The Demons were embarrassed in their marquee clash against Collingwood last Monday but rebounded emphatically with a 177-point turnaround in the 22.17 (149) to 8.12 (60) cakewalk.
The four points unbelievably moved Melbourne into ninth position, level with next week's opponents the Tigers, and below eight-placed Essendon by virtue of slim percentage only.
Skipper Brad Green booted five goals, much-maligned top draft pick Jack Watts was outstanding with three goals and 24 telling possessions, and young midfielders Tom Scully and Jordie McKenzie also starred.
The Dees moved plenty of numbers behind the ball against Collingwood but as a result had nothing to kick to up forward when they won possession in defence.
Midfielder Jordie McKenzie said that changed against the Dockers due to a combination of a better forward structure with Steph Martin, Jack Watts and Brad Green and an improved work rate by all players.
"We worked a lot harder to push forward and give options rather than have to bomb away to one-on-twos and two-on-threes," McKenzie told Grandstand.
"Steph and Greeny were pivotal in that, they kept working hard and giving us options up forward which made it a lot easier."
Fremantle, are already without several key players, remained in the top eight but is sinking into the cluster of teams gathering at the fringe following its loss.
Already without several key players going into the match, the Dockers have new injury woes to contend with after losing key defender Antoni Grover and tagger Ryan Crowley during the match.
Grover was taken off late in the second quarter with a leg injury, while Crowley hurt his back in the third term.
But the Dockers were bleeding before their departures - found wanting in the first term as the Demons came out fighting to establish a 31-point quarter-time lead.
GWS target Scully was hugely influential with 11 touches in the term, while Green bounced back from a poor display against Collingwood with two goals for the quarter.
The Dockers wound back the lead in the second term to just 19 points, though they never really looked convincing in doing so.
The Demons eventually pushed the lead out to 25 points by half-time.
Then Watts imposed himself on the game in the third term with nine touches and a goal.
Melbourne booted 12 goals to two in the second half as the undermanned Dockers tired badly and the Demons dominated in every aspect.
The only bright spot for Fremantle was an excellent return from midfielder Michael Barlow after 12 months recovering following a badly broken leg.
Barlow finished with 25 possessions and battled hard along with on-baller Nat Fyfe in a well beaten side.
Fyfe was not offering up the Dockers' shocking injury list as an excuse but said cool heads were missed on the MCG.
"Experience more than anything can settle everyone down and knowing what to do when they get on top of us," he said.
"We weren't really able to rectify that today quickly enough and the scoreboard spoke for itself."
Demons: 22.17 (149) - B Green 5, J Watts 3, S Martin 3, J Howe 2, L Jurrah 2, C Sylvia, D Nicholson, J Frawley, J Trengove, M Gawn, N Jones, R Petterd.
Dockers: 8.12 (60) - M Johnson 3, C Mayne 2, C Pearce, L McPharlin, M Pavlich.
-ABC/AAP
Tags: sport, australian-football-league, australia, vic, melbourne-3000, wa, fremantle-6160 First posted June 19, 2011 16:03:00
No comments:
Post a Comment