Melbourne – 15.7 (97)
Western Bulldogs – 15.14 (104)
Melbourne came very close to securing their second win of the season and probably out played the Bulldogs for the majority of the match. The game was fairly even and free-flowing. It was a very good game to watch as it was close and high scoring.
Turning points of the match
Half way through the last quarter a non-free kick was awarded to the Bulldogs and then Melbourne played on either thinking it was a free to the Dees or didn’t realise it was a free which resulted in a 50 meter penalty and a shot on the goal line which all but sealed the game. Melbourne did fight back hard but ran out of time.
Key Players for Melbourne
Cale Morton – He has a good head on his shoulders and makes very good decisions most of the time. He rarely makes damaging errors. He did get a lot of cheap footy though.
Brock McLean – Very good game by Brock, he won the ball frequently but did have the most effective disposal.
Key Players for the Western Bulldogs
Jason Akermanis – As much as I dislike his character, he did lift the team in the 2nd quarter and kicked 4 goals
Matthew Boyd – He was soldiering on in the final term when the Bulldogs looked like they were going to choke.
Musings from the match
• 30,000ish crowd is pretty crap, not too bad though, it was a Saturday afternoon, and there was no excuse not to come.
• Amazing how zones don’t work if you move the ball quickly eh?
• Even though Melbourne was getting dominated in hitouts, I thought Melbourne were 50/50 in clearances, but that was not the case the Bulldogs got 38 centre clearances to Melbourne’s 26. It seems Scott West is not that useful as Melbourne’s stoppages coach as I had hoped.
• Brad Johnson had a shocker, he has been horrible all year
• Melbourne had 75 (~20%) more possessions than the Bulldogs, the demons converted better (besides Miller)
• Bulldogs had more inside 50s, marks inside 50 and shots on goal; which was what won them the game.
• Melbourne had less percentage of clangers than previous weeks and far more of the football
• Paul Johnson thinks he is a small midfielder, he was weaving around players and selling the dummy, what the hell?
• Melbourne still can’t kick out unless Davey or Cale Morton does it, I have no idea why they let players that aren’t the best kick or decision makers take the kick out, especially when the other team has set up the zone and you really need to pinpoint the pass.
SuperCoach news
Those who carried Kyle Cheney (myself included) would be very happy with themselves, he scored 93, had a decent game, price rise and a new break-even going in to round 9 that is negative will make them even more happy. Jack Grimes also had a good game for supercoach purposes, scoring 109. Cooney still hasn’t hit his purple form yet, he is looking okay though. Robert Murphy’s hamstring is a worry for the people that have him.
Tags: Aaron Davey, Adam Cooney, Brad Johnson, Brock McLean, Cale Morton, Jack Grimes, Jason Akermanis, Kyle Cheney, Matthew Boyd, Paul Johnson
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[...] Melbourne – 15.7 (97) Western Bulldogs – 15.14 (104) Melbourne came very close to securing their second win of the season and probably out played the Bulldogs for the majority of the match. The game was fairly even and free-flowing. It was a very good game to watch as it was close and high scoring.Read more [...]