Demons escape injuries, optimistic for Hawthorn clash
Melbourne have escaped any serious injuries and will enter Friday’s semi-final against Hawthorn threatening to become the fairytale club of the 2018 AFL season.
Following drought-breaking wins by Western Bulldogs (in 2016) and Richmond (2017), Melbourne are shaping as a similar tale, trying to win their first premiership since 1964. In their first final since 2006 against Geelong at the MCG on Friday night, the Demons won by 29 points.
Coach Simon Goodwin paid tribute to the influence of the club’s supporters who helped pack the MCG with more than 91,000 people.
“To have 91,000 there for a Melbourne final, the support we got tonight was absolutely unbelievable and they played a huge part,’’ he said. “They get in behind a team they can believe in, and we need them again next week because they were pretty instrumental for us tonight.’’
The Hawks, who are set to lose versatile defender Ben Stratton through a hamstring injury, beat Melbourne easily in round four in their only meeting this year.
“The great thing about the group is they haven’t looked too far ahead this year, they’ve focussed on what’s ahead of them,’’ said Goodwin. “Hawthorn will be the next challenge for us. We played them earlier this year, they played exceptional game of footy that day and beat us quite convincingly. We’ll go back and have a look at that, certainly have a look at the game they played on the weekend, and come up with a system that’s going to hold up.’’
Goodwin said he knew that his team was up and about early against Geelong. “I thought our boys handled the moment incredibly well,’’ said Goodwin.
“Obviously a huge crowd, first final, but our players were just adamant that they were going to put their brand on show. I thought they achieved that in the first quarter, established the way the game should look. We got a chaos game and I thought the boys did a good job.’’
The Demons coach said Melbourne’s victory over West Coast in Perth in round 22 had been the catalyst for the club’s better performance over recent weeks.
“The belief built off the back of that game, there’s no question about that. That was a pretty big hurdle for us to get through that win in Perth. We played in a lot of games where the expectation was high and we’d probably fallen short at times. But we knew we weren’t that far away, and getting over that hurdle was certainly a big step for this footy club in building that belief and confidence in the way we play.
"So that’s given us a bit of momentum coming into this new tournament. We’re one game in, we’ve got a formidable opponent next week, really strong footy club, well coached, we know what we’re up against.’’
Melbourne have Jesse Hogan and Jake Lever out for the season with injuries and will be loathe to change a team that played so strongly across the board, although Bernie Vince (shoulder) may be getting close to putting his name up for a return.