Statistically Speaking
Statistically speaking – Darren Spence
Friday 27 July 2012
Meatloaf had a hit with 2 out of 3 ain’t bad but I seriously doubt Mark Neeld would have been belting out any tunes from ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ at AAMI Park this week as the Demons disappointingly lost – what I thought was a winnable game – to Port Adelaide. History has shown that if you break even on disposals and clearances, have more tackles, more marks and 10 more inside 50s than your opposition then you will most likely win the contest. Yet sadly it wasn’t ‘It’s A Grand Old Flag’ being played late on Saturday night.
Last week saw the start of the Holy month of Ramadan – the Muslim month of fasting in which Muslims refrain from dawn until sunset from eating and drinking – and it is Melbourne that is going through its own form of fasting as we continue to lament the loss of both Mitch Clark and LJ and continue to struggle to kick winning scores. The positive thing is that we are getting the ball into our attacking 50 and (as I said earlier) winning our fair share of the ball – this augurs well for the future and is showing that our game plan is starting to gel with the players. We seem now to be more than competitive in large parts of the game, winning our 2nd opening quarter in a row and now we just need to replicate these performances throughout the entire game. I am positive this will come – sooner rather than later!
As much as the players and staff will be hurting, there were some pleasing performances in the hot and humid conditions up in Darwin.
- Our co-captain Jack Grimes was the leading possession getter on the ground with 32 disposals and he followed that up with 11 marks and 4 tackles in a game where he really led from the front.
- Nathan Jones continued his fantastic season with 26 disposals – capped off with a goal.
- I was really impressed with Neville Jetta’s game. In his first game for the year he had 18 touches in a welcome return to the senior side.
- Brad Green battled hard all night for 2 goals 3 behinds and two of our younger players in Dan Nicholson and Tom McDonald also deserve mention for putting in solid performances on Saturday night.
- A final mention to Jeremy Howe who has a mortgage on the Mark of the Year for 2012 and continues to delight fans with almost a hanger a week!
This week it is the Roos. North have had the wood on us of late – winning the last nine games against us. With North still in the hunt for a finals berth and our boys fired up to atone for last week, we hope to see the Dees put a real dint in North Melbourne’s finals aspirations.
Go Dees
Darren Spence
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