April 29, 2009

Melbourne vs Adelaide...

MEMBERSHIP numbers for Melbourne Football Club had risen to a record high over the past week, following a jubilant victory over the Tigers that had kick-started the Demon bandwagon.
The Demons ran out on to the ground in front of a sea of empty seats. Where were the 30,000 members? Even more absurdly, an Adelaide family of six or seven people sat down a few rows in front of me, right in the heart of the President Members’ area. I wasn’t sure if they had snuck in or if they were Melbourne members. The latter didn’t seem possible, so I presumed they snuck in. It is a great place to sit, great view and a great way to discuss the problems and solutions of the team with fellow supporters.  
The lights were on, and the game got off too a slow start, then the Crows got a couple of scoring chances and broke away convincingly. Graham Johncock kicked the first goal of the match at the eight-minute mark. Melbourne continued to persevere but just couldn’t penetrate. Our only score for the quarter was a Brock McLean grubber that bounced and hit the post. Not much was going right, but Adelaide only kicked two goals for the quarter to be ahead 2.4 (16) to 0.1 (1).
At quarter time, as I went to the toilet, Jim Stynes was wandering around and fans were talking to him about our chances for the game. Jim was probably off to the cheer squad, having taken a mark behind the goals a week earlier while sitting there. There weren’t too many chances for Jim or anyone, judging by the amount of shots at goal in the match.
Michael “Juice” Newton has been a struggling prospect in his whole three-year career at Melbourne. Despite being a character, he was playing the worst game imaginable. He could barely hold on to a mark, and he had a chance to kick a badly needed goal early on in the second quarter. This stanza had begun with similar footy to the first, both defences tight and both forward lines lacking in personnel, causing a low scoring contest. Newton’s kick missed to the near side, which is a quite possible result when Juice has a shot from 10 metres out. Discussion had formed around me on Newton and his skills.
The Crows had not been too dominant at this point, players like McLeod and Edwards weren’t having much of an influence. Goals were hard to come by. Adelaide were gifted one midway through the quarter due to terrible umpiring. Scott Stevens kicked the goal and Adelaide were 20 points up. Miller kicked score number three at the end of the second quarter, which was a third behind. The low scoring aspect of this game was getting ridiculous. The scoreline three to 30 stood on the scoreboard at the main break. The game could have effectively been all over but I still though a comeback was feasible.
McLeod kicked an early goal for the Crows in the second half to make their supporters behind the city end goals stand up in happiness. We still hadn’t kicked a goal. Fifteen minutes into the quarter, Matthew Bate kicked it long to Dunn, who juggled an uncontested mark 10 metres out from goal. The Demon faithful let off an almighty cheer, despite the low crowd numbers. We needed another one. Newton had the chance a few minutes later, but hit the post. While I was trying to figure out why he chose to do a banana from point blank range, the Demons had a few chances to make amends, but Adelaide’s defence in Rutten and Bock were holding strong. Moloney and Davey were both trying hard in the centre, but forward targets were limited. The comeback happened 10 minutes into the last quarter, after Kurt Tippett had kicked two unanswered goals for the Crows. Dunn kicked our second, followed up by a great goal from McLean and a proverbial ‘captain’s goal' from James McDonald reeled the margin back to 15 points. We can still win this, I thought. A Melbourne chant had lifted over the ground. There was plenty of time left.
Adelaide ran out victors by 17 points, by controlling the last 10 minutes, not giving the Demons a sniff. We had our chances, however. The siren went and most of the Red and Blue supporters stormed out of the ground. I observed the happenings on the ground. The Crows were running around the ground hi-fiving their supporters who were lining the fences, and a distinctive South Australian cheer was coming from the city end. I tightened my scarf and headed home. There’s always next week.

Melbourne 0.1  0.3 1.6  4.10 (34)
Adelaide 2.4  4.6  5.7  7.9 (51)
GOALS Melbourne: Dunn 2, McLean, McDonald.
Adelaide: Tippett 2, Walker, McLeod, Porplyzia, Stevens, Johncock.
BEST Melbourne: Moloney, Davey, McLean, Frawley, Bruce, McDonald, Sylvia, Dunn.
Adelaide: Goodwin, Vince, Thompson, Johncock, Rutten, Tippett, Bock, McLeod.
Umpires: Schmitt, Hendrie, Armstrong.               
Crowd: 14,129 at the MCG.

• The scoreboard tells a story during the AFL Anzac Day round five match between Melbourne and Adelaide at the MCG. Photo by David Callow. The Slattery Media Group.

• StumbleUpon
• Digg it
• Furl
• Yahoo! MyWeb
• Newsvine
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Delicious
• Kwoff

Print