MELBOURNE 2.3 8.7 17.11 24.16 (160) GOLD COAST 4.2 8.2 11.3 14.3 (87)
GOALS: Melbourne: Harmes 3, Pedersen 3, Garlett 3, Gawn 2, Viney 2, Jones 2, Kennedy 2, Petracca 2, Hogan, Tyson, Stretch, Kent, Vince. Gold Coast: Lynch 4, Garlett 2, Wright 2, Ablett 2, Macpherson, Grant, Currie, Hall.
BEST: Melbourne: Viney, Gawn, Jones, Vince, Harmes, Kennedy. Gold Coast: Lynch, Day, Harbrow, Saad.
INJURIES Gold Coast: Rosa (hamstring); Sexton (forearm).
UMPIRES: Justin Schmitt, David Harris, Andrew Stephens.
CROWD 12,780 at Metricon Stadium.
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Demons thrash Suns by 73 points
Melbourne stay in touch with the top eight by thrashing the Suns by 73 points.
Maybe the Gold Coast really is the Bermuda Triangle of sport. Players keep mysteriously disappearing. The Gold Coast Suns board need to urgently send out a search party, even if it risks the entire ship going down. What sinkhole did this club's spirit go down in the past fortnight?
Let's start from the beginning. At quarter-time, the statistics were ominous for the Suns. Melbourne had laid 32 tackles in the first quarter alone. They had doubled the Suns' inside 50 count, 18 to 9, and had 24 more disposals. Yet they found themselves 11 points behind. How could this be so?
By the end of the second quarter, the Demons had managed to edge ahead, with four late goals from the 24-minute mark. Still, a five-point advantage didn't reflect their utter dominance. Inside 50s now read 34 to 17 the Demons' way; they had 11 more contested possessions and 25 more overall.
Worse for the Suns, they were two players down, losing Matt Rosa early to a hamstring strain, then Alex Sexton was taken to hospital to assess a possible fracture to his right forearm. They had one player keeping them in the contest, and his name wasn't Gary Ablett, who had an inconspicuous 11 disposals to that point.
The player – not for the first time this year – was Tom Lynch, who is starting to look absolutely scary. Lynch had four goals for the half, giving away one to Suns debutante Darcy Macpherson, creating another for Jarrod Garlett and his dominance of the Demons' defence at that stage was complete.
But against the run of play, Lynch wasn't going to be able to keep the Suns afloat forever, and in the third quarter, the Demons started to smash home their statistical dominance on the scoreboard. Jack Viney struck twice, Nathan Jones bobbed up from a boundary throw-in with a second, James Harmes slammed home another.
When Bernie Vince made it eight in a row for the Demons 10 minutes into the second half, it was game over – and they didn't stop punishing the Gold Coast from there. Not that the Suns put up great resistance. Many just seemed to stop playing. Lynch was powerless by that point; the ball wasn't getting anywhere near him.
And we have to talk about Gary. The champion looked as powerless as Lynch after half-time, but for different reasons. When he was run down in a tackle as he dashed inside 50 late in the third quarter, it was simply sad. Two junk-time goals aside, he's just going at the moment, struggling to exert any of his old influence on games.
But we also have to talk about Melbourne. Yes, they're up and down, and yes, Gold Coast were awful. Still, the Demons are playing fast, attractive, direct football, and unlike the Suns at the other end, they weren't reliant on a brilliant key forward to do the job for them. Jesse Hogan, well held by Sam Day, kicked just the one goal.
Three other Demons kicked three goals and five more two each, Christian Petracca the feel-good story with consecutive efforts in the last quarter, capping an excellent second game.
But it was well past party time by then, Melbourne slamming on 16 goals to six after half-time.