Clayton Oliver has actually confessed he was “a bit psychological” after producing a sensational efficiency to influence Melbourne to their very first win of the AFL season versus the Western Bulldogs on Sunday. The super star midfielder looked anything however a gamer who missed out on big parts of the pre-season, while handling a host of individual concerns that date as far back as in 2015. The 26-year-old was all over as he acquired a shocking 21 first-half disposals on his method to 35, one of the most of any gamer on the ground. Stream analysis, regional footy and the most significant minutes totally free on 7plus With the margin ballooning out to 45 points, Oliver invested the last couple of minutes on the bench. He left the field to a standing ovation from the Demons faithful and got a warm hug from coach Simon Goodwin. Oliver was dominant versus the Bulldogs. Credit: AAP “I was a bit psychological in fact, got chills down my spinal column,” Oliver stated after the match. “We like the Melbourne faithful, they’re constantly behind us every action of the method, so we like that. “It’s been a hard number of months (however) I’ve had (Max) Gawny and the rest of the young boys assisting me out. It’s all worth it at the end of the day, coming here and doing this and getting wins for the kids.” Oliver understands he still has plenty of work to do. “I’ve still got a great deal of work to do. There are little actions along the method however here is among them, keep being a much better individual, a much better colleague, simply keep aiming every day,” he included. Oliver had an injury-riddled season in 2023 however played listed below his finest even when fit, with duplicated concerns over his absence of professionalism and bad off-field behaviour fixed him. He was then the topic of extreme trade speculation at the end of the season before he and the club re-committed to his beast seven-year agreement. That was the least of his concerns throughout a rough off-season, which spiraled out of control when he invested time in health center following a seizure that resulted in a head injury. Oliver later on left Melbourne’s pre-season camp early to handle individual concerns, and withdrew entirely from the program weeks later on for the very same factor. He re-joined the club in late January and extremely did enough to make an area in the club’s Opening Round clash versus Sydney. And while he was rather rusty recently, Oliver was back to his dazzling finest versus the Bulldogs. He was well-supported by Christian Petracca (29 disposals), while skipper Max Gawn (35 hitouts, 8 clearances, 26 disposals) won an interesting fight with ruling All-Australian ruckman Tim English. Melbourne’s often-dysfunctional forward line looked unsafe with Kade Chandler (3 objectives), Jacob van Rooyen (3), Ben Brown (2), Kysaiah Pickett (2), and Alex Neal-Bullen (2) breaking in. The Demons (1-1) play Hawthorn (0-1) at the MCG next Saturday while the Bulldogs (0-1) head to Ballarat to play Gold Coast (2-0) on Sunday. – With AAP