Melbourne’s AFL preliminary final could hardly have gone worse but coach Simon Goodwin insists the horror loss to West Coast won’t scar his players.
The feel-good story of the finals came to an abrupt end on Saturday afternoon as West Coast ran roughshod over the shell-shocked Demons to claim a 66-point victory at Optus Stadium and book their spot in the grand final against Collingwood.
Melbourne had won their previous two meetings and were adamant nothing about the trip to Perth would hold fears for them.
Not the deafening noise emanating from a sellout crowd, not the forecast afternoon heat, and not the fearsome forward combination of Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling, even though the Eagles had an 11-0 record with both in the team.
But the Demons took just minutes to unravel.
Backman Jordan Lewis, a veteran of four premierships and numerous finals, started the rot, coughing up the ball to Kennedy under pressure and handing the dual Coleman Medallist an easy goal.
Sam Frost’s turnover led to a Jamie Cripps major. Joel Smith’s panicked hold of Darling resulted in a free kick and goal. And the Dees were being smashed in the middle despite star ruckman Max Gawn’s comfortable hitout advantage.
Co-captain Nathan Jones had just five disposals to halftime and Dom Tyson, who had been lucky to hold his spot after a poor semi-final, had six.
By then, West Coast led the goalless Demons by 63 points and the game was over.
“It didn’t look like us in any phase of the game,” Goodwin said.
“We made a lot of mistakes early and our turnovers cost us greatly.
“I was probably a little bit more concerned with our contest work. Clearly they scored on turnover but our contest work in terms of what we really pride ourselves on as a footy club … we had 34 tackles for the day and lost the contested ball.”
Goodwin was at a loss to explain why his side couldn’t handle the return trip to Perth after prevailing at the Eagles’ home fortress a month earlier.
But he said the Demons would learn from the experience in much the same way as their round 23 loss to Collingwood, which cost them a finals berth last season.
“I think our path forward is really clear and I think we’ve seen the growth and we’ve seen the things in our game style that are there when we’re good,” Goodwin said.
“There’s some things that we need to keep working at as a footy club to continue to take that next step but I don’t think there’ll be any scars.
“We’ve still got enormous growth in some of our younger players. They’ve built a really strong connection with one another, which I’m really proud of and I think that’ll hold us in a great position for the years ahead.”
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