As it happened Demons through to preliminary final after disposing of Brisbane
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There is a sense of destiny about the Demons this season. By following their miraculous comeback from 44 points down against Geelong to secure the minor premiership with a clinical 33-point victory over the Brisbane Lions in a high-quality qualifying final at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, Melbourne enter the penultimate week of the season where they have spent most it â€" at the top of the tree and in compelling touch. Click here to read the full story.
Max Gawn.Credit:Getty Images
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan spoke to the media after the game tonight...
Q: Chris, what went wrong tonight? Where to start?
That’s a pretty big question. I think we lost contested possession and the territory battle which is crucial against Melbourne. We knew that back in round 12 we won those battles in the first half and had a good lead at half-time and the second half we lost pretty conclusively and tonight for a big part of the game they were able to dominate that and we had to defend 60-odd inside 50s and that’s a bit overwhelming to expect your defenders to do that continuously so I think that’s the bottom line. They had probably more contributors on the night. We had a number of players that played below their best and in a big final like that when you’re playing against a great team like Melbourne you can’t afford to have any passengers.
Q: Dan McStay going down early, how much did that upset the structure of the team?
That was a bit of misfortune. You don’t usually have a player to replace a key position forward sitting there as the medi sub so it did change things for us a fair bit, the way we like to use the ball, being able to kick it long down the line. It was one less tall player to be able to help with that. Took us a while to get used to it. I thought we adapted reasonably well after half-time. The game was a bit more of an even contest after half-time and I thought our guys toughed it out pretty well and we started to use the ball a bit better and got used to not having McStay there. It was a blow, no doubt.
Q: How is Dan feeling after the big knock?
It was a decent hit. Smashed his nose and his face and some concussion so obviously he won’t be able to play next week under the protocols which is a pity. He has had a good year since he returned from a knee injury in round five.
Q: Chris, were you a little disappointed at the ball movement when Dan went off and how your team adjusted or was that understandable considering that it happened mid-match?
It’s probably understandable. Similar to when Eric Hipwood got injured against St Kilda, you practise a way to play and suddenly one of your key pillars in that’s not there. You would like to think you’d be able to adjust straight away but I don’t know many teams that could and I thought our guys did a reasonable job after half-time to adapt albeit it wasn’t perfect, it was still a little bit better. Sometimes you need to be able to call a time-out, you know. But it’s difficult.
Q: How about at the other end of the ground? You obviously touched on the inside 50s and it’s a difficult number to defend but Harris Andrews and Darcy Gardiner looked a little bit off their best tonight. Were they 100 per cent fit or did they just have a bit of a slightly down night do you think?
Yeah, was a little bit of a combination of both, I think. Darcy got a bit of a knock on the knee early in the game which troubled him but, you know, you can’t use it as an excuse. Melbourne were the better team tonight and let’s not take anything away from them. We didn’t lose because we had players injured. We lost because they won the hunt better and used the ball better and teamed much more efficiently than we did.
Q: Birchall spent a bit of time off the ground, was he a bit injured or what was the go there?
He got a bit of a knock on his knee but he was able to return. I don’t think there’s anything too dramatic for that one but it did sting him for 10 minutes or so.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke to the media after the game...
Q: Congratulations. Through to a prelim you must be satisfied for the way it panned out tonight?
Yeah, thanks. I was. In terms of how we played, we speak about that a lot but I thought defensively after quarter-time we really were sound, playing the best offensive team in the competition. To keep them to five goals post-quarter-time was an outstanding defensive performance. Everything we have been building in terms of how we wanted to play was on display. Full credit to the players. They prepared well from last week and knew it was a new season and that’s the way they wanted to treat it.
Q: What was the message at quarter-time because it’s not too many times this season where you’ve been in a five-goal-to-four quarter and it’s been a bit of a shoot-out. Was it just getting back to what you know?
There was a lot going right in terms of the game when we went inside 50 we were scoring, the problem is when they were going inside 50 they were scoring as well. We tidied up some things behind the ball. Our defenders stood up and won contest and ability to do that went a long way to changing the momentum of the game and getting the game on our terms so I thought our defenders really stood up in that quarter.
Q: Going forward - sorry to take it forward straight away but obviously after a win like that how hard will it be not to go in unchanged? Would you really want to change much of your line-up after tonight?
We’ll assess that depending on who we’re playing against but the guys that played tonight I thought majority of them were outstanding. If you go through that, but we’ll get all the information, get the medicos to look at everyone, make sure we’re all clear, see how the boys pull up but at this stage the 22 who played tonight were pretty solid but we don’t know who we’re playing. We’ll wait until we get that and make decisions.
Q: Simon, does it feel different to 2018?
We’re a completely different side than we were in 2018. We’ve really established ourselves and the way we defend. We are more consistent in the way we play and put ourselves in a better position and in better form so it is a different experience but we sit here and we’ve still got work to do. As coaches and as the leadership group, we’ll go away and find areas of our game we want to continue improving and that’s been a great thing about our team’s development throughout the whole year is that they are never satisfied and they want to find ways to get belter and we have to keep looking for ways to get better.
Q: Simon, was there any concern about Lachie Neale getting off the chain like he did today? Something you need to work on a bit?
We spoke about him a lot throughout the game. There were little patches in the game where we certainly sent some guys to him to try and stem the influence, no question he’s an outstanding player and was having influence but a lot of these things come around with scoreboard as well, momentum in the game, scoreboard, the function of your whole group is what we look at and there was certainly periods we thought it would need to take some influence away. Majority of the night I thought our mids worked hard and got themselves into the game and got on top by the end.
Q: You mentioned it is a very different team to 2018 I think you had nine finals debutants tonight. Does it say a bit about the growth and maturity of those youngsters that they put their foot down early and when Brisbane came late in the third quarter they were able to keep their composure and see it out?
That’s been one of our hallmarks this year, ability to reset within games. We have got a core bunch of leaders that have experienced a lot as a group, gone through some of this together and we’ve got a group of nine players playing their first final and have come out of the last four drafts so we’ve got a mix in terms of our type of players but their ability to deal with pressure and understand what’s required in a game is very good and it’s driven primarily by our leadership group and the young fellas just follow. Proud of how our leaders went about it tonight.
Jackson may have lost a tooth, but he was still all smiles after his side made it through to a preliminary final.
Melbourne star Christian Petracca has praised the impact of small forward Bayley Fritsch describing him as ‘the player you want in your side’.
Fritsch kicked four goals in tonight’s qualifying final win over Brisbane Lions which took his tally in 2021 to 51 goals.
Bayley Fritsch snaps at goal against Brisbane.Credit:AFL Photos
“He is such an unusual player in terms of it’s really hard to match up on him,†Petracca told Channel Seven.
“Below his knees he is unbelievable and in the air he can fly for everything. He is your local footy player, you want him in your team. The player that can bob up and kick three or four goals a week.
“He is someone who, development-wise, has been unbelievable. He played in the backline three years ago in 2018 and drafted him as a forward to see him do well in the role he got drafted in is unbelievable.â€
For so many years, Melbourne’s football brand has been a certain flakiness, an inability to get the job done when it mattered. Now, they’re one win away from a grand final, after rolling over the Brisbane Lions in the first half, then gritting their teeth â€" and Rising Star winner Luke Jackson even lost one of his â€" to hold on, their defence supreme in a 33-point win. Click here to read the full report.
Christian Petracca roars his approval after booting a goal for the Demons.Credit:AFL Photos
Jack Viney spoke to Channel Seven after the game too...
Q: Congratulations. Straight through to prelim final. What a fantastic night.
Good night. Like you said, straight through to a prelim so coming here to get the job done against Brisbane who is a very good side, it was good to get the win tonight.
Q: Jack, you know the Melbourne faithful as well as anyone. Your dad obviously a champion of the football club. They’ll be pretty happy tonight.
Absolutely. We had a good turnout. Adelaide Oval was a fair Demon crowd here. Great to see the turn-out. I know there’s heap of Demons fans that are cheering hard at home back in Melbourne. Hopefully we will give you guys something really hard to cheer about. It is a damn shame we’re not at the MCG with a home crowd but we’re making do. We’re doing the best we can and hopefully we can keep the wins comes for you guys.
Q: Everyone looks so happy to play their role. You have Brayshaw playing on a wing, I’m sure when he was taken early in the draft he wasn’t thinking “I’ll be a winger run up and down the side of the ground.†Every one seems happy to play their role and it is working well.
Gussy has been phenomenal. As a group, we’ve come close to finals a few years in a row but it was about that maturing piece and Gussy is a great example of someone who is fully committed, bought into the team and he’s a gun and a star in his own right but playing himself on the wing and doing the team roles, that’s the reason we’ve taken our game to another level this year. It’s just been a team effort across the board.
Q: Jack, you seem to have supreme confidence, all of you players, in each other and the roles you’re playing. I think it’s really obvious each player knows their role. Is so defined. You must feel so confident in your game plan.
We’re really trusting the process, trusting the game plan that Goody (Simon Goodwin) and the coaches have from the get-go implemented and, yeah, you know like if the mids are having a bad day we’ve got Maysy, Lever, Petty, Jake Bowey, Trent Rivers, they’re mopping it up for us and then once we do win a clearance our forwards big Benny Brown, Charlie Spargo, Kozzy Pickett, Alex Neal-Bullen bring it to ground or kick snags so it’s functioning well at the moment. Hopefully they can keep it going.
Q: Tell us the plans from here. Straight through to a prelim final with all things equal, are you on the road for a month, what do you do tonight? Where do you go next?
Good question. I think we’re off to Perth tomorrow where we’ll do our quarantine and I’m assuming the games will be at Optus Stadium but really taking it day by day with the whole pandemic situation. It’s pretty changeable situation. Staying flexible but at this stage we’ll go back, recover and jump on a plane tomorrow.
Here’s some reaction to Melbourne’s comprehensive win...
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