Caretaker Melbourne coach Neil Craig admits the club will continue to be ridiculed until they reach a competitive standard, as they slumped to their 11th loss in 12 AFL matches this season.
Craig, who stepped into the Demons’ hot seat ahead of their 35-point loss to St Kilda on Saturday after Mark Neeld was sacked during the week, was blunt in his post-match assessment that Melbourne were currently playing “non-competitive football”.
But while confident that will change after the groundwork laid by Neeld and a playing group he says he has complete faith in, the former Adelaide coach saw little on-field in the 16.8 (104) to 10.9 (69) defeat at the MCG that he liked in his return to senior coaching.
St Kilda, a club itself thrown into turmoil by rape charges against forward Stephen Milne, kicked three goals in the opening four minutes of the match and were never seriously threatened from then on.
They slaughtered the Dees in midfield – Leigh Montagna dominant for the Saints with 35 possessions, with good support from Farren Ray and Jack Steven.
Saints skipper Nick Riewoldt, who along with Nick Dal Santo was playing his 250th AFL match, booted three goals.
Dal Santo finished with 28 touches.
The Saints led by 29 points at halftime, and had extended that margin to 49 by three-quarter-time.
While the Demons booted three goals to one in the final term, the game was well and truly over by that stage.
“This club will continue to be ridiculed, continue to be made fun of, continue to be belittled until we improve our performances,” Craig said.
“I personally don’t like it, but that’s what we’ve got.
“We’ll accept the responsibility for our performances, and we’ll accept the responsibility to try and get out of it.
“Some of it (the ridicule) disappoints me to be honest. But that’s what we’ve got. We’ve created it. We need to get out of it.”
St Kilda coach Scott Watters admitted he wasn’t sure before the match whether his side’s testing week – in which Milne was given indefinite leave from playing as he prepares to appear in court on July 5 – would show on field.
“You’re never certain on that because it’s very, very difficult to measure,” Watters said.
“What I knew was they trained very well this week and certainly you could sense their commitment to making sure that our players playing a milestone game were respected … so that was a really good focus for us pre-game.”
Souring Melbourne’s day further was ruckman Jake Spencer being reported for crashing into the head of Saints counterpart Ben McEvoy – a collision which forced the St Kilda player to be substituted.
But Saints defender Tom Simpkin will also find himself in trouble.
His behind-play left hook to the jaw of Melbourne’s Chris Dawes just prior to halftime sent Dawes sprawling to the ground.
While it was missed by the umpires, television replays picked it up clearly and the match review panel will certainly investigate on Monday.