Melbourne defender Steven May has shut down suggestions that his side are playing a “selfish” brand of football, despite their recent form slump.
The Demons have won just one game from their last five outings and sit 11th on the ladder with a 7-6 record coming off the bye.
The recent numbers concerned AFL great Matthew Lloyd, who is concerned that their form slump is based on their behaviour, not skill.
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“I think selfishness has crept in,” Lloyd said on Nine’s Footy Classified on Wednesday night.
“I thought on the King’s Birthday game, Bayley Fritsch (was playing selfishly).
“It’s filtering down to other players.”
Now, May has hit back at Lloyd’s suggestions.
“He’s entitled to his opinion, but I don’t think we’re a selfish footy club at all,” May said at the MCG on Thursday.
”We’re the ones out there in the meetings, going to training, trying to get better and be good teammates.
“I think we’re a team that cares so much, we’re a team that wants to win.
“Sometimes it may look selfish, but it’s not coming from a place of ‘look at me’, it’s coming from a place of ‘we want to win and be better’.”
May declared that he and his teammates have been undergoing “tough conversations” to force themselves to get back on track as September looms.
“You need to have those tough conversations. You need to take your shot, kick the goal when it’s your turn. If you kick those goals and we’re winning, then those comments don’t (happen),” he said.
But May can still admit his Demons aren’t the powerhouse they used to be.
“The only way you can really push the experts out of commenting on us is to win games and unfortunately we haven’t been,” he said.
“We’ve been a really strong defensive team, probably haven’t been at our best this year. We’re sort of losing our identity.”
Meantime, Melbourne is also grappling with the huge hole left by superstar midfielder Christian Petracca, who was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a plethora of terrifying internal injuries against Collingwood.
The 2021 premiership winner had surgery last week to repair four broken ribs, lacerations to the spleen and a punctured lung after an incident in the Demons’ 38-point loss to Collingwood in round 13.
May provided an update on the 2021 Norm Smith medallist, who isn’t allowed to do much as he recovers from surgery.
“He’s sending me those footy quizzes, because that’s how bored he is,” May said.
“He is a guy who is very active, but unfortunately his directions from the doctor is to rest at home, that’s not something he’s great at doing.
“He’s probably reaching boiling point.”
It begs the question of who will replace the star middle man, with May confirming some more responsibility has already been placed on their younger brigade.
“I don’t think you can replace Christian Petracca with anyone,” he said.
“I think we have some young guys like Tom Sparrow who can get some more midfield time, Kozzie Pickett can go through the midfield a bit more. Alex Neal-Bullen is starting to play a bit better as a midfielder.
“Once we get Clayton (Oliver) and Jack Viney going again (we will be back on our feet).”
The Demons face North Melbourne in round 15 at the MCG on Saturday night.