Melbourne has celebrated its return to the finals with a comprehensive 29-point win over Geelong at the MCG.
Melbourne’s lead never dropped below 17 points after a monstrous opening term, in a game marred by inaccuracy.
The Demons didn’t put the Cats away until the last 10 minutes thanks to a stack of butchered shots at goal, but it turned out not to matter, as they outplayed the Cats all night.
The obligatory media knock on Melbourne pre-game was their lack of finals experience and their potential for a nervy start.
Despite Geelong’s glut of star midfielders, they have struggled at centre bounces this year, while Melbourne, on the back of now dual All Australian ruckman Max Gawn have been dominant.
Predictably, Melbourne smashed them inside, and soon found their groove.
Tom McDonald kicked the first goal of the game, but it was a younger prototype who stole the show.
Sam Weideman flew for everything, presented well, and tied up Geelong’s acclaimed key defenders.
Max Gawn made amends for his round one miss, nailing a similar set shot, and James Harmes also converted from close range.
Melbourne were unbelievable; with extraordinary pressure, and their trademark physicality and toughness raised a notch.
Jack Viney’s half time stats told the story: one kick and 12 handballs, and an astonishing nine tackles, but Melbourne had few standouts, statistical or otherwise – they were a well-functioning machine with 22 contributors.
Geelong had plenty of ball winners, but mostly in the back half and ineffective.
Weideman kicked his first goal, and then after Patrick Dangerfield was unlucky to be penalised in a marking contest, the Demons took it forward and Weideman kicked another with seconds left, capping a five goal to zero annihilation.
The second quarter didn’t look too much different than the first, but Melbourne didn’t kick a goal.
There were two Melbourne behinds, and then Alex Neal-Bullen missed a shot no AFL player ought to miss which would have put them 39 points up.
At last Tom Stewart found space in the centre square, and kicked long to Tim Kelly, who drew a free kick from Jordan Lewis, and put the Cats on the board.
Melbourne continued to own general play, although their ball movement was perhaps not quite as breathtaking and damaging, but either way, they still couldn’t find their way to goal.
Players like Sam Menegola and Mitch Duncan were finding plenty of the ball, but looked unsure of themselves.
Tom Hawkins kicked the only remaining major for the quarter, and the half time score was 5.9 (39) to 2.4 (16).
After spending roughly 10 per cent of the second quarter in their forward half, the Cats needed to give themselves more opportunities, and some early territory made all the difference.
Tom Hawkins got on the end of a neat pass from Dangerfield and kicking his second in a row, and Geelong’s third in a row to cut the margin to 17 points.
Jake Melksham steadied immediately after with a drought-breaking goal for the Demons, but now it was Geelong’s turn to miss a few opportunities, through Kelly and Dangerfield.
The worst came a few minutes later, with Daniel Menzel running straight to goal missing a sitter from 20 metres out under no pressure.
Tom Hawkins, whose two shots had been the only examples of convincing goalkicking for a long time marked inside 50 and lined up to bring the margin back to 15 points, but a scuffle 150 metres off the ball between Joel Selwood, Jake Melksham and James Harmes resulted in a Melbourne free kick.
Meanwhile Melbourne, no longer dominating the territory battle, continued to waste opportunities, through first Christian Salem, Dom Tyson, Christian Petracca and another from Alex Neal-Bullen; all four were kickable.
Angus Brayshaw was orchestrating all of these forward thrusts, and was absolutely everywhere, but their attacks were no longer going deep forward like they did in the first quarter.
Each side kicked 1.4 for the quarter, meaning a total of 4.16 since quarter-time.
Geelong’s big guns were trying hard, but the Cat standing up best was Jed Bews, who was unbeatable one on one, read the ball well and was playing out of his skin.
Nathan Jones kicked a true captain’s goal, arresting a horrid pattern of inaccuracy in the first minute of the last quarter to drill a critical goal, which proved to be a fatal hit from which the Cats never recovered.
The margin ballooned back out to 29 points but Zach Tuohy responded with a somewhat less emphatic goal than his last against Melbourne.
Melbourne in games this year have invited nervy final quarters by slowing the game down when in front, and allowing the opposition back in, which they did again here, but Geelong couldn’t apply scoreboard pressure.
At last Melbourne found space out the back. Mitch Hannan took three bounces and drilled the best goal of his short career, and a few minutes later Sam Weideman stood tall in a pack of tired players and put it through, and the Dees were home.
Jordan Murdoch and Mitch Duncan kicked a pair of late goals but it was little consolation, and Alex Neal-Bullen put some icing on the red and blue cake to finish it all off, as the last five minutes of the game featured almost as many goals as the second and third quarters.
Since the 2011 Premiership, Geelong’s finals record has slid to a poor 3-9, despite a continual influx of high-profile recuits such as Lachie Henderson, Patrick Dangerfield and Gary Ablett in recent years.
The Demons will be back at the MCG next Friday night against the Hawks, and if they play the same way they did tonight – apart from their goalkicking – they will win.
MELBOURNE 5.3 5.9. 6.13 10.15 (75) GEELONG 0.2 2.4. 3.8 6.10 (46)
GOALS
Melbourne: Weideman 3, Jones, Harmes, Gawn, McDonald, Hannan, Melksham, Neal-Bullen
Geelong: Hawkins 2, Tuohy, Murdoch, Kelly, Duncan
BEST
Melbourne: Weideman, Lewis, Jones, Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes
Geelong: Bews, Ablett, Selwood, Henry, Stewart
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