Titus.
Our President brings us this update from Titus.
Carlton (85) v Brisbane (103)
When Liam Stocker attempted a pass from the back pocket, only to spray it off the side of his boot and through the big sticks for a rushed behind, he gave every Blues fan a visual representation of the past two decades.
Despite the Lions being routed by injuries, you can always rely on the Blues to do just enough to not win.
There are good players at the Blues, Cripps is obviously a star, Sam Walsh is a gun and Harry McKay booted six, against no less than Harris Andrews.
But they don’t perform as a team. There are too many players who seem to think their job is waiting for others to do theirs.
Brisbane will be happy with the win, but injuries soured the victory and Lachie Neale will come under review for touching an umpire.
It was a pretty innocuous incident; Neale was bleeding and was drawing attention to the fact and questioning how he got it.
Common sense would suggest he should just get a warning, meaning he’ll probably get rubbed out for the season by the AFL Tribunal.
Melbourne (82) v Richmond (48)
Something strange is happening at Melbourne. The one iron law of the Demons for many decades is no matter what, they will eventually stuff things up.
But that’s not happening this year, and while it’s early, and who knows where it will end up, for the first time in my life, I feel this team will write their own script, free from the ghosts of the past.
This just feels new. The opening barrage from Richmond was the sort that would see previous Demons teams wilt and give up six or so goals.
But this team didn’t.
When they were falling behind early, individuals would normally try to do flashy things to try and get the team back into it.
But they didn’t, they just worked hard as a team, sticking to what has worked for them this year.
The Tigers had moments of skill, but Melbourne didn’t let them play like they wanted to.
I’ve never seen a Demons side just control a game so much, just preventing their opponents from doing what they wanted by outworking them across the field.
A big reason was Melbourne’s defence which is stingier than that one friend everyone has when it’s their turn in a shout.
Nathan Jones, in his 300th game, deserved nothing less than this result, and for Dees fans, well aware things don’t always go to plan, at least feel the future now has multiple options, not just the dead ends of the past.
Collingwood (85) v Essendon (109)
Losing the ANZAC Day clash is another thing the Collingwood board can tick of their highly successful ‘Frustrate our own fans’ strategy.
As so often is the case, the Pies tried but are simply not good enough to kick a winning score regularly.
Collingwood now sits 17th on the ladder and have to be thankful North Melbourne exist.
The Pies backline will have nightmares about Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who destroyed them with five goals and intense pressure all game.
The real stand out for Essendon though was Darcy Parish who used the MCG as his own personal canvas to paint a true work of art.
His 42 disposals, nine clearances, two goals and nine score involvements were a thing of beauty, a pinnacle of the craft.
Even against Collingwood, it was very impressive.
Port Adelaide (93) v St Kilda (39)
Injuries, a lack of ability and an intense shortage of effort have turned the Saints season into a normal Saints season.
There’s not much to review here, there was a really good side and there was St Kilda.
At no point did the Power look anything but in control, it more seemed they were just deciding whether to put in enough effort to win or to really, really win.
For long stretches of the game, I forgot the Saints even had a forward fifty.
Port are travelling along very nicely, perfectly positioned for this point of the season and flying under the radar for the majority of the slightly Melbourne-centric footy media.
Nothing was sadder than talking to a Saints supporter this morning who said of the season, ‘unfortunately, I’m built for this nonsense.’
