Melbourne suffered yet another loss in round three of the AFL premiership season, which will see them go into round four with an 0-3 record. While there has been talk about what Melbourne should do in order to secure their first win, former St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt has two main issues he believes the Demons need to tackle.
“Their outside spread is a concern and they know their defensive personnel is an issue, that’s why they’ve gone out and recruited Jake Lever and Steven May so when you’ve got Oscar McDonald and Sam Frost as your two key defensive pillars, at the moment they’re not getting the job done on their direct opponent or in space.” Riewoldt told SEN Breakfast.
With both Steven May and Jake Lever sidelined with injury, Riewoldt believes Melbourne’s defensive structures are at the root of their issues.
Equally concerned, Garry Lyon highlights the struggles faced by players, Sam Frost in particular.
“Sam Frost and Oscar McDonald are either trying to play a zone defence and Frost particularly doesn’t have the capacity to work out when to go and when to stay, so those first three goals Essendon kicked, if you’re at the ground you just saw Frost go to the wrong person,” he said.
“You just saw McDonald go to the wrong person as well and that’s not going to change because May and Lever are out for a while.”
To add to his concern, Riewoldt also questions the sides’ midfield stoppage work and their inability to stop their opposition from scoring.
“So we sat there on Friday night, and you can talk about stats and you can look at inside 50s, but when they played the Cats they had 20 more inside 50s and they couldn’t score,” he said.
“When you really break down the stats, they were outscored by 40 points at stoppages which suggests that when they win it, they’re very good, but when it got outside the stoppage and lost the stoppage, they were absolutely smashed.
“They’re bees to the honey pot at stoppages and they really lack spread on the outside.”
If Melbourne wishes to take hold of their first win this season, they’ll need to address these issues and come out firing as they travel to the SCG where they will face Sydney this Thursday night.
