Who’s the boss? Still the Dees

MELBOURNE have reminded their challengers who the kings of the AFL jungle are after a blistering first half propelled them to a comfortable 38-point victory over St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday.

On a weekend when Fremantle and Brisbane might’ve fancied themselves as premiership contenders with crushing victories, the Demons extended their winning streak to 15 games.

And if the improved Saints viewed themselves as heavyweights g following their surprisingly strong start to the year, the 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.

To St Kilda’s credit, they responded well in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 22 points, but Melbourne found another gear and flexed their premiership muscle to burst clear again in the final quarter.

Boosted by the returns 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 an elbow to the chest in the final quarter.

Melbourne thumped St Kilda for contested possessions (149-128) and finished with more disposals (390-361), inside 50s (55-44), scoring shots (23-15) and centre clearances (15-11).

St Kilda couldn’t 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.