AFL round 7 Melbourne v Richmond: All the news, fallout and analysis from the Demons’ 20-point win

Melbourne’s season is slowly turning around — and coach Simon Goodwin can see similarities to his successful Demons’ side from a few seasons ago.

Ronny Lerner

5 min read

April 25, 2025 - 9:00AM

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Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin is confident that the “identity” synonymous with his team’s 2021 premiership is slowly returning and the Demons’ belief is building as a result.

After starting the year in horrific fashion with five straight losses, Melbourne have managed to stop the bleeding in the past two rounds with consecutive wins for the first time in nine months against Fremantle and Richmond.

Goodwin was hopeful that a turning point has been sparked in the Demons’ spluttering campaign.

“When you start to value the right things in the game, that’s the biggest thing - that shift in the energy,” Goodwin said.

“We were focusing on some things in the game and we getting very disappointed when they weren’t happening and now we’ve recentred our focus about what’s important in the game, and you can see our ability just to keep playing.

Simon Goodwin believes the Demons are getting back towards their best. Picture: Getty Images

“We play with an energy, we play with a determination and a grit and a resilience that people that have watched Melbourne over the last seven or eight years have come to know.”

Most importantly, Goodwin believes the synergy between the team’s big midfield guns Max Gawn, Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney is starting to strengthen too.

“I think they’re building belief in each other,” Goodwin said.

“They haven’t spent a lot of time together in the last 12 months in terms of playing footy together and they’ve been working on that cohesion.

Christian Petracca kicks a goal

“You can see they’re starting to work their way back into their best form as a group and they’re doing it together and, bit by bit, each individual is starting to grow their game.

“They’re not going to be at their absolute dominant best every quarter of every game ... but you could see once they get together they’re a very powerful group when they’re up and running.”

After towelling up Fremantle’s Sean Darcy last week, Gawn produced a best-on-ground performance against the Tigers, racking up 25 disposals (13 contested), nine marks (five), 34 hitouts and six clearances opposed to one of the league’s best ruckman Toby Nankervis.

When asked how much longer the 33-year-old could keep performing at such a high level, Goodwin joked: “Another four or five years would be handy.”

The Melbourne coach was in awe of the seven-time All-Australian’s match.

“He’s just an extraordinary leader and I think we’ve seen (that in) the last two weeks,” Goodwin said.

“Once again he’s been able to drive the right things and lead the footy club incredibly well, but, geez, we do hope he keeps playing to this standard. It would be nice.”

And with so many rival ruckmen elevating their games in recent years, such as Tom De Koning (Carlton), Darcy Cameron (Collingwood), Tristan Xerri (North Melbourne) and Lloyd Meek (Hawthorn), Goodwin suggested Gawn drew motivation from that competition for the mantle of the AFL’s top ruck.

“He’s got enormous pride in his game and you’re seeing one of the best ever in the game go about his craft,” Goodwin said.

“And by what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, he’s just reminding everyone that there’s just that little bit more left in him.”

Bayley Fritsch celebrates a goal. Picture: Getty Images

DEES BREATHE FIRE AGAINST TIGERS TO KEEP 2025 SEASON HOPES ALIVE

Another Max Gawn masterclass has breathed new life into Melbourne’s spluttering season as the inspirational skipper led his side to a comfortable 20-point win over Richmond at the MCG on Thursday night.

After destroying Fremantle’s Sean Darcy last week, Gawn did a similar job on one of the league’s best rucks in Toby Nankervis this week, helping himself to 25 disposals (13 contested), nine marks (five), 34 hit-outs and six clearances to guide the Demons to a 12.11 (83) to 9.9 (63) victory. It’s the first time Melbourne have won back-to-back game in nine months.

The first half was an error-riddled, dour affair which failed to reach any heights and produced four lead changes.

But after Richmond hit the front just after time on in the second quarter, the Demons exploded to kick eight of the next nine goals and shoot 44 points clear in the final quarter to kill off the contest. Richmond applied cosmetic surgery to the scoreboard late as they capitalised on Gawn spending the last 20 minutes off the ground.

Melbourne were a different team after half-time and came out breathing fire, ramping up the pressure to swiftly beat the Tigers into submission.

Max Gawn led from the front yet again. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

The third quarter belonged to the Demons as they smashed Richmond in disposals 127-74, marks 33-17, clearances 14-8, centre clearances 5-2, tackles 28-8, inside 50s 15-7 and contested possessions 45-31 to dramatically transform the complexion of the match.

Melbourne also got their handball game going that worked so well last week against the Dockers, and cut the Tigers open as they streamed forward on the way to registering 6.3 for the term – their best quarter of the season.

In another promising sign for the Demons, during this purple patch, unlike the first five games, they once again made more of an effort to lower their eyes when going forward rather than aimlessly blazing away.

With Richmond defender Noah Balta out of the team due to his court-imposed curfew, after being so crucial to the Tigers’ stunning win over Gold Coast last week, the third-quarter onslaught proved too much for Richmond to cope with.

After smashing Fremantle for tackles inside 50 last week (27-4), Melbourne repeated the dose with a comfortable 18-8 buffer in that category against Richmond.

Melbourne ended up shellacking Richmond in disposals 423-326, contested ball 132-108, tackles 72-42 and marks 126-94.

Christian Petracca was also pivotal to the result with 28 possessions (nine contested), seven marks and two goals, while Ed Langdon produced a big performance too with 28 touches, seven grabs and a major.

The Dees have won two straight games. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

PETTY ACCEPTS VLASTUIN GIFT

Richmond defender Nick Vlastuin undid his good work late in the second quarter. After taking an important intercept mark deep in defence, his chip kick went straight to Harrison Petty 40m out from Melbourne’s goal and the latter made no mistake with the set shot to put the Demons back in front.

UMP SUCKED IN

Like the players, the umpires also had a pretty ordinary first half, and the best example of this came early in the second term when a downfield free kick was paid to the Demons which Petty accepted before proceeding to kick the easy goal from point-blank range. The Tigers were penalised due to Maurice Rioli supposedly making contact with Jake Bowey off the ball, but there was minimal force involved, and Bowey could almost be fined for staging.

SILLY STEELY

Steely Green made a very undisciplined start to the game, giving away a pair of 50-metre penalties inside the first eight minutes. The first one drew Trent Rivers to within 55m out of goal, but he was unable to convert. However, on the second occasion, Langdon made Green pay, drilling the set shot from 35m out.