Round 6 – Melbourne V Fremantle

We Won!

Liam Chambers

Melbourne wind back the clock

From the start, there was a desperation to the Demon’s team that’s been missing since their opening game. The players were running, chasing and tackling hard.

The first goal came against the run of play, after Andrew Brayshaw was awarded a free kick directly in front. His 50m shot was accurate and the Dockers were on the board.

When Kozzie Pickett is in form, he doesn’t miss much and his snap from 40m was spot on. The second Melbourne goal came quickly when Ed Langdon’s kick inside 50 found Harrison Petty, who ran out to mark the ball. He made no mistake with the set shot and it was back to back for the Dees.

Demon fans had to rub their eyes to make sure they were awake when Trent Rivers took a contested mark and ran inside 50 before launching from 45m to make it three in a row for Melbourne. The Dees were applying intense pressure on Freo and tackling hard whenever their opponents got the ball.

Shai Bolton showed that he’s a real asset to his new club when he marked in the pocket, before making the difficult 45m set shot look easy. Then Murphy Reid pulled the Dockers level when his snap from 40m went through. By now the initial euphoria had worn off for Melbourne fans, and for a few minutes Fremantle looked to have the upper hand.

But wait, Petty marks the ball on the 50m arc, then goes back to have a kick. Surely not, but the big fellow takes his time before running up and striking perfectly from 55m, taking back the lead for his side. Melbourne won the centre bounce and Jack Viney hammered it straight inside 50, where Jake Melksham was deemed to be held. He just missed to the right, possibly not helped by the gash on his right knee.

The Demons had the momentum now, and the pressure on their opponents was sky high. Also impressive was how accurate their kicking and marking was, allowing them to work up the ball up the ground. They eventually got it inside 50 again, where Christian Petracca collected the tapped down ball, before snapping around the corner from the pocket. The Demons were back out to a two goal lead.

Unfortunately, just before quarter time, Josh Treacy was able to get in behind our defence and mark the ball near the top of the square, before running on and tapping it through for a goal.

Undeterred, the Dees won the hitout and Petracca’s hand pass to Viney saw the midfielder running and side stepping his way inside 50, then launching from 40m to widen the gap to eleven points.

Dees up and down but finish the half strongly

Melbourne couldn’t have asked for a better start to the second term. Kade Chandler’s kick from 60m out would have been looking for a mark, but instead it bounced just outside the square and then flipped its way across the goal line.

A couple of minutes later and Sean Darcy took his first disposal, an uncontested mark 30m in front of goal. He went back and converted, bringing the margin back to eleven.

It was a case of right place, right time for Kade Chandler when Luke Ryan couldn’t quite mark the sherrin. Chandler pounced swiftly, grabbing the ball as it fell, then turning and tapping it across the line. Everything was flowing smoothly as the Dees transitioned the ball from one end of the ground to the other, culminating in Harrison Petty marking the sherrin on the edge of the square. As Kozzie Pickett ran towards the top of the goal square, Petty hand passed to the small forward, gifting him his hat trick for the afternoon.

Once again we won the hitout and Viney and Pickett combined to get the ball inside 50, where Kozzie’s 40m snap gave him back to back goals and Melbourne a twenty nine point buffer. A mistake in defence gave Murphy Reid a chance to claw one back for Freo but luckily he sprayed it to the right.

It was a case of second time unlucky when Jye Amiss was awarded a free kick for a down field foul. His 20m set shot was successful and the margin was reduced to twenty two points. Suddenly it was the Dockers who had the momentum and they were pushing forward at a rate of knots. When Jeremy Sharp received the ball on the edge of the arc, he launched from 49m to make it a sixteen point game.

Encouragingly, the Dees were still prepared to take on Fremantle and kept up the pressure on their rivals. Earlier in the quarter, Chandler scored a lucky goal when the ball bounced fortuitously; now Shai Bolton had an even luckier goal, when his chip from the pocket bounced over two players, landing in the goal square and then bounced at exactly the correct angle to cross the line.
From twenty nine points, it was now back to ten and Melbourne were on the back foot.

Then Kozzie took one of the marks of the year so far when he used Petty’s back as a ladder to grab Harvey Langford’s kick from 70m out on the wing. Pickett converted with ease to claim his fourth of the afternoon. Harrison Petty has struggled to score in recent times but today he was in fine form and his third goal was possibly his easiest, but also required quick thinking, as he soccered through ball from the top of the square.

Melbourne hold firm while Fremantle rue some missed opportunities

It was more of the same from Melbourne at the start of the second half. The Umpire was a little concerned that Fremantle might fall further behind, so gave two glaringly obvious holding the ball incidents the benefit of the doubt. It worked, and the Dockers were able to move the ball out of their defensive 50 and down the ground to where Oscar McDonald was waiting to take an uncontested mark.

The former Demon had previously only scored three goals in his eighty eight game AFL career, but in the tradition of ex Melbourne footballers playing against their old team, he went back and easily slotted the 40m set shot. The next five minutes was intense, as Freo fought to make the most of their new found momentum but a series of errors and fumbles on both sides went largely unpunished.

Then, following an impressive transition by the Dees, Kozzie Pickett produced yet another piece of magic with his contested mark 40m from goal. He ran on, showing Josh Draper a clean pair of heels, before slamming the sherrin into the stand to notch up his fifth of the match. With the advantage back out to twenty points, Melbourne went hunting for more goals.

The Dockers didn’t want to go in at three quarter time trailing by any more than the current margin and when Shai Bolton marked in the pocket and converted the 35m kick, he made his side’s mission a little less difficult. Harvey Langford pushed Melbourne’s advantage back out to nineteen points, with the assistance of Harry Sharp’s clever hand pass on the edge of the square.

Both sides had opportunities to add to their goals tallies, but it was the sub Isaiah Dudley who brought Freo back into contention with his mark in the pocket and follow on set shot. When Melbourne won the last centre bounce clearance of the quarter, they headed straight down towards their forward 50, where Harrison Petty was deemed to have been held. The re positioned key defender went back and slotted his fourth, to give the Dees a handy nineteen point buffer, going into the final term.

Demons get the job done

Every Melbourne fan would have been holding their breath and wondering if this was it. Could we maintain the lead and win our first game of the season? We had played some of our best footy in a long time and now it was as much a psychological game, as a physical one.

Big Max had a chance to extend the lead early in the piece, but his disposition to hook the straightforward set shots came back to haunt him, and it remained a four goal game. As the clock ticked down to ten minutes remaining, the tension was almost unbearable. Surely the footy gods couldn’t be so cruel as to allow Fremantle to snatch a late victory.

Then, when it looked like Jye Amiss was about to score, Trent Rivers threw himself at full stretch just managing to grab the key forward’s shorts and preventing a certain goal. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, Jye Amiss secured the mark at the top of the square and it was a nail biting two goal game. It seemed that Jye Amiss had put his recent jitters behind him when he marked deep in the pocket and slotted the difficult set shot.

Now there was only a measly six points between glorious victory and another disappointing loss. Shai Bolton didn’t do us any favours during the majority of the game, but when he decided to run on instead of taking the 50m set shot, he missed the lot, becoming an instant honorary Demon in the process.

Then when Harvey Langford snapped a 30m kick across the goal line, it was back to a two goal margin. With just under four minutes to go Tom Sparrow added another point and a little more breathing space. Then Gawny hooked a 50m set shot, after first taking the allowed thirty seconds. Jake Melksham almost sealed it with a banana off his right boot, but we had a comfortable fifteen point lead with two minutes to go.

There was still time for Freo but Gawny’s magnificent mark in the centre took another few seconds off the clock. A slight wobble when Sean Darcy marked 25m from the goal, but the twenty seconds he took to kick the set shot meant the dockers now couldn’t score the two goals required for victory. Nonetheless, it was a relief to see Max Gawn awarded a free kick for being held in the ruck and from there the Dees passed the ball until the siren sounded.

Finally we were back to playing the way we know our talented footballers are capable of, and it was a morale boost for our club. We won’t kid ourselves that our next game against Richmond will be easy, but if we play with the same conviction, I have no doubt we will go back to back.

Go the Mighty Dees!!!