![]() Last year Melbourne asked the AFL to revisit the idea of a priority pick and was laughed out of the boardroom by the other presidents. It has improved in a range of areas – notwithstanding Sunday's game – but is still poor. So the incontrovertible fact is, Melbourne is still not a very good team. They are last in the league for scoring from both turnovers from the opposition and from clearances from stoppages. ![]() The Demons have struggled to find ways to score. They did score 16 behinds, so inaccuracy was part of the issue not just a matter of forward impotence. The Demons kicked just three goals on Sunday (the lowest goal tally in a game by any team since 2010) from the 45 times they went inside 50. Yes, that's right the team that defeated them by 10 goals in round 21. It is not a new phenomena – since 2012 the Demons have had 27 goalless quarters, just one fewer than GWS. The Demons have now had nine goalless quarters this year – the most of any team. The loss to GWS was Melbourne's seventh straight defeat but the side only one rung above it on the ladder was able to contain the Demons to two goalless quarters. That is the lowest average score over a season for any club for which Champion Data has records. Melbourne has kicked an average of less than 10 goals (59.5 points) per game this year. These are not matters of bumptious opinion the facts are compelling. This year they have, in the main, been better at stopping other sides opening them up and scoring heavily against them as had been the problem in the past.They have conceded lower scores in 2014 than in previous years – for the first time since 2010 opponents are averaging less than 100 points a game against Melbourne, but they just cannot kick goals. The Demons are better this year than they were in recent seasons, but still with improvement they might one day soon reach mediocrity.
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