Elimination Final 2018

Elimination Final, 2018
Melbourne vs Geelong
Friday 7 September
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 91,767

	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
Melbourne	5.3	5.9	6.13	10.15.75
Geelong	0.2	2.4	3.8	6.10.46

Match Statistics

Melbourne win by 29 points

Goalkickers: Sam Weideman 3, Max Gawn 1, Mitch Hannan 1, James Harmes 1, Nathan Jones 1, Tom McDonald 1, Jake Melksham 1, Alex Neal-Bullen 1

Milestones:
Nil

After last playing a final in 2016, Melbourne returned to September action in style, with a five goal to nil first quarter. Sam Weideman was the unexpected star, kicking two early goals to calm the nerves of both his teammates, and a largely pro-Demon crowd. They'd endured a nervy few minutes where Geelong was on top but unable to kick the first goal, before Tom McDonald opened the scoring at the city end. After 20 minutes, five Geelong players still hadn't touched the ball and the lead was 31 points at the first change.

Melbourne dominated play in the second term but goals dried up, with only six behinds against two goals on the counter-attack from Geelong. The margin was back to 23 points at half time, just weeks after the Cats ran a seemingly unassailable Melbourne lead down to win after the siren. The game went into a stalemate in the third term, with each side only kicking one goal, leaving Geelong within range of a comeback that would keep their season alive. After winning their last two home and away games by a combined 235 points, they only had three goals at the last change and would need to double their score just to reach Melbourne's three quarter time total.

Fittingly, after being the face of so many crushing defeats over the years, the decisive goal at the start of the last quarter went to Nathan Jones, breaking a scoring run of 1.10 in the middle quarters and setting his side. The final blow was struck with a running goal to Mitch Hannan at the 14 minute mark, ensuring Melbourne advanced to the second week of the finals, and a clash with Hawthorn a week later.

Best were Weideman, Salem and Harmes.

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