Round 3 – Brisbane Vs Melbourne – Lions Lay Down Like Lambs

Liam Chambers

Good result for the Dees. It’s never easy playing away. Brisbane were favourite to win on home soil even though they lost to in-form Fremantle in Round 2. The heat & humidity was also a factor, but you’d never know it by the way Melbourne controlled the game.

Five minutes in & Aliesha Newman kicked the first goal after one of her signatory runs. The Dees were dominating. Hanks was displaying her superior passing skills and showing great vision. A few minutes later and Newman had her second.

Overall Melbourne was applying tremendous pressure on the Lions and should have been further ahead at quarter time. Brisbane scored courtesy of Tawhaq-Wardlow.

The second quarter was the best display by Melbourne so far this season. Goals by Kat Smith, Paxman (again good pass from Hanks) & Eden Zanker showed the diversity of talent in the Dee’s side.

Harriet Cordner did a great job of shutting down Sabrina Frederick Traub. Bianca Jacobson scored a lovely goal after some intense pressure from Melbourne which saw them forty points ahead at the end of the first half.

Melbourne didn’t let up in the third quarter and tackled well, especially Kat Smith. Their use of the hand ball was at times superb and pressurized the Lions into making a lot of errors. The intercept marking was also noteworthy. Unfortunately for all the Dees superior play, Brisbane were getting themselves into potential scoring positions.

Finally, Nat Exon put one between the uprights for the Lions, their first goal since late in quarter one. Then Bianca Jacobson got her second & Melbourne went into the last quarter leading by thirty-eight points.

The last quarter was again a low scoring affair. There were some nice touches, but Brisbane never looked like launching a major comeback. A highlight for Melbourne was the mark and subsequent goal from Tegan Cunningham. Tegan looked like she lacked confidence early on. The Dees won by thirty-nine points after Kate McCarthy from Brisbane scored a deserved goal after the siren.

All in all, a great performance by Melbourne and they have now stamped their mark on the competition after three good games. The loss to Fremantle was unlucky but the girls also learned a lot from that disappointment.

Their biggest test will be in Round 4 when they take on the new kids from North Melbourne. Playing at Casey Fields will help but the Kangaroos are an altogether different beast to Brisbane. The Roos will have watched this game to spot where Melbourne are weakest. We will have done the same. It will be interesting to see what changes the Dees make to their game. If the Dees play like they did in Brisbane, then I would definitely not bet against us.

Congratulations to Daisy Pearce & the latest members of the Melbourne Demons Fan Club