After a week of drama off the field, Melbourne have delivered on it with an emphatic 54-point AFL win over Gold Coast at People First Stadium.
Having made headlines amid reports several key players want out of the club, the Demons put all that behind them by blowing away an underwhelming Suns in the 18.9 (117) to 9.9 (63) victory.
The win doesn’t change the fact the Dees won’t play finals but for coach Simon Goodwin, it answered any questions about the commitment of his players to the cause.
"Tells us a lot about the unity and the connection that's pretty strong within our footy club," Goodwin said.
"It's a big win. 27 degrees. No interstate's come up here and won. Putting a pretty young team away together that was connected and unified. I think it shows a bit about our footy club.
"There's been a lot spoken about it this week for all the reasons that we've sort of expressed throughout the week, but internally there's a real belief with the group that we've got that we keep progressing forward, we keep trying to get better, and we'll find a way forward."
Goodwin picked out captain Max Gawn and vice-captain Jack Viney for their leadership in the win. Gawn battled away despite a heavily strapped right leg and with his head swathed in bandages after suffering a cut to his forehead, while Viney was the best on ground.
A day after North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson outlined his intention to lure Viney to the Kangaroos, the 30-year-old racked up 30 touches, 10 tackles and nine clearances as well as kicking two goals in an inspirational display.
"He's the heart and soul of our club," Goodwin said.
"For a long time he's been able to drive culture to a really high level and he showed it today from a performance perspective.
"He means an enormous amount Vines. He’s red and blue through and through and I’m sure that will get sorted in due course."
Another pleasing aspect for Goodwin was watching his trio of tall forwards in Daniel Turner, Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen combine for a total of 10 goals.
Turner led the way with four majors while Petty and van Rooyen booted three apiece.
The only sour note was a suspected syndesmosis injury to Tom Sparrow in the second quarter which is almost certain to rule him out of next week’s season-ending match against Collingwood.
Having watched his team concede 11 goals from clearances as well as consistently miss targets inside 50, Suns coach Damien Hardwick didn’t mince words with his appraisal of the loss.
"That was a really, really poor performance, and probably our worst performance of the year," Hardwick said.
"Even when the game was close, I thought we looked not to the level that we've been capable of playing.
"It was really disappointing, especially to finish off that way at home."
Gold Coast get one last chance to post 11 wins in a season for the first time in club history next weekend when they face Richmond at the MCG.
