Demons’ defence soaks up pressure together
AFL: It is five hours since Neville Jetta put Luke Breust to sleep, but the only problem is he can’t do it for himself.
It was 3.30am last Sunday and Jetta’s mind was moving just as fast as his feet did on the MCG in Melbourne’s dramatic semi-final win over Hawthorn.
“You’re going through in your head all the things you could have done better and the moments you want to take back, and you can overthink it,” Jetta told the Herald Sun.
“You’re sitting there, not tired, just thinking and trying to shut down. But I’ve got a lot better at that – early in my career I wasn’t able to sleep at all.”
Such is Jetta’s form he should be sleeping like a baby.
The tenacious small defender, one of seven Demons to play every game this year, has been a dependable rock in coach Simon Goodwin’s settled back six.
Jetta has consistently stood up under pressure in the big moments, and there is no bigger moment than this afternoon at a raucous Perth Stadium against a West Coast small-forward fleet that poses a constant threat.
“I think it’s more the concentration,” Jetta said of the challenges of playing as a small defender at the top level.
“As a defender sometimes you have to go to a contest ... a couple of times on the weekend (Jordan) Lewis covered for me and (Michael) Hibberd and (Christian) Salem and that’s the trust I have in my teammates – that if I have to go, these blokes will cover for me.
“Even Jack Viney, Nathan Jones and Gawny (Max Gawn) slide back to help.”
With Liam Ryan, Willie Rioli, Jamie Cripps and Mark LeCras capable of igniting West Coast and their fervent crowd at any moment, Jetta and Co can’t switch off for a second.
“You don’t want to give these blokes any space,” Jetta said. “You want to make sure there’s body contact on them when they’re going to the drop of the ball. You can’t allow them to fly.
“We know Oscar (McDonald) and Frosty (Sam Frost) have got pretty big jobs (Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling) in front of them so we’re going to help them out as much as possible.
“We’ve got Michael Hibberd, who is a good one-on-one player, Bailey Fritsch is composed, Christian Salem is as hard as anything and Jordan Lewis is really marshalling us. That’s confidence.
“We knew as a back six we’ve played a lot of footy together and we’ve been building this year. We will back ourselves again.”