Melbourne vs Port Adelaide Round 9

[Barra13]

THE HEART OF THE MATTER by The Oracle

The AFL's Indigenous Round takes the Demons right into the heart of the country - to Alice Springs where almost to the day, twelve months ago they fought tooth and nail again a top four aspirant in Port Adelaide but ultimately fell agonisingly short.

In that game, the Power were off to a flyer and led 4.2.26 to 0.0.0 by the mid point of the opening quarter but the young Demons fought back to hold a narrow lead with 15 minutes left in the game after Christian Salem goaled. It was Port, on its way to a Preliminary Final appearance, that held sway with the last three goals and again, two months later in the return game at Adelaide Oval, they kicked the final goal two minutes before the end to stave off another Melbourne comeback and win by the narrow margin of three points.

It was not that the win meant all that much to the Demons in the grand scheme of things in season 2014 but the heart of the matter was that it was one of a handful occasions in recent years when a truly big scalp was there for the taking and the opportunity to take it was missed.

And if the club is to truly raise itself up from the group of also rans of the competition and into its middle tier from which it can launch future campaigns into finals class, it has to take scalps like that of Port Adelaide which right now, has about it an air of vulnerability.

And that is at the heart of the matter this week.

THE GAME Melbourne v Port Adelaide on Saturday 30 May, 2015 at 2.10pm (AEST) at TIO Treager Park, Alice Springs

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Melbourne 11 wins Port Adelaide 17 wins

At TIO Treager Park Melbourne 0 wins Port Adelaide 1 win

Past five meetings Melbourne wins Port Adelaide wins

The Coaches Roos 0 wins Hinkley 1 win

MEDIA

TV - Fox Sports 3 at 2.00pm (live)

RADIO - SEN ABC ABC Grandstand

THE BETTING Melbourne to win - $3.30 Port Adelaide to win - $1.32

THE LAST TIME THEY MET Port Adelaide 10.12.72 defeated Melbourne 10.9.69 Round 18 at the Adelaide Oval

Port Adelaide was going through a bit of a slump but seemed in control for most of the first half until a rear guard action led by Dom Tyson and Nathan Jones in the midfield saw Melbourne hit the front in an exciting final quarter. The Demons had their chances but a late rally for a goal to Jay Schulz saw the Power hold on to the final siren.

THE TEAMS

MELBOURNE

B: Colin Garland, Tom McDonald, Jack Grimes
HB: Jeremy Howe, Lynden Dunn, Neville Jetta
C: Daniel Cross, Aaron vandenBerg, Heritier Lumumba
HF: Rohan Bail, Cameron Pedersen, Jack Watts
F: Jeff Garlett, Jesse Hogan, Jack Fitzpatrick
FOLL: Jake Spencer, Nathan Jones, Bernie Vince
I/C: Angus Brayshaw, Matt Jones, Jimmy Toumpas, Jack Viney
EMG: Max Gawn, Ben Newton, Aidan Riley

IN: Jack Viney, Neville Jetta

OUT: Ben Newton (omitted), Aidan Riley (omitted)

PORT ADELAIDE

B: Jack Hombsch, Alipate Carlile, Jarman Impey
HB: Nathan Krakouer, Tom Jonas, Jasper Pittard
C: Matt White, Travis Boak, Brad Ebert
HF: Robbie Gray, Justin Westhoff, Chad Wingard
F: Karl Amon, Jay Schulz, Angus Monfries
FOLL: Matthew Lobbe, Hamish Hartlett, Ollie Wines
I/C: Matthew Broadbent, Tom Clurey, Sam Gray, Paul Stewart
EMG: Andrew Moore, Cam O'Shea, Aaron Young

IN: Matthew Broadbent, Tom Clurey, Paul Stewart

OUT: Jackson Trengove (ankle), Patrick Ryder (Achilles), Kane Cornes (retired)

IT FIGURES by Sam the Stats Man

When the Demons jubilantly took the honours and caused a minor upset in the first round of the season against the Gold Coast Suns, they had almost a full list of players fit and available for action. Jack Trengove was the only player with senior AFL experience on the injured list. The two others - Jayden Hunt and Christian Petracca are kids with their careers ahead of them. Progressively, from that day onward, the injuries began to kick in (as they do at most clubs) leading the club to a position where a lack of player depth was exposed in successive weeks in games against the leading teams in the competition. It all started when one of the stars of the Gold Coast win, Jack Viney who subdued an injured Garry Ablett Junior, broke his leg and a swag of others from that opening game win are missing - most of them with injuries extending beyond a couple of weeks. Here's hoping for a better run from here on in but from a statistical point of view, the run of injuries has certainly not helped the club's quest to rise from the depths of the AFL ladder.

On a more positive note, the contributions of the new faces at the club have been significant to this point in time, a testament to the excellent recruiting at the club since the advent of Paul Roos as coach.

[Purple 77]

Cheers again for the relays barra, as always.

I'm with hope in this match, I really think we can win it.

I was a little baffled this morning that 1/28 of the herald sun crew tipped melbourne, but that hardly counts for anything.

Was a little surprised Riley and Newton were the ones to be dropped, especially with Newton against his old team.

Although they did well last week, I still believe there is no room for M.Jones and Bail in our 22.

[Big Mac]

Yep - Definitely expected Bail to be dropped

Riley real stiff to miss. Couldn't ask for more from him

Roos obviously doesn't rate sub performances though