12 to 14 minutes with my nose,” he told melbournefc.com.au. “It’s irrelevant when we don’t win, but I just try and do my bit. I’ll just try and do my bit, and we had some guys really step up tonight. The more guys we can get, in terms of weight of numbers, and driving the culture of the footy club, the quicker we’re going to get better.”

1300th player – Troy Davis
One of Melbourne’s good news stories came to fruition on Saturday night when tall defender/forward Troy Davis played his first AFL match and in the process became the 1300^th player to represent the Melbourne Football Club in a senior VFL/AFL match. Davis’ perseverance and persistence came to the fore, after he had to wait almost three full seasons to play his first match, given he was drafted at No. 50 in the 2010 NAB AFL Draft. Although Davis, known more as a defender, played up forward and had just the six disposals, his contested work, spoiling and ability to provide a contest was evident, and wasn’t lost on coach Neil Craig.  

“I thought our forward line functioned as well as it’s operated for a long time, and I know Leigh Brown’s done a lot of work with them,” he said. “Young Troy Davis came in [for his first AFL match] and I thought his capacity to compete in the air was exceptional. I was really pleased with what Troy did. Jeremy [Howe] and Chris Dawes weren’t there and it was as good as I’ve seen it for a long period of time.”

One more at the ‘G …
With just three more matches for Melbourne in 2013, this Sunday’s clash against Fremantle is also its final home and away clash for the season. The Demons head to AAMI Stadium to play the Adelaide Crows in round 22, and to Etihad Stadium to take on the Western Bulldogs in round 23. Freo will be a massive task for the Demons, but defender Colin Garland says the opportunity to take on the best defensive team in the competition will be a great challenge.

“We look forward to Freo next week, which will be just a tremendous challenge,” he told melbournefc.com.au. “It’ll really test our offensive game, because Freo are the best defensive side in the competition. So we’ll recover well now and move on to next week.”