AFL finals 2018: Recap all the action from Melbourne v Geelong elimination final

MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has praised his team’s toughness and persistence after the Demons overcame some nervous moments to record their first finals win in 12 years. RECAP ALL THE ACTION

MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has praised his team’s toughness and persistence on the way to recording its first finals win since 2006.

The Demons started on fire in the opening term, establishing a 31-point lead, but fans were dealt some nervous moments when they got the wobbles in front of goal. Melbourne managed just six behinds in the second term but kept the Cats at arm’s length with their ferocious pressure and tackling. The Demons finished with 87 tackles, Jack Viney and James Harmes each laying 11 in the midfield. “We got a really good start to the game and I thought our boys handled the moment incredibly well. It was a huge crowd, first final,” Goodwin said. “But our players were just determined that they were going to put their brand on show and I thought they certainly achieved that in the first quarter. They established the way the game should look. We got a chaos game and I thought the boys did a terrific job. “I thought our tackling was outstanding. I thought both teams’ tackling on the night was pretty high quality and that made it really hard to move the ball and certainly move it from contested areas. "So that was certainly a really high hallmark of our game tonight, there’s no question about that. It’s something we’ve worked on but that was a big part of establishing the Melbourne brand, the way that we wanted. "To Geelong’s credit they kept on coming. We never felt really comfortable in the game, they certainly threw some different things at us in terms of looks in the game. So they challenged us a lot and like good teams do they kept on coming.” Christian Petracca and Aaron vandenBerg wrap up Lachie Henderson. Picture: Michael Klein   Goodwin said the misses in front of goal were frustrating in the second and third quarters but his side remained calm throughout. “It was frustrating because sometimes you just have games like that,” he said. “I thought our connection early in the game was terrific and in the second quarter we probably had chances to connect, we just didn’t execute very well. Our fundamentals dropped away so that was frustrating, there’s no question about that. But it’s also a good sign that the players just kept wanting to play. They weren’t getting overawed by that and they weren’t getting stressed and at half-time there was a real calmness about the group.” Melbourne now meets Hawthorn in a semi-final next week. RECAP ALL THE ACTION IN THE BLOG BELOW  

Live Updates