Melbourne Demons make AFL history in stunning never-before-seen feat

The Melbourne Demons have announced themselves once again as AFL premiership contenders, after an eye-popping stat emerged after their 63-point demolition job on the West Coast Eagles. The 2021 premiers were bundled out of the finals last year in far from convincing fashion, but have answered their critics with a vengeance so far this season.

A narrow loss to Brisbane at the Gabba stands as the only blemish on the Demons' record, after thumping victories against the Western Bulldogs and Sydney to go with their rout against the Eagles. Afterwards, a crucial statistic hinting at just how dominant the Demons have been this season came to the fore.

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For the first time in club history, Melbourne have won three of their first four games by a margin of 50 points or more. The Eagles were arguably fortunate not to find themselves even further behind despite a gallant first half, with Kysaiah Pickett booting an inaccurate two goals and five behinds in his return from suspension.

Forced to make seven changes to their side through injury, the Eagles simply didn't have the firepower to keep up with the Demons in a brutal loss at Optus Stadium. Conversely, the Demons' own injury troubles allowed Tom McDonald to return to the senior side from the VFL, rewarding coach Simon Goodwin with four goals.

The Demons midfield looked to be back at their premiership best, with the likes of Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca and Jack Viney all influential. Key off-season recruit Brody Grundy was also singled out for praise by Goodwin, lifting in the absence of the injured Max Gawn.

“I was rapt for Tom,” Goodwin said after the match. “He wasn’t in the best of form in the first couple of weeks, we sent him back to the VFL where he played a really dominant game. Then he came in and did the same thing for us today.

“It says a lot about Tom and about our culture that we’ve got a group of hungry individuals who are willing to go back and work on their game, then come in and play some really strong AFL footy.

"[Clayton Oliver] was sensational early in and around those contest areas, he was really strong for us around those areas and Christian got better as the game went on. He started to have an influence forward of centre.

“I thought they got some pretty special supply from Grundy today, he was pretty special for us.”

Demons facing happy selection dilemma amid historically strong start

The Demons could face something of a selection crunch in the weeks to come, with the injured Ben Brown likely to make a case for a recall. Brown kicked nine goals across the opening three rounds before going down with injury, and Goodwin now faces a juggling act to fit him back in the side.

"We'll have to assess him through the week to see how he's pulled up," Goodwin said of Brown. "But it's competitive. We sort of take a bit of a squad mentality with some of this stuff as well.

"We've got really competitive spots in our team and one of those is our key forward position. So we'll have to have a good think about how that looks for next week."

Defender Michael Hibberd is in doubt after being subbed out with an achilles tendon issue, but fellow backman Jake Lever (ankle) is expected to be fit.

With AAP

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