JAKE Melksham has kicked off the countdown to Big Freeze 11 by getting into the icy spirit, taking a trip to visit the penguins.
Melksham joined FightMND and Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom this morning at the Melbourne Aquarium as part of the Big Freeze activities, six days out from the blockbuster match.
The club is preparing for one of its largest King’s Birthday games to date, celebrating 11 years of support for FightMND and Neale Daniher.
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With the match now a fully ticketed event, the club is encouraging fans and members to make sure they get to the ‘G on Monday to help break a King’s Birthday record of 85,000 and show their support for the man behind the cause.
“It’s a day on the calendar that we mark pretty early on,” Melksham told media.
“It’s always really special to represent the club during this week.
“Neale comes and visits the club every year and he always has some words of wisdom, you’ve never seen a group of people so captivated and glued to one person with some of the wisdom Neale comes up with.
“We always leave those meetings feeling like we’re ready to get out there and play.”
The Dees have won five of their last seven games, with the hope to add a sixth win over the in-form Pies on Monday.
Despite coming off a disappointing loss to St Kilda, Melksham is confident the team can challenge the ladder leaders.
“We started to get our identity in our game back on track, but obviously on the weekend it was disappointing,” Melksham said.
“We were wayward in front of goals, so that’s something we’re going to be working really hard on this week.
“This week, it’s a big game in front of a lot of fans, we’ll be absolutely putting our best foot forward.”
Sunday’s loss to the Saints was in part because of inaccuracy in front of goals, the Dees' scoreline reading 7.21 (63) at the end of the four quarters.
While a concerning conversion statistic, Melksham assured the Demon Faithful that work is being done behind the scenes.
“We’re not going to change to much this week,” Melksham said.
“We do a lot of goal-kicking, [Mark] Williams is our goal-kicking coach and if you’ve met him, you’d know he’s the most passionate man in the world.
“He’ll make sure that we’re getting the right amount of shots in and that we’ll be well prepared.”
Monday’s Big Freeze event will start with the annual Zurich Walk to the ‘G at Federation Square from 10am, before the much-loved Big Freeze slide returns ahead of the first bounce at 3:20pm.
Find out more info about game day and timings, click here.
