THE premiership quarter continues to serve reigning premiers Melbourne well as the depleted Demons held off Hawthorn for a 10-point AFL win.
Led by captain Max Gawn and star on-ballers Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca, the Demons held on in Saturday’s twilight game for a 13.13 (91) to 11.15 (81) win at the MCG.
The Demons are unbeaten this season and in every game, they have outscored their opposition in the third term, known as the premiership quarter.
They kicked clear again after halftime and it proved crucial, with the Hawks keeping Melbourne goalless in the last term.
COVID-19 meant the Demons lost coach Simon Goodwin and premiership players Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Tom Sparrow, Harrison Petty and Alex Neal-Bullen for the match.
Adem Yze stood in for Goodwin and he continued this season’s perfect record of assistant coaches who have taken over because of COVID-19.
The Hawks were in charge early and kicked three of the first four goals of the game to put Melbourne on the back foot.
The Demons did not hit the front until the first goal of the second term when returning key forward Tom McDonald took the gloss off teammate James Harmes’ fine work.
Harmes’ shot would have been a candidate for goal of the week but McDonald marked on the goal line.
As late as 12 minutes into the third term, the Hawks only trailed by nine points to keep pace with the highly-fancied Demons.
But Melbourne then stepped up a gear, kicking four goals in a row to kill off the match.
They kicked six goals to three for a 28-point lead at the last change.
Gawn starred with 34 hitouts, 14 contested possessions and two goals, while Oliver (33 possessions) and Petracca (31 disposals) were prolific.
Ben Brown kicked four goals for the Demons and Jacob Koschitzke had the same return for Hawthorn, while Hawks on-baller Dylan Moore and captain James Sicily were their best.
(C) AAP 2022
