Titus.
Ronnie kindly sent us this report.
Melbourne (125) v Geelong (42)
What an exciting weekend of training drills!
The Preliminary Finals, normally some of the most exciting games of the season, were all over by halftime as Port and Geelong forgot the games were on.
Perhaps next year they got set alarms on the phones before finals.
For Demons fans, the least stressful game of the year happened to be a Preliminary Final, as Melbourne made the Cats look like the Washington Generals.
Everything came off for the Demons, Max Gawn kicked five, James Harmes took a hanger and Steven May wasn’t troubled down back despite having a tight hamstring.
A couple of Geelong goals before halftime had Melbourne fans thoughtful, but the third quarter saw Melbourne provide more highlights in a single quarter than the rest of my Melbourne supporting life put together.
Max Gawn looks like a Viking, and he treated Geelong like it was a small medieval monastery on the coast of England.
Geelong once again failed in the Finals, struck down by that pesky virus that hits them every September.
Cats fans watched on in horror as Gary Rohan was once again more lost than Amelia Earhart and big money recruit Jeremy Cameron finished with just four disposals.
Key to it all is the fact that Geelong are just too slow. The Demons spread from every contest like Delta, on the flip side, every time a Cat got the ball they were under pressure.
This pressure showed when Joe Selwood complained about a fifty-metre penalty given against him, which was like watching an arsonist complaining that they got burnt.
The win made Melbourne the clear favourites for the Premiership until the Bulldogs played.
Saturday
Port Adelaide (45) v Western Bulldogs (116)
While Geelong’s capitulation wasn’t a complete surprise, an aging team, no week off, Chris Scott’s involvement, the Power’s complete surrender was.
Port had a week off, were at home, the Dogs had travelled a lot and didn’t get to train on Adelaide Oval.
Which made Port’s gesture to act as witches hats a noble gesture but an odd one.
While the Melbourne-Geelong game at least begun with something of a contest, the Power didn’t even offer one, with players strolling around like they were on a sightseeing holiday.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, weren’t mucking around, putting five goals on the board before the Power even knew what was going on.
Port had no answers, and I’ve seen Jellyfish with more structure.
Marcus Bontempelli’s knee injury seemed like a myth, and even if he hadn’t played, it wouldn’t have mattered.
Ollie Wines was one of the very few Port players that realised a Preliminary Final was going on around him, but many of his teammates seemed perplexed at what he was doing with all that trying stuff.
As for Bulldogs fans, they couldn’t be more thrilled, the spirit in this team is sensational, they will never die wondering.
It sets up yet another Demons v Bulldogs Grand Final.
I was at the last Grand Final these two played, it was during week one of Melbourne’s first lockdown.
