Saturday round three action begins with a compelling clash between Melbourne and Gold Coast. The Demons are yet to find a win in 2025. Follow along as we cover today’s AFL Saturday matches.
Saturday round three action begins with a compelling clash between Melbourne and Gold Coast. The Demons are yet to find a win in 2025. Follow along as we cover today’s AFL Saturday matches.
Melbourne are facing the uncomfortable prospect of a premiership window slammed shut after being dismantled by Gold Coast on a hellish day for the Demons faithful.
Comprehensively outplayed last week by North Melbourne, the Demons were outclassed by another team on the rise on Saturday, leaving coach Simon Goodwin with plenty more questions to ponder.
The Dees’ 58-point humbling, 18.12 (120) to 8.14 (62), ensures they will finish the round in the bottom four with a 0-3 record alongside Carlton, another club whose strength has been its contest over ball movement.
For the second week in a row, the Demons were smashed for clearance and contested ball, leaving them with precious little to fuel their game.
Against a meaner and cleaner team, the Demons struggled to generate meaningful passages of play and were repeatedly left in the Suns’ wake once their northern rivals burst clear from traffic.
The Demons were destroyed at stoppage, particularly from the centre square, conceding four goals to two behinds as the new breed of Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson ran the old guard of Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney ragged, amassing 36 and 35 possessions respectively.
Oliver had 31 touches but lacked impact, Viney was limited to 19 disposals and Petracca was left on rations in attack where the ball rarely was, and when it did come the entries were so sloppy he had little chance of doing much with it.
Gold Coast superstar Matt Rowell says his side was primed to win their only game at the MCG during the regular season.
Rowell had 36 disposals and 13 clearances.
“It’s been a weird start, we were just really looking forward to getting out on the MCG and getting this win and we did,” Rowell told Fox Footy.
“We know they are a really good midfield, we had to match them and I thought all our mids were in good touch today and got it done.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, it’s a long year and we’ve just got to continue to attack each game fresh.”
The Suns have romped to a rare MCG win over a hapless, struggling Melbourne Demons today.
In front of a crowd of just over 24,000, the Suns were in control for almost the length of the match as Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson ran wild while Touk Miller and Ben King shined in the forward line.
Just as the Suns were impressive, the Demons looked a shadow of their former selves unable to string possessions together or create regular scoring chances or find a way to repress the run of the Suns.
The Suns are on the rise, the Demons are going in the other direction after an 0-3 start.
The Suns are cruising to victory with Ben King kicking his third goal, he’s really clicked into gear in the second half after struggling to convert his scoring chances in the first half.
The Dees look despondent. They have a lot to work on.
Suns 114, Dees 56 with five mins to go.
St Kilda and Richmond are completing their final warmups ahead of their 4.15pm first bounce at Marvel Stadium and the Saints have lost captain Jack Steele to a knee injury.
AAP’s Oliver Caffrey has tweeted that Steele is a late out with knee issue. The Saints have also confirmed the move and announced his replacement in the side in Angus Hastie.
Young Demon Harvey Langford has been relentless today running hard despite his side not winning all that much of the footy.
He has just stormed down the ground and kicked a running goal.
It will keep the margin a little lower than it would otherwise be but the Suns are well on top.
Suns 100, Dees 56 with 10 mins to go.
The Suns are running away with it now as Sam Flanders sailed a long, looping kick into the goals.
Just before the final terms started, Damien Hardwick had his arm around Flanders and was giving him some instructions, perhaps they were “kick a goal”. If so, mission accomplished.
Suns 94, Dees 49 with 12 mins to go.
Brutal finish to a poor quarter of football for the 2021 premiers. Down by as many as 40 points in time-on, the Dees had a chance to narrow the margin to 23 points in the final minute but Bayley Fritsch dropped an uncontested high ball, then dribbled a behind.
From the kick-in, the Suns whisk the ball to the other end for a goal milliseconds before the siren. The margin is now out to 34 points.
Unable to put a gap on the Dees in the first half despite having the ascendancy, the Suns got their reward that quarter with a burst of five goals in a row.
A streamlined Matt Rowell has gone to the next level this year. He has been magnificent, so has Noah Anderson while Touk Miller booted two important goals.
Not much is going right for the Dees. Trent Rivers has been steeady in defence, youngster Harvey Langford has been serviceable but they’re not getting enough out of Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney, two players instrumental to their flag four years ago but, for various reasons, are well short of that form.
The Dees need something special to pull this out of the fire but I don’t think they’ve got it in them.
The Dees have a long way to comeback from here after Touk Miller marked a shanked kick 35m from goal and then kicked his third major of the day.
He has been an essential player for the Suns today and looks like he will be a menace should he remain in attack.
Miller is now in the middle on Petracca.
Suns 88, Dees 48 with 17 mins to play.