DAISY DOES IT by Whispering Jack

Posted October 15, 20223 yr

The Gold Coast has been treated to a feast of womens football over the past couple of days. On Friday night, the Brisbane Lions claimed flag favouritism when they knocked the Adelaide Crows off their second placed perch at Metricon Stadium. Then on Saturday evening at the same venue, the Melbourne Demons consolidated their hold on that vacated second spot when, they ruthlessly smashed a finals contender in consecutive weeks, this time the home town favourites, the Suns.

It was a case of the Demons dominating from the start to the very end against Gold Coast who were kept to a solitary goal while the visitors scored goals on a regular basis in their march to a 49-point victory which was enough to tip the Suns from eighth into ninth place on the ladder.

Melbourne went into Pride Round somewhat depleted by injuries but that mattered little. They were in control from the get go but a single point was little to show for their dominance until well past the halfway mark of the opening term when Daisy Pearce, in her 50th game, bobbed up with a mark and the first goal of the match. This was followed in quick succession by majors from Kate Hore and Tayla Harris and by the first break, Melbourne held a handy 3.1.19 to 0.1.1 lead .

It took the Suns until late in the term for them to make their first foray inside the 50 metre arc and this was the standard the Demons set for the day as they amassed an incredible 45 in that part of the ground against their opponents’ meagre 9 for the night.

The measure of that superiority came from out of a midfield that managed to thrive even without injured Lauren Pearce directing the rucks. Olivia Purcell (32 disposals), Tyla Hanks (20) and Eliza West (19 and 11 tackles) were on fire and winger Lily Mithen (21 touches) added plenty of run from the outside.

Little wonder then that the forwards reaped the benefit with Harris kicking three goals, and Eden Zanker and Hore two each.

And on those rare occasions when the ball found itself in Melbourne’s defence, the backline stood up and Libby Birch and Shelley Heath were impassable.

The Demons are now sitting pretty with their two remaining matches are at Casey Fields against teams that are out of finals contention and while there’s no room for over-confidence or complacency, they can look forward to some exciting times in the month or two ahead.

MELBOURNE 3.1.19 5.1.31 7.2.44 9.4.58

GOLD COAST SUNS 0.0.0 1.0.6 1.3.9 1.3.9

GOALS

MELBOURNE Harris 3 Hore Zanker 2 Fitzsimon D Pearce

GOLD COAST SUNS Dupuy

BEST

MELBOURNE Purcell Mithen Heath West Harris Hanks

 GOLD COAST SUNS Drennan Single Saad Rowbottom

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Nil

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

CROWD 1,004 at Metricon Stadium

ODDSPOT The official attendances have just come out which showed that the crowd for the home team’s game against Melbourne was 229 less than the night before when Brisbane played Adelaide.