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.