Demons savour big win over Brisbane - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Demons savour big win over Brisbane

By Roger Vaughan 25/04/2010 03:32:52 PM Comments (0)

Even before the final siren, the Demons faithful were belting out the club song.

After two successive wooden spoons, Saturday night's outstanding 50-point AFL win over Brisbane at the MCG may well be a turning point for Melbourne.

It was the first time since 2006 that the Demons have won three-straight and this was a big upset, against a side which was unbeaten after four rounds.

This was a genuine scalp, following a one-point loss to Collingwood and wins over struggling Adelaide and Richmond.

Melbourne suddenly appear far removed from the timid side that Hawthorn thumped in round one. Club legend Ron Barassi said it was far too early to say if this was the start of something big for the Demons, but he agreed it was a memorable win.

"Give me 48 months' notice and I will tell you all about it, but ... it was that sort of feeling among the crowd," Barassi said.

"A certain level of confidence has been built in the last month ... this was a very strong team we were facing, a team in form so to speak.

"They would be absolutely thrilled by the way our players stuck to their guns - we were under a bit of pressure, it was fantastic."

In the rooms post-match, club president Jim Stynes led fans in another rousing rendition of the club song.

It was a day after Stynes' birthday and only a couple of weeks after neurosurgery, with the scars clearly visible on the back of his head, as he has ongoing treatment for cancer.

Pre-match, Stynes had hoped that Melbourne would at least be competitive - they were far more than that.

Coach Dean Bailey was measured post-match, mindful that the season is only five rounds old.

But he praised his young team for their fearlessness against the Lions.

"Their pressure was good, we knew we had to keep the pressure up when you've got two outstanding (opposition) forwards," he said.

"The boys worked hard for the whole game and they got their reward in the end."

This was Bailey's 10th win since he started coaching Melbourne two years ago and he was asked if this was the most important for him.

"You can count them up, how many we've had, we haven't had too many - they're all important," he said.

Bailey also said it was far too early to say if Melbourne were becoming more consistent and put their improved form down to a simple trait - persistence.

"We just kept persisting and persisting ... there's no magic ingredient, persistence will get you a long way," Bailey said.

"I wish there was something magic I could say about it, but ... if you persist long enough and work hard enough, you'd like to think you get some reward.

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