AFL Round 5 Melbourne v GWS: All the news, action and fallout

The Demons’ 10-goal third quarter blitz was another example of their superiority as the league heavyweights pounded a hapless Giants outfit and put the rest of the competition on notice.

Luke Jackson handballs during the Demons’ demolition of Greater Western Sydney.

Warning: Melbourne has clicked into gear.

After starting the season in cruise control following the club’s drought-breaking premiership, the Demons blew out the cobwebs against a wasteful Greater Western Sydney side, flexing their muscles as the clear flag flancy in a dominant 67-point triumph.

The Demons piled on 10 goals — all to separate goalkickers — in a third quarter demolition job after taking a slender 14-point lead into the main break.

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Tom Sparrow is congratulated by Christian Petracca and Bayley Fritsch after kicking a goal. Picture: Getty Images

While the efficient Demons hit targets with ease at the MCG, the Giants torched the footy going forward as defensive pillar Steven May licked his lips, with the visitors’ errors regularly resulting in goals at the other end.

Staggeringly, the Giants’ first goal came from their 21st inside 50, while the Demons piled on five goals from their first 11 attacking entries.

May stood tall when the match was there to be won, picking off the Giants’ entries at will in a commanding performance down back.

There were no shortage of contributors for the Demons, with prolific midfield duo Clayton Clayton (31 disposals) and Christian Petracca (29 and two goals) let off the chain and Max Gawn (21 disposals, 25 hitouts and two goals) putting on another immense display.

After three goals in the first month of the season, Kysaiah ‘Kozzie’ Pickett put the Giants under a spell with three goals and highlights galore, highlighted by a stunning display of speed with his third goal, where he ran from the wing to collect his own kick after a marking contest.

Clayton Oliver still gets his handball away despite some close marking. Picture: Getty Images

OLIVER TWIST

Stopper Matt de Boer has been Clayton Oliver’s kryptonite in the past, but the Giants opted to let him roam free at the ‘G — and he made them pay.

Oliver had 31 disposals, a team-high 15 contested possessions and seven clearances, finishing the match as the fourth-ranked player on the ground.

De Boer had kept Oliver to modest disposal tallies of 17, 23, 23 and 28 in their previous four meetings.

At times deploying a double tag this season, a tactic which restricted Suns ball-magnet Touk Miller to a mere 17 disposals, it was a surprise that Giants coach Leon Cameron did not look to lock down Oliver or Petracca.

GIANTS’ FORWARD WOES

The Giants are counting down the days until Toby Greene returns against St Kilda in round 6 and their forward woes this season makes for grim reading.

Leading into the round, Harrison Himmelberg led their goalkicking with 10 goals with midfielder Tom Green (6) and Tim Taranto (4) the next best.

There are glaring issues with the Giants’ ball-use up the field, but with their lack of quality options inside 50, it is a chicken and the egg dilemma for the Giants.

Simon Goodwin revs up his players as they make a statement against the Giants. Picture: AFL Photos via Getty Images

TRAC’S GOAL DENIED

You’d suggest Ed Langdon owes Christian Petracca a shout after a remarkable bending goal from the Norm Smith medallist was denied by a free kick as it sailed over the umpire’s hat.

The hard-running Dee gave Giant Lachie Ash a light shove on the line to help shepherd it through but the umpire deemed it enough to blow the whistle, with Petracca’s hi-five celebrations abruptly interrupted.

And the Demons faithful, who hadn’t had the rub of the green with the umpires to that stage, were far from impressed.

It compounded Langdon’s horror set shot on goal minutes earlier, spooning the ball off his boot in comical fashion in one of the clangers of the year thus far.

Kysaiah Pickett was back in form with three goals. Picture: AFL Photos via Getty Images

KOZZIE AND BOBBY FLY

Pickett had Melbourne fans out of their seats twice in the first 10 minutes of the match, but it was the almost moment from the human highlight reel that had onlookers wondering what could have been.

Moments after threading the needle from 40m out on the boundary with a dead eye set shot, Pickett was soaring into the stratosphere over two players attempting to pull down Mark of the Year, with the Sherrin slipping out of his grasp.

As the seconds ticked down in the same quarter, Bobby Hill did what Pickett couldn’t and hauled in a spectacular hanger in an identical spot to the Demons’ missed chance, using May as a stepladder.

SCOREBOARD

DEMONS 4.0 6.2 16.4 19.6. (120)

GIANTS 0.5 3.6 5.8 7.11 (53)

BATTEN’S BEST

Demons: Gawn, Petracca, May, Oliver, Pickett, Fritsch

Giants: Green, Kelly, Ward, Flynn, Hill

GOALS

Demons: Fritsch 4, Pickett 3, Petracca 2, Gawn 2, Jackson, Jordon, Neal-Bullen, McDonald, Weideman, Viney, Bowey, Neal-Bullen

Giants: Hill 2, Himmelberg, Coniglio, Hogan, Flynn, Callaghan

INJURIES

Demons: Lever (ankle)

Giants: Nil.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

3. Max Gawn (Melb)

2. Christan Petracca (Melb)

1. Steven May (Melb)

Goodwin adamant further improvement to come

By Glenn McFarlane

Melbourne’s 12-game winning streak now ranks outright second in the club’s history as the relentless reigning premiers turned up the heat on Greater Western Sydney and its coach Leon Cameron.

While the Demons are still seven wins short of equalling the club-record 19 straight victories from the halcyon years of Norm Smith in 1955 and ‘56, their 5-0 kickstart to the 2022 season has fans believing anything is possible.

Fuelled by a 10.2 third term (all kicked by different players), Melbourne torched the Giants by 67 points, with a firestorm that served as yet another warning to the rest of the competition.

Coach Simon Goodwin maintained there was improvement left in the Demons, despite a near flawless start to their premiership defence.

“We are not striving for perfection; we are striving to be a great footy team,” Goodwin said.

His selection headache — if exceptional depth can be deemed a headache — will centre on Ben Brown’s likely return for the Anzac Eve clash with a vulnerable Richmond.

Sam Weideman and Tom McDonald kicked a goal each on a night where the Demons shared the goals around with 12 individual goalkickers — their most in five seasons.

The Demons belt out the team song as they extended their winning sequence to 12. Picture: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“We’ve got a model that works for us … it is competitive for spots, I can’t tell you what the selection will look like next week,” he said.

“In terms of Sam Weideman’s last two or three weeks, he has reinforced that he is a quality player.”

He praised the selflessness of his team, highlighting Tom Sparrow’s chase and tap back to Bayley Fritsch which resulted in one of the forward’s four goals.

Goodwin also revealed Steven May had been sick leading into the game but proved his fitness with an outstanding game, while Jake Lever has eight days to recover from a rolled ankle.

The Giants sit at 1-4 after the first five weeks — their worst result to start a season since 2013, their second year in the competition.

A candid Cameron said the Demons were clearly the best side in the competition at the moment, but that was no excuse for his team having 10 goals in a quarter kicked on them.

He said the Giants were in the midst of a “form slump” and needed to shake out of it quickly as they take on the in-form Saints next week.

Co-captain Toby Greene is set to return from his suspension, but Cameron cautioned that he would take a few weeks to get himself match-hardened again.

Originally published as AFL Round 5 Melbourne v GWS: All the news, action and fallout