Round 21 – Melbourne Vs Collingwood

Liam Chambers

Well Melbourne finally won a last quarter. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to defeat Collingwood; a side who prior to last week’s thrashing of bottom side Gold Coast had lost four of their previous five games.

Why the Dees are sitting seventeenth on the ladder after such a positive end to last year’s season is confounding. Especially when they had been building steadily over recent years, slowing improving their position on the table.
Now the term aberration is being bandied about with annoying regularity. However, I’m confident that this season has been an aberration and that we will bounce back with a vengeance in 2020. Remember Richmond finished fifth in 2015, then sunk to thirteenth in 2016 before winning the Grand Final in 2017.

The weight of expectation can be daunting when your fans finally have a taste of success after so many years of disappointment. Melbourne had broken through and reached their first finals in twelve years. Then they performed above and beyond. Of course everyone believed we would qualify again and possibly go one better. Maybe even win our first final in fifty five years.

There were injuries but Melbourne has a lot of depth so that should not have been a major concern. However we all know how it turned out. Players like Max Gawn and Stephen May have given their all in games. I have a feeling though that despite some individually brilliant performances, the Dees have tuned out somewhat and are now focusing on next year. I hope I’m wrong because it’s important we play our best and win our final two games.

There were positives in our game against the Pies. Christian Petracca has been inspirational at times and of course Oscar McDonald scored his first goal. In our last two games both of our opponents are very capable of defeating us but conversely we are certainly capable of winning. It would be better to end our season on a high but at least let’s go down fighting.

Go the Mighty Dees!!!

MELBOURNE 1.4 2.6 3.8 7.11 (53)
COLLINGWOOD 0.5 5.6 9.8 10.10 (70)
GOALS
Melbourne: Petty, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Petracca, Hunt, O.McDonald, Gawn
Collingwood: Mihocek 4, Pendlebury 2, Varcoe 2, Thomas, Crisp
BEST
Melbourne: Brayshaw, Petracca, Harmes, Frost, Oliver, Fritsch
Collingwood: Treloar, Grundy, Mihocek, Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Howe