by At times during the summer, it looked like Clayton Oliver would play football for Melbourne again. “I think everyone had their doubts,” Simon Goodwin said on Sunday. “I think even Clayton had his doubts.”
The unwillingness or inability of his club to be aware of what was happening, and to speak in normal sentences, only made the situation worse. Every time they used the word ‘culture’ – and sometimes they used it four times in one sentence – suspicion grew and the situation worsened.
He congratulated his teammates. They still asked him. They continued to obey him. They used all the right language – ‘we hope he’s in a good space’, ‘we just want the best version of Clarie’ – but they said it through increasingly gritted teeth.
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That story changed in recent weeks, and it was driven mainly by players. Last week, Christian Petracca spoke highly of how Oliver has won back the trust of his teammates. It featured in round one of the Demons’ clash with the Western Bulldogs.
There were some excellent individual performances in round one – Isaac Heeney on Friday night, Jesse Hogan in western Sydney, and Patrick Dangerfield in Geelong. But it could be argued that Oliver surpassed them all.
Oliver hunted, fought, cleaned, created and avoided trouble. He didn’t stop moving all afternoon. He finished with 35 touches, despite spending at least a quarter of the game on the bench.
Every club has troubled souls and difficult men to manage. But few have won four club champion awards under the age of 25. Few people are as important to the overall success of their club as Oliver.
There are very good judges – those who watch Melbourne every week, those who watched when they were untouchable, and when they weren’t too bad – who think Oliver is the t -the best Melbourne player they’ve seen.
There is nothing elegant or complex about how Oliver plays. He keeps getting the ball. He has a great work rate. He is one of those footballers who seem to run on batteries.
The Demons struggled with the soapy ball and pressure of Sydney in ‘Open Round’. But they had conditions that suited this time. The weather was for building sandcastles but the MCG, on the back of three games in a row and two Taylor Swift concerts, was perfect for the pool table.
The Déise joined in to Metallica’s wah-wah pedals and tom-tom drums Enter Sandman. They play the metal lullaby at Virginia Tech College football games, which, it must be said, draws a different demographic to the MCC Member Reserve.
Melbourne were a bit sleepy early on but with Oliver, Petracca, Steven May and captain Max Gawn completely dominant, they gradually took control. They moved the ball in straight lines last week and didn’t give their forwards any chances. They were smarter, cleaner and far less inflexible against the Bulldogs.
The heat will come for the Dogs. This is the third year in a row that they have left their opening game in Melbourne, and the previous two years were a sign of things to come. It can be tempting to read too much into round one, especially as the AFL draws closer to the summer games, and it would be foolish to write them off in the third week of March.
Both of their delegates were great. Harvey Gallagher netted a smart goal, his first at AFL level, and Ryley Sanders did well himself. But they continue to frustrate and coach Luke Beveridge is getting worse and worse.
The Bulldogs wasted too many easy opportunities in the second half. They’ve always been a team that relies on high energy, total buy-in, and when even that diminishes, they look ordinary. Melbourne exposed them and repeatedly left them flat-footed on turnovers.
On a completely different note, what on earth is going on with the AFL’s goal of guaranteeing brotherhood? Across Australia, they seem completely spooked after last year’s Adelaide Oval error. Over four days of football, they were second-guessing, reviewing decisions and wasting time on the most obvious calls.
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But this was all about Melbourne and Oliver. Since they were in the Premiership, the challenges have come from all sorts of places – from disgruntled former club presidents, tabloid hit pieces, Ballymore Peninsula rumours, door stoppers, drug testers, breathalysers. The club was not always sure of its messages. ‘Everyone is out to get us’. ‘Everything is fine’. ‘We are united’. ‘We are connected’. ‘Don’t let us say ‘culture’ again’.
You suspect they just wanted the football to start, get back to the MCG and Oliver healthy again. That’s why the Melbourne faithful gave him a permanent ovation. For the Dogs, it was the death of 35 of Oliver’s cuts. One was reminded of Arthur Ashe when describing a young John McEnroe. “It’s a slice here, a nickname there, a cut over here. You’ll all be bleeding soon.” That was the Dog’s lot. Imagine the amount of damage Oliver will do when he’s fully fit.
