Round 5 – Melbourne Vs St Kilda – Saints Cast Demons Aside (Not a Good Friday)

Liam Chambers

After last week’s triumph over the Swans, it seemed like Melbourne had finally got their season belatedly on track. Though not perfect, there was much in that game to inspire Dees’ fans.

So what went wrong in Round 5? There has been speculation of tension between some coaching staff and some players. If correct, this obviously doesn’t help anyone in the team and adds to the overall stress levels within the club.

Simon Goodwin has helped Melbourne achieve a lot over the last couple of years, slowly building up the strength and confidence after so many years struggling to be competitive. As Max Gawn pointed out in his Bluey Medal speech last year, the support and co-operation of all the staff had been pivotal to how much was achieved in 2018.

There may need to be a bit of re-jiggling and reshaping if the Dees are to recapture that level of performance. Other teams have been through times where the practical outcomes don’t match the intentions. We need to get through this spell of bad results.

We can still make finals and that should be our only focus when the Dees run onto the ground. No one is unbeatable and we can beat anyone.

There were times when the lads played well but we were behind St Kilda at the end of every quarter. I wrote after Round 3 that we often under estimate our opponents in games we should win.

The Saints have improved with every match they’ve played. They only lost by 5 points to Fremantle at home in Round 3 and last week’s effort against Hawthorn was impressive. I really believe we didn’t give them enough respect and we paid the price.

At the start of the first quarter when Preuss opened the scoring with his first touch, it looked like the Dees meant business. However, within minutes we were being out marked and struggling in defence. Preuss again book ended the first quarter with another great goal to raise the fans spirits.

Preuss’ goal may have proved inspirational as we dominated play for most of the second quarter. The midfield played well again, assisted by Gawn’s accuracy in the ruck. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a way through the Saints back line.

Then St Kilda returned serve, dominating contested possession and kicking three goals to be 15 points ahead at half time. Unfortunately the worst was yet to come with St Kilda kicking five unanswered goals in the third quarter.

Melbourne rallied in the fourth to reduce the margin to 28 points but never looked like reigning in the Saints, who iced the cake with two goals in the last minute of play.

We face Richmond in Round 6. The Tigers have had their own set backs this year but are now looking formidable and will be very hard to beat. It will be interesting to see how we react after all the slings and arrows from the media and commentators in general.

If Melbourne are true to form, we should win simply because no one now expects us to prevail.

Go the Dees!!!

MELBOURNE 3.3 4.5 4.8 7.13 (55)
ST KILDA 4.1 7.2 12.5 15.5 (95)
GOALS
Melbourne: Preuss 2, Melksham 2, Petracca, Brayshaw, Harmes
St Kilda: Membrey 4, Kent 3, Bruce 2, Billings 2, Acres, Lonie, Long, Parker
BEST
Melbourne: Brayshaw, Oliver, Gawn, Harmes, Salem
St Kilda: Billings, Kent, Membrey, Newnes, Acres, Steele, Geary