Max Gawn stars as Melbourne breaks Queen’s Birthday drought beating Collingwood in Round 12

ONE can only hope Travis Cloke didn’t watch Collingwood’s loss to Melbourne with any valuables within striking distance.

Max Gawn celebrates during Melbourne’s win against Collingwood.

ONE can only hope Travis Cloke didn’t watch Collingwood’s loss to Melbourne with any valuables within striking distance.

If Cloke wasn’t frustrated enough at his fall from grace, he had to watch a top-heavy Pies forward line fail spectacularly in a Queen’s Birthday embarrassment.

Mason Cox, Jarrod Witts and Jesse White all set up inside 50m and all had front-row seats to a comprehensive 46-point Demons win.

White was serviceable, if wasteful. Cox and Witts may as well be counted among the official crowd of 60,158. If Cloke — warts and all — can’t offer more, then forget going to a rival club, the Diamond Valley might be more fitting.

Cloke watched as the men preferred to him ran under it, past it and around it. And when the ball did hit the deck in Collingwood’s forward 50m, which it did often, Melbourne defenders had a picnic.

Cox, Witts and White didn’t have to take a glut of contested marks, but when the ball got to ground there had to be signs of life. The top-heavy nature of the line-up meant the ball went into the Magpie forward 50m and then sprang out like it had a rocket attached to it.

The McDonald boys — Tom and Oscar — had 19 and 18 possessions respectively and combined for 13 marks. Beside them Sam Frost had 21 touches, seven marks and five rebound 50s.

And pulling the strings off half-back was Bernie Vince. Released from tagging duties, Vince accumulated a ridiculous 42 touches — 28 uncontested — and 11 rebound 50s as the Demons waltzed out of defence.

In fact, they waltzed all over the MCG. Contested ball was even, but Melbourne had a staggering 315 uncontested possessions to Collingwood’s 193 and finished with a whopping 469 possessions in total.

Like Port Adelaide before them and several sides before that, the Demons kicked a swag of goals from close range, shredding the Pies’ much-maligned defensive system.

The floodgates opened in the second quarter when Melbourne turned a 12-point quarter-time deficit into a 26-point halftime lead. In half an hour the Demons kicked 7.2 to 1.0 to blow the game apart.

Max Gawn lit the spark and was clearly best on ground in a dominant ruck display against three opponents. Brodie Grundy, Witts and Cox were all seen off by the bearded cult hero, who finished with numbers an A-grand midfielder would be proud of — 27 possessions and three goals, including a goal line volley in that rampant second term.

The Pies and Demons combined for 162 tackles in a one-on-game that quickly became about who could be cleaner.

Nathan Jones beat the tag of Levi Greenwood, Tomas Bugg shut down Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury and Dom Tyson went head-to-head in a draw.

Bugg was terrific, keeping Sidebottom to only 10 touches and no influence after quarter time while gathering 21 himself.

If Collingwood’s forward line was a dog’s breakfast, Melbourne’s is the primary reason its long-suffering fans went home excited last night.

Jesse Hogan kicked three to go with three contested marks, but his aggression and grunt is the immeasurable quality.

Christian Petracca is a weapon. The kid’s power in-close and around scrimmages is breathtaking at times. The forward pair combined for 16 possessions in a second quarter in which they put Collingwood to the sword.

For a decade Melbourne has been used as a punching bag by Collingwood in these Queen’s Birthday games. But here was the Demons’ first win over the Pies on this day since 2007 — fittingly, Neale Daniher’s last win as coach of the club.

MELBOURNE 2.4 9.6 11.7 16.8 (104)

COLLINGWOOD 4.4 5.4 6.6 8.10 (58)

GOALS

Melbourne: Gawn Kent Hogan 3, Watts 2, Jones Viney Kennedy Petracca Trengove

Collingwood: Cox 2, White Sidebottom Varcoe Maynard Grundy Greenwood

BEST

Melbourne: Gawn, Vince, Jones, Hogan, Bugg, Tyson, Frost, Tom McDonald

Collingwood: Pendlebury, Treloar, Varcoe, De Goey, Howe, White

VOTES

3 Max Gawn (Melb)

The cult grows. Lit the spark in the second quarter and saw off three opponents in a colossal performance. Twenty-seven touches and three goals are not numbers you associate with a ruckman. The Neale Daniher Medallist.

2 Bernie Vince (Melb)

Too good to be a tagger. Released from negating duties to pull the strings across half-back. A career-high 42 possessions to go with 11 rebound 50s. Did what he liked.

1 Nathan Jones (Melb)

Had Greenwood hanging off him, but coalface ferocity made that meaningless. Eight tackles and five clearances to go with 31 touches.

Originally published as Max Gawn stars as Melbourne breaks Queen’s Birthday drought beating Collingwood in Round 12