AFL 2016: Melbourne Demons push Brisbane Lions aside

MELBOURNE 5.6  10.7  13.10  19.17 (131)
BRISBANE LIONS 2.3  5.5  6.10  9.14 (68)
Goals: Melbourne: J Hogan 5 J Harmes 4 J Garlett 2 B Kennedy B Newton B Stretch D Kent J Viney J Watts N Jones V Michie. Brisbane Lions: T Bell 3 R Lester 2 B Keays D Zorko J Freeman L Taylor.
Best: Melbourne: Hogan, Stretch, Petracca, Oliver, Vince, Jones, Bugg, Harmes
Brisbane:  Zorko, Rich, Hanley, Robinson, McStay, Christensen
Umpires: Robert Findlay, David Harris, Curtis Deboy.
Official Crowd: 26,892 at MCG.

One team looked like it knew it was a little bit better than the other one. Quicker, stronger. More confident, more assured. More able to do the things it wanted to, when it decided to do them.

The other team looked like it thought it could do some good things. Every now and then. When the opposition let it. And without always being able to finish off the things it was able to get started.

When the Demons wanted it, they had almost complete control of Sunday's game against the Lions. When they had control, they were able to make things look a lot easier than Brisbane could.

The Lions wanted the ball. They made sure they had numbers to it. Early, they got their hands to it almost as much as Melbourne's players did, but there was a big difference in what happened from there.

When Brisbane had the ball they looked uncertain, unsure and a bunch of other 'uns'. They got held up by tackles, they got held up by their own indecision, they allowed Melbourne to get things back on their terms.

When the Demons got on the move, they moved quickly. Very quickly, at times. They ran hard into space. They used each other. They kicked long, with confidence and ambition.

Whether Brisbane were committing one or two players too many to the contest, or allowing themselves to get sucked towards it, Melbourne kicked into space time and time again in the first half.

Jeff Garlett, who doesn't need much room in which to move, took full advantage. So did Jesse Hogan. The Demons got on a four-goal run midway through the second term, reaching a 44 point lead.

That could have been it. That probably should have been it, but the Lions persisted, the Demons began to wane and the question had to be asked: had things been too easy for them in the first half?

Tom Bell kicked two goals in time on of the second quarter for the Lions, cutting the margin to 32 points. He scored another in the first minute of the second half, for three in a row.

What happened from there? The Demons tried to do too much, at times. They created mistakes. They allowed the Lions to apply themselves for longer, to create some passages of play.

(They were also denied their best moment of the match: a one-step Christian Petracca snap early in the third quarter, in which he pushed away Garlett before kicking through a thick pack, was ruled touched on review.)

The Lions did some good things, too. They got numbers back. They didn't allow Melbourne to take as many marks in space, to get as many easy possessions, to score as many unpressured goals.

They played with more boldness. They kept Max Gawn from the ball, and were able to limit Jack Viney (whose effort, to be fair, was still obvious).

Jono Freeman took some nice marks. Dan Rich played with some drive and Mitch Robinson laid tackles. Pearce Hanley generated some of the run many of his teammates struggled to muster either the energy of effort to put in.

Rhys Mathieson played with courage in his first game. He racked up a knock to the head for almost every one of his possessions. But again, the Lions were unable to finish things off.

Ben Keays hooked a shot on goal. Trent West missed another. Daniel Rich's kick on the run flew wide. Jackson Paine and Stefan Martin added two more points to the scoreline.

They let Melbourne off, and by the end of the third quarter the Demons had got themselves organised, and started to assert themselves again.

"Obviously, if you reward yourself for your good work," said Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch, "it's frustrating, and can be borderline demoralising."

The Demons got going again via Hogan, who took a mark on the 50-metre line and fed the ball sideways to Ben Newton, who had all the room he needed to score on his left side.

Not long after, Hogan was there again, pouncing upon a loose ball 20 metres from goal and snapping his fourth goal. Billy Stretch kicked another, then the Lions added two more points.

Suddenly, the margin was right back where it was - in the 40s - which was where it stayed for much of the last quarter, Melbourne eventually easing away for a 10-goal win.

"We made a lot of mistakes but that's probably what we've been preaching to them," said Melbourne coach Paul Roos afterwards. 

"We will make mistakes, we're a young team and we're trying to be a really good follow up team, a good out-number team and to just keep going back to the ball all day and develop good habits a group. 

"To their credit the player are responding. Even in the third quarter when we were looking a bit shaky, we started to go back. We turned a few over but we ended up scoring a couple of time pretty easily, which got that momentum back."

Melbourne will regret as much of the match, if not not more than the Lions. They have played a lot better this year. But they were clearly the better team early. They set the game up and it travelled down the path that they laid out.

Hogan kicked the shots he has been missing in recent weeks, five of them. Garlett worked well alongside him, particularly in the first half.

Clayton Oliver had clean hands, and seven clearances. Tom Bugg worked hard from first bounce to last, there was some endeavour about Stretch's game, and Viney didn't stop trying. Helping Gawn out in the ruck, Jack Watts played with some energy and skill. 

Ben Kennedy's poise was important early, and Petracca played with some power and pizzazz: by the end of the game his disallowed goal was still arguably the most eye-catching thing anyone did in it.

Could Melbourne have done more? They didn't need to. You can only beat who you come up against and the Demons did just enough to ensure what became a very comfortable win.