NOT TOUGH enough. Not able to defend well enough. Forced away from its brand.
That's the short answer when it comes to Fremantle's 10-point loss to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, becoming the first team to fall to the Demons this year.
DEMONS v DOCKERS Full match coverage and stats
"Disappointed with the way we played, didn't think we were tough enough, felt like (we) didn't value the right things. Didn't defend our front half the way we wanted to defend out front half," Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir said post-match.
"What did they have, over 70 points at half-time? That's not the team we want to be."
By the main break, Melbourne had kicked 12.2 (74) to equal its highest score of the season with two quarters to play, and it was off the back of a strong, but calm presence around the contest and the ability to turn that hard ball into genuine attack with speed.
Melbourne won the centre clearance count 20-11, and the contested possession could 134-116, giving it first use and leaving the Dockers chasing their tails.
"They were able just to find their teammates, get to the outside of us, and yeah, we didn't handle that," Longmuir said.
"There's a few different parts of the game, (we) couldn't get anything going with our ball movement earlier off slow play, we got forced long down the line a lot, and then we couldn't win one of those long down the lines."
Kysaiah Pickett proved to be a handful for the Dockers, as he started at centre bounce and spun forward, often confusing the Dockers' defenders in the handover and providing the star Demon with acres of space.
It was a role initially earmarked for small defender Heath Chapman, but with Chapman a late out due to illness, a rotating roster of Dockers had to step in. None of those were able to shut down the attack and class of Pickett, resulting in his five goals.
"He starts in the centre bounce and then flips forward. At times we got that handover right, at times we saw that through the right way, at times we didn't," Longmuir said.
"But I just think a lot of his goals that I can think of came from him winning contests of getting goalside of his opponent … he's a good player obviously, and we need to get better at handling those flips out of the midfield."
For Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin, the skill and class to score so heavily was great, but it was a by-product of what his side was able to do without the ball.
The Demons were relentless in their pressure and desire to worry Fremantle's ball carriers. Ultimately, they won the tackle count 59-46, and crucially, laid 27 tackles inside 50 to Fremantle's four.
"Today we sort of started to see what we've been working on … clearly people will talk about the scoring side of it, which is one element, but it's more what we did without the ball today," Goodwin said.
"I thought our pressure, our tackling, our ability to lock the ball in, I thought our forwards competed incredibly well, and our backs, a little bit undermanned in terms of personnel and height, stood up for us, and I thought it was just a great team performance."
The choice to play Harrison Petty up forward, despite being without both Steven May (groin) and Jake Lever (ankle) was a high-risk, high-reward option. Thankfully for the Demons, the latter was true, as Petty became a reliable focal point ahead of the ball, and the likes of Tom McDonald, Trent Rivers, and Daniel Turner competed well in defence, with the latter being subbed out at half-time due to concussion.
"We made a decision pretty early in the week that, based on what we saw with Petty last week in the second half, that we're going to play him forward and then we're just going to make it work behind the ball," Goodwin said.
Petty kicked four goals for the game, but was also important in bringing Melbourne's small forwards into the game and creating that ground-level chaos upon which the side thrived.
The new-look forward line, after both Bayley Fristch and Jacob van Rooyen were dropped from the side, worked effectively as the Demons kicked their highest score of the year.
"The art of coaching is to get them back into form, get them seeing what's important to the game, and get them delivering it, and that's what we're going to do over the next few weeks," Goodwin said.
He also confirmed that Turner had entered concussion protocols, so will miss the Anzac Day Eve clash against Richmond, while Docker Jaeger O'Meara tweaked his hamstring and will be assessed for its severity during the week.
