DEESTROYED, DEEMORALISED, DEEJA VU
Cats crushed in devastating Demons blitz
There was an all-too-familiar feeling as the Cats crashed out of their fifth preliminary final in a decade after an 83-point smashing by the Demons in Perth last night.
IT’S really happening.
The longest current AFL/VFL premiership drought is on the brink of coming to an end.
Melbourne has just one last hurdle to navigate before it can hold aloft its first cup in 57 years after it demolished Geelong by 83 points in the preliminary final at Perth Stadium on Friday night, winning 19.11 (125) to 6.6 (42).
The last obstacle looms large though, a grand final against Port Adelaide or the Western Bulldogs, also in Perth, on Saturday, September 25.
The Demons’ only concern is the fitness of key defender Steven May, who was subbed out in the third term with a hamstring injury.
Melbourne great Garry Lyon lauded the five-goal game of heroic captain Max Gawn and the Demons’ dominant onball brigade of Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney.
“You shouldn't have a 211cm ruckman running out of the centre and banging them through from 50m,” Lyon told Fox Footy. “That’s as good as I’ve seen a Melbourne team play ever. They didn’t have a passenger.”
While Covid has forced the season decider away from the MCG, again, and has also stopped most Victorian-based Melbourne fans and members from enjoying the emotional ride with their team, the Demons are well supported in WA.
They cheered each time cult hero Gawn went near the ball.
“It was a very nerve-racking couple of weeks … but I’m ecstatic for this group, I’m ecstatic for the supporters back in Melbourne who are doing it tough,” Gawn said after the game.
The crowd of 58,599 was clearly biased to the red and the blue.
BIG LESSONS LEARNT
WHEN the Demons won their 12th and last flag, in 1964, the entire current squad was far from being even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes.
When they last played in a grand final, a 60-point loss to Essendon in 2000, Jake Bowey, Luke Jackson, Trent Rivers, Kysaiah Pickett and James Jordon, of the current crop, still weren’t born. Clayton Oliver was only three, and of the oldest Demons players on the ground on Friday night, Michael Hibberd was just 10 and Max Gawn was eight.
There isn’t much finals experience among the Demons squad, but they seem to have learned from what little they have had. There were 12 players returning to the scene of their embarrassing preliminary final loss to West Coast in 2018, when they failed to kick one goal in the first half.
Those Demons have three years more experience under their belts and it shows.
The additions of May, Ed Langdon, Jake Lever and Ben Brown, from other clubs, hasn’t hurt either.
They had nine goals on the board by halftime against the Cats, with eight different goal scorers and they led by 29 points at the main break.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
THE age of Geelong’s playing group was a big concern in the game’s lead-up. It’s going to be an even bigger talking point over the coming off-season.
The Cats have brought in Jeremy Cameron and Isaac Smith, who have made them a more potent team, but at what cost in the long term?
Joel Selwood, Mitch Duncan, Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie all played in Geelong’s last premiership in 2011.
The Cats had 16 left from last year’s grand final loss to Richmond, where they were run over in the final term.
In round 23 of this season, after leading Melbourne by seven goals during the third term, the Cats completely lost momentum and then the game, courtesy of a Gawn goal after the siren.
Including Friday night’s sub, Shaun Higgins, the Cats had 11 players aged 30 years or more. Melbourne had one, Hibberd. That gap in youthfulness and lack of leg speed never looked more obvious than in the third quarter on Friday when the Demons kicked seven consecutive goals in 16 minutes to open up a matchwinning 71point lead.
Gawn booted four of his career-best five goals in that time.