Dees strike hard early
Reigning champs flex muscles
MELBOURNE has reminded its would-be challengers who the kings of the AFL jungle are after a blistering first half propelled it to a comfortable 38point victory against St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday.
On a weekend when Fremantle and Brisbane might have fancied themselves as premiership contenders with crushing victories against vastly inferior opposition, the Demons said, ‘Not so fast, fellas’, as they extended their winning streak to 15 games.
And if the improved Saints viewed themselves as heavyweights following their surprisingly strong start to the year, the reigning premiers brought them back to earth, kicking nine of the first 10 goals before running out 14.9 (93) to 8.7 (55) winners, and yanking back top spot from the Dockers in the process.
To St Kilda’s credit, it responded well in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 22 points, but Melbourne, as it so often does, found another gear and flexed its premiership muscles to burst clear again in the final quarter.
Boosted by the return of premiership stars Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Harrison Petty, Alex Neal-Bullen and Tom Sparrow, as well as coach Simon Goodwin, from Covid protocols, Melbourne never looked seriously threatened by the Saints who were smacked in the mouth early and struggled to get within range of the Demons from then on.
Compounding the result for the Saints was Zak Jones, in his first game back for the year, being reported for striking Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver with a sharp elbow to the chest in the final quarter.
Melbourne thumped St Kilda for contested possessions (149-128) and had more disposals (390-361), inside-50s (55-44), scoring shots (23-15) and centre clearances (15-11).
DEES BURST OUT OF THE BLOCKS
St Kilda could not penetrate Melbourne’s great wall of May-Lever-Petty in the first quarter and the Saints’ slow ball movement made life easy for the Demons’ premiership key defensive troika.
St Kilda was forced to play an unnatural style, chipping the ball around, while Melbourne outworked the Saints and transitioned the ball from defence superbly.
STAR DEMON QUARTET TAKES OVER
Things got even worse for the shellshocked Saints in the second quarter as Melbourne’s pressure completely overwhelmed them, with the margin blowing out to 47 points.
Angus Brayshaw, Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca and Ed Langdon combined for 82 first-half disposals and finished with a whopping 144 disposals between them.
BRIEF RESPITE
St Kilda changed things up by getting the ball forward quicker and counterpunching aggressively from half-back.
Its pressure went through the roof and it got on top in contested possessions, to get within 22 points. But the damage had already been done and goals from Ben Brown and Bayley Fritsch either side of three-quarter time put the result beyond doubt.