Round 11 – Melbourne Vs Adelaide Crows – Sam’s Sorrow

Liam Chambers

No matter how disappointed Melbourne fans must feel at our last second loss in Darwin, spare a though for poor Sam Weideman. He had the toughest task in football when he made a marvellous mark in front of goal, then had to steady himself and try to kick the winner for his team. The resultant miss meant the Dees lost the game by just two points.

Of course we’ve been here before. Most memorable was Melbourne’s opening game of the 2018 season against Geelong. With a minute to go, Max Gawn marked the ball and converted for a minor score ensuring the Cats won by a measly three points. Max would be very sympathetic to young Sam’s situation. Back then there was still an entire season of footy to be played and a narrow loss was not disastrous for Melbourne. However with three eight from eleven games, it looks like the Dees’ chances of making the finals have been dealt a near fatal blow.

The Demons played superbly in the first half. James Harmes opened the scoring with his fourth minute goal and Christian Petracca added a second a few minutes later. Unfortunately Petracca had a brain freeze just after that giving a away a fifty metre penalty. The Crows’ player Gibbs then kicked the ball to Tom Lynch who converted to score the Crows’ first goal and let them into the game. Further goals by Jayden Hunt, Jeff Garlett, Weideman and Angus Brayshaw saw the Dees take a comfortable fifteen point margin into quarter time.

Though Q2 was a lower scoring affair, a second from Garlett plus one each from Clayton Oliver and Tim Smith meant the Dees extended their lead to 25 points at half time.

The game was looking very rosy for Melbourne when Mitch Hannan, back from injury, kicked a goal to extend the lead to 31 points. Unfortunately, you write off the Adelaide Crows at your peril and three unanswered goals meant they went into the last quarter trailing by only 16 points.

When Jeff Garlett kicked his third goal early in Q4, the Dees led by 22 points. Confidence was regained. The Crows kept pushing back though and when Eddie Betts kicked his second, the crowd really got behind Adelaide. Whenever the Crows got inside 50, they were scoring and Melbourne was now well and truly on the back foot.

With just over five minutes to go,  Brad Crouch kicked his third. The Crows now led for the first time in the game. Despite some valiant efforts, Melbourne was unable to find a way back in to win the match. Adelaide ended their losing streak and the Dees are now three games without a win.

Many commentators are suggesting that Melbourne accept that this season is a non-starter and that their focus should be on rebuilding the team for next season. Though understandable as this reasoning may be, I feel that the Dees should not accept that situation while it is still mathematically possible to finish in the top eight. Next week’s match is against our old foe Collingwood. We will now be unbackable favourites to lose that game but we might well surprise the sceptics.

Go the Mighty Dees!!!

MELBOURNE  6.3   9.4  11.8   12.16 (88)
ADELAIDE     4.0   5.3   9.4    14.6 (90)

GOALS
Melbourne: Garlett 3, Hannan, Hunt, Weideman, Smith, Petracca, Jones, Brayshaw, Harmes, Oliver
Adelaide: B.Crouch 3, Lynch 3, Jenkins 2, Betts 2, Gallucci, Walker, Murphy, Ellis-Yolmen

BEST
Melbourne: Gawn, Harmes, Brayshaw, Oliver, Hibberd, Petracca
Adelaide: Lynch, B. Crouch, Laird, Greenwood, Ellis-Yolmen, Atkins