Stinear’s Dee-light as Dees clip Crows for epic upset

IT WAS hard to wipe the smile off Melbourne coach Mick Stinear’s face last night after his side pulled off one of the upsets of the season and held off a determined, but inaccurate Adelaide side to win by two points.

Reflecting post-match, he said that he was “really pleased with how the group started”.

“It’s never easy to come over. We haven’t had too many wins over here in nine seasons,” Stinear said.

“Really pleased with the group for how we started the game. We felt we had some good looks early, and then I know Adelaide missed some opportunities throughout the game, but the ferocity of the team and the way we’re able to compete right to the end, I thought they deserve the win.”

Stinear also agreed that it was one of his proudest moments as coach, noting that “I think the Essendon game, it probably really hit home to us”.

“We were trying to play a game style that didn’t suit the group,” he said. “Like our group had changed a lot, and so some really good open and honest discussion, just changed a few little things that suits the current group that we’ve got and just stripping it back and to come here tonight, we just wanted to compete and we felt the group did that tonight.”

Melbourne got off to a really good start to the game, which has been a struggle for it for much of the 2024 season so far.

“I think it has been a challenging start to the season,” Stinear said.

“But it’s Kate (Hore) and Sinead (Goldrick) having their milestone games. “They mean a lot to the group. We came over yesterday, we’ve had a bit of time together and I think the group has sort of let go of any expectations and just going out there to compete and give it our best as a team. “I thought I did that tonight and on the right side of the scoreboard at the end.”

Stinear also said Melbourne had to continue to be in-sync and bring the non-negotiables.

“I think it just shows if you compete at the level required, you play for each other, bring the right amount of pressure, you can put yourself in any game,” he said.

“And obviously your ability to convert in front of goal and connect and take a few more moments on offense will help. But if the team plays like that for the rest of the year, they’re going to be in every single game.

“We didn’t quite get that consistently in that first month of footy, but hopefully that’s something we can keep building, and as some of our players return from injury over the next month, we can just keep continuing to build and evolve.”

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