We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Some teams form themselves in the image of their coach. Craig McRae has moulded his Collingwood team to play almost as a reflection of his personality and philosophy.Best porn XXX. Some teams form themselves in the image of their star player – Wayne Carey’s North Melbourne was probably the best example. Some teams find their image crafted by one to resemble the other. That is Essendon now. Zach Merrett has long been Essendon’s best player and latterly their captain. But he played his game and Essendon played their game and while the two found a connection it was not his team; it did not resemble him. They do now. Essendon skipper Zach Merrett leads his team onto Perth Stadium on Saturday night.Credit: AFL Photos Brad Scott’s arrival as coach has teased out more in Merrett’s game the more that Scott has been able to put his fingerprints on the wider Essendon. Scott has gradually developed a team and a style that is best expressed through his captain. Merrett’s tireless work ethic was previously what made him stand out at the Bombers. Now it is the bar others are reaching. His defensive pressure is starting to more regularly filter into the games of others. Scott’s preferred game suits Merrett’s style of hard work, energy and skill. It is a style that is complemented by Sam Durham. Durham is a good player and a very clever pick-up, but he is also the right player at the right time. The Bombers needed a player of his size and athleticism who relished the elements of the game that Durham does. He is a player who fits with Merrett’s style of midfield and why Essendon look better. Merrett’s game isn’t just energy. His intelligence and skill was the difference between Essendon winning a game and keeping not just finals but even top four alive. Tom McDonald was critical to Melbourne’s premiership win in 2021 after his late-career move to centre half-forward. If Melbourne were to win the flag this year, or even seriously contend, McDonald could be just as critical a player, only this time back in defence. McDonald looked done at the end of last year. Clunky and robotic, he could no longer straighten up the team that has had the worst connection between midfield and forwards of any contender. Tom McDonald and Max Gawn celebrate the Demons’ win over Geelong.Credit: AFL Photos He could not take grabs nor bring the ball to ground to create chaos for the small forwards, and with the ball bouncing out of Melbourne’s forward line, Simon Goodwin made his preferences clear: Melbourne’s attack would be built around Harrison Petty and the callow Jacob van Rooyen, in whom games and patience would be invested. So McDonald and Ben Brown, the double act of three years ago and who have both struggled in recent years, were forced to find new roles. McDonald found his. It’s back where he began – behind the ball. His move has had a profound effect on how Melbourne are now squeezing teams defensively. Most importantly, he has released Jake Lever to play the type of offensive role that suits him best. When one out and made to be accountable, Lever is prone to brain fades. When he is released to take the ball as his first cue and not an opponent, he is far more damaging. He is back to flying for balls to intercept mark, which has made him and consequently Melbourne better and more attacking. This has been enabled by McDonald, who has been able to play the closer checking role on the bigger forwards. He wasn’t Melbourne’s best player on Saturday night, but they wouldn’t have beaten Geelong without him. He was often on Cats star Jeremy Cameron and had the run and endurance to stay with him as well as the strength in the air to compete. A player who months ago looked done kept the game’s most dangerous forward under relative control. True, Cameron helped McDonald in this with his two shockers in front of goal in the last quarter. If Cameron had kicked those, the conversation around his, and therefore McDonald’s, influence would probably be quite different. But he didn’t. Cameron’s second shot in particular, that almost missed his boot and went sideways, was just bizarre from one of the most reliable set shots for goal. Then again, Melbourne in this game well knew the pain of wasted goalkicking. They could have put the game to bed much earlier but for their wayward kicking, which was on par with Port Adelaide’s on Thursday night – awful. At the other end, Petty played the best game of his career. The big pack marks he took in the last quarter were vital. It was the sort of performance Melbourne have been craving. It was a reminder what difference a fit Petty might have made in last year’s finals. Petty’s – and a couple from Max Gawn – were the marks the Demons had been flying for and missing for most of the match. Melbourne had persisted with a method of attack that ended in long kicks to outnumbered forwards and hoping that eventually one of the talls would mark it. Against Geelong, with Tom Stewart and Zach Guthrie spoiling and marking, it was rarely a successful strategy. Melbourne look different and better for McDonald moving back – and the addition of a couple of players. The off-season trading into the draft’s top 10 with Caleb Windsor in mind was clever targeting of a player who complemented perfectly what they already had. After Harley Reid, Windsor is performing as well as any first-year draftee. He stood against Cameron on the wing in periods on Saturday night and was not bowed by it. The impact of Shane McAdam could be interesting in the second half of the year in reshaping the look of the Demons’ attack. The game was eventually settled by Bayley Fritsch’s intelligent wrong-footing of Jack Henry on the boundary and then a clever dribble goal in the same pocket in which Nick Daicos kicked the winner against Carlton a night earlier. Both games were decided in one sense by a kick – just a goal – and in another sense by kicks of such rare skill and in such critical moments they deserved to win a game. Yet again, Tom Hawkins went goalless. That’s four games in a row. Yes, Melbourne had strangled Geelong defensively through the middle of the ground and made it difficult for them to score. But with each barren week, he looks more vulnerable and less threatening. What he had made look easy now looks hard for him. He is not “done”, he will still have good games; it was only a month ago he kicked four goals, two games in a row. But this is the period all players in their autumn years go through – the gaps between the good games and the bad widen and the things they did without thinking now require thought. Harley Reid with back-to-back don’t-argues against the Bombers.Credit: Fox Footy West Coast, in contrast, are adopting more of the Carey style of team building. Their team is already evolving onto one built around the man-child Harley Reid. Reid was five when Dustin Martin made his senior debut. His entire football life has been informed by Dusty. For as long as he has been old enough to be aware of AFL football, Martin has been there and in the most part been one of the best players for that time. It makes sense that given his build and power, Reid would develop his game in the mould of the player of his generation. This is not a new observation about Reid, but rather an appreciation after his double “don’t-argue” in the one piece of play against Essendon. In that passage of play we saw just how close that playing resemblance is. The ageing Martin now is struggling to do what his understudy is doing twice in one piece of play. Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter. Copyright © 2024
