Sign in the shop front says 'closed for repair'Michael Gleeson
May 3, 2011WHEN the final siren sounded Melbourne was winning, but when the game finished they had lost. And thus they were not to be burdened by the inconvenience of four draft-damaging premiership points.
Jordan McMahon had received a pass from Richard Tambling as the siren sounded. McMahon went back and kicked the goal. Richmond won the game.
The moment was like that of McMahon's career as a Tiger - fans were ever conflicted about whether to love or loathe him. In assuring Richmond of victory he had also cost them. He had cost them an open choice of player. This game in 2009 was the game for the wooden spoon, the game that would either give Richmond the number one draft pick, or Melbourne an extra priority draft pick.
Melbourne got the extra pick and took Tom Scully and Jack Trengove with picks 1 and 2. It is moot who Richmond might have chosen had they had first pick but the fact is they got Dustin Martin and he is a bona fide star in the making.
Club lists often evolve into a tandem race and Richmond and Melbourne have been on the same J-Curve.
St Kilda and Geelong also emerged at a similar time and became rivals. Hawthorn and Collingwood both bottomed out in 2005. Both won flags two years apart. Melbourne and Richmond are presently manacled the same way.
Despite draft picks - and the not insignificant fact that Scully has not yet played this year, James Frawley has been injured and Trengove's pre-season has been interrupted - Richmond looks more even and unified.
At the start of the year Melbourne breakfasted with the media and declared the time had come for the focus to shift. No longer was the club about debt and facilities, now the team was to be the shop front. At the weekend West Coast drove a truck through the shop front. These are problems of Melbourne's making.
Jim Stynes observed on weekend radio that Brad Green was battling to deal with the leadership this year. Green was only leading the team because the club sacked the captain. James McDonald was not Jonathan Brown and likely to carry the side on his back over the line to victory, but he had a respect and gravitas in the group that was rattled by his cack-handed sacking.
Compare McDonald's sacking to Essendon's handling of Dustin Fletcher. Fletcher is not a captain of his club, yet he is a respected figure, in his twilight and acknowledged to still deliver enormous benefit to the young team of emerging key defenders. He has been considered important to their development not an incumbrance to it.
Green yesterday said the only thing he could in reply to his president's comments.
"I haven't spoken to Jim. That's Jim's opinion. We as a club are trying to get through this all as one and we're trying to move on and look forward to it."
Melbourne has a draw that others would envy this year for they confront both Port Adelaide and Gold Coast twice.
Part of the development process at Melbourne is about getting ''games into players''. There is merit in this for players are undoubtedly better after 30 to 50 games and better again after 100. But there is also a danger of giving players cheap games, for it can foster bad habits and removes the crucial value placed on earning a game.
At Richmond improvement has partly come from players such as Robin Nahas and Jake King playing in the belief that each game could be their last: J curves soon become W's.
Football analyst and former player Mark Maclure observed yesterday that another month of West Coast-like performances would end Dean Bailey's time at Melbourne. In that month they play Adelaide in Melbourne, North Melbourne, St Kilda and Carlton. They will not win all of those games, they may not win any, but they can't be as insipid as they were on Thursday night.
There is a sign in the window of the shop saying ''closed for repair''. How soon they re-open and what they will sell is the issue.
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