Melbourne Demons AFLW side make history as first side to crack 100-point barrier

The Melbourne Demons are on top of the AFL world once again as its women’s side broke through a magic barrier for the first time.

The last time a Melbourne team played at Optus Stadium, it claimed a historic AFL premiership win, ending a 57-year drought.

On Saturday, at the same venue, the Demons took a massive step towards winning their first AFLW title, becoming the first team in the competition’s history to break through the magic 100-point barrier.

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The Demons cemented a top-two finish on the ladder with a massive 88-point win over an understrength Fremantle.

After conceding the first goal of the game, the Demons kicked the next 14 goals to set up the 3.1 (19) to 16.11 (107) victory.

Melbourne became the first AFLW team to reach 100 points in a game and now holds the record for the biggest ever score and biggest ever win.

The third term was their most impressive, when they kicked 7.1 to nil and turned a 34-point halftime lead into a 77-point advantage.

AFL coach in waiting, Daisy Pearce added three of her five goals (the first Melbourne AFLW player to kick more than four in one game) in that term and played a hand in a couple of others.

Melbourne’s previous highest score was 11.4 (70), also kicked against the Dockers, in Round 7 of the 2017 season.

The Demons were unstoppable. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images

No, it wasn’t just a nightmare. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images

Melbourne has now won three consecutive games against top-six teams, having beaten North Melbourne by 10 points last week and Brisbane by three points the round before that.

Coach Mick Stinear said the side delivered everything he could have asked of them.

“We’ve been working towards trying to combine our game style and get it working consistently,” Stinear said in his post-match press conference.

“I think we needed a game like tonight to really show what we can do and also, for the players themselves to feel what that connection is like.

“We came here tonight wanting to play our best footy and try and get all three phases of our game going – our contest, offence and defence.

“We’re really pleased with the effort. That’s the sort of consistency and execution of our game style that we want to deliver for the rest of the season now.”

The Demons took full advantage of the Dockers missing personnel, adding 34.5 percentage points.

The Demons can now still leapfrog top side Adelaide in the final round and finish top of the table.

The win means they can’t drop lower than second, regardless of the result of their clash with Carlton at Casey Fields next Saturday.

In complete contrast to Melbourne, the Dockers’ season is on the slide and they need to regroup quickly.

With their percentage drop (66.7 points) they fell from third to fifth on Saturday and could stay there regardless of the result between North Melbourne and Brisbane on Sunday.

They have also lost three of their past four games, all against sides that the Dockers are likely to meet in the finals – Norths, Adelaide and now Melbourne.

While Pearce stole the show in Melbourne’s attack, Tayla Harris kept her amazing season alive, kicking three goals.

Tayla Harris has had a huge season. Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

She now has 18 goals for the season, more than any AFLW player in one season. She is enjoying a run of five games in a row hitting the scoreboard multiple times.

Harris has now kicked at least two goals in a game seven times this season.

Fremantle would hope to be closer to full strength by the time finals start.

Due to safety protocols, they lost Ebony Antonio, Kara Antonio and Emma O’Driscoll just before this game. Gabby O’Sullivan and Amy Franklin were already sidelined for the same reason.

The Dockers were so short of personnel that they needed to call on WAFLW top-up player Mikayla Western, who made the three-hour drive from Margaret River in WA’s south before the game and only arrived at Optus Stadium 15 minutes before the opening bounce.

Western has not even trained with the Dockers since the pre-season.

The Dockers also lost Matilda Sergeant halfway through the opening term with a head knock.