A relieved Melbourne surged to top of the AFL ladder after holding off a plucky Gold Coast outfit to claim a five-point win, with a couple of late contentious decisions leaving Suns fans far from pleased.
Demons superstar Christian Petracca snapped a brilliant goal to kick the all-important first of the final term before skipper Max Gawn goaled from an off-the-ball free kick to make it very hard for the Suns.
But the Suns continued to fight and a fourth goal to Malcolm Rosas made it a four-point game. Darcy Macpherson, though, missed a late shot that would have delivered a dramatic draw.
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However Suns fans at Heritage Bank Stadium booed the umpires from the ground after a couple of late-game decisions went against Gold Coast.
With the Demons leading by four points with just over four points left in the match, Gold Coast’s Brandon Ellis soccered the ball inside 50 towards veteran David Swallow, who was opposed to Melbourne’s Trent Rivers.
Swallow wasn’t awarded a free kick, despite appearing to be held by Rivers when attempting to mark the ball.
“I want to look at the non-free kick … what’s your decision here? The ball goes inside 50, he’s on the lead, he’s grabbed an arm, he’s twisted him, he’s turned him?” dual premiership Kangaroo David King told Fox Footy.
Triple Coleman Medallist Jason Dunstall responded: “Should’ve been a free kick.
“They (the Suns) have been a little bit stiff, I’ve said that earlier. I think there’s a few 50-50s that have gone against them, but that’s the rub of the green in this game.”
The Demons then moved the ball down the other end of the field, with Petracca’s snap rushed through for a behind.
Melbourne Demons Press Conference | 04:13
But the call that perplexed Dunstall the most happened with one minute left on the clock, with Gawn appearing to push Mabior Chol in the side during a marking contest.
While Macpherson — 26.23 from 79 games — marked the ball seconds later, Dunstall believed Chol — 71.45 from 57 games — should’ve been having the set-shot instead.
“That has to be (a free kick),” Dunstall said.
“It feels like justice (the Suns got a set-shot to Macpherson seconds later) because Max Gawn gave Mabior Chol the biggest push in the side, a two-handed shove and gave him no option to compete for the footy.”
However the Suns had several chances against the Demons late that they couldn’t capitalise on, including the Macpherson miss and a shanked shot at goal by James Tsitas that went out-of-bounds, while veteran Levi Casboult gave away an off-the-free kick.
Asked for his take on the non-free kick to Swallow, Suns coach Stuart Dew told reporters post-match: “I don‘t know. That’s for other people to decide. I’ll just look at what we can control.
“I‘m sure there’ll be commentary around different factors in the game, so I’ll stick to my own backyard.
“I’m down on the ground, so I’ll have a look at in review.”
Dew said he was proud of his players for their positive attitude amid 50-50m calls not going their way late.
“You’ve got no choice, you just keep going. You can’t stop and say: ‘Excuse me can we have another look at that one?’” Dew said.
“That’s the part of the reason why when you walk away from a game like that I’ve got full confidence in where we’re going, our connection is really strong.
Gold Coast Suns Press Conference | 09:29
“I don’t want to be too buoyant about our loss, but there’s a fair bit of heart and togetherness about this group in adversity as well, which is good.”
The Demons looked ominous early, threatening a repeat of last week’s massacre of North Melbourne when they kicked the first three goals.
Although, the Suns – who were missing injured trio Ben Ainsworth, Lachie Weller and Nick Holman – pushed the Demons all the way before going down by 13.12 (90) to 13.7 (85).
Petracca said he had “mixed emotions” post-game.
“There’s relief, but also how hard that game was,” Petracca told Fox Footy.
“Don’t underestimate how good they are as an opposition. Their contest, you saw all night how hard we had to fight for goals — credit to them.
“They probably dominated in every key area, contested possessions … we probably got away with that. But too our credit, our fight in the last two minutes was unbelievable.”
— with NCA NewsWire
