AFTER a spirited first half by a rebuilding opposition, premiership contender Melbourne flexed its muscles to put away the Western Bulldogs by eight goals at Whitten Oval on Saturday night. Most people attending would have expected the more experienced Demons outfit – still missing a number of key players – to be too strong for the young Dogs, but it took a while to shake off the determined Pups.

Leading by just seven points at quarter time and 12 points at the main break, Melbourne opted for faster ball movement in the second half and ran over the dogs with a four-goal third quarter before finishing ioff strongly kicking the only six goals of the second half.

Coach Mick Stinear said he was pleased to see the players getting reward for effort after a long and hard off-season.

“It’s a fair while to wait to be back,” her said. “It was nice on Thursday night to have women’s footy back on the screens at home. It was good to get our time tonight and bank the four points, but just good to transfer the work in the preseason to in-season form and like I said, get that reward for effort. You get a lot of energy out of seeing the players do what they do best and putting their skills on display and it was nice in that second half for things to open up a little bit and see what this group was capable of doing.”

Stinear credited the Dogs with early pressure throughout the first term, while his Dees tended to rush it forward without having the right structures in place. After quarter time they adjusted and started to get better cohesion, before running out the game in a dominant fashion by picking up the pace.

“First quarter the pressure was on, we were kinda working back winning the ball but just dumping it forward and we were out of position like we were in our defensive half and kicking to our keys, but with no layers at that next contest, so then we couldn’t actually get any time in forward half and it didn’t quite look right,” he said. “Then our ability to use our numbers or the ability to make quick contest decisions to get to where that ball’s going because they were out-working us early.

“That was definitely a shift in that first half which allowed us to hit the scoreboard and spent some time in our forward half. Then in the second half we actually just moved the ball a lot quicker and their pressure was good. There were times where we overdid it with the ball, but as things opened up a little bit we were able to go from the inside to the outside, really trust our key forwards and be a bit more predictable and that created our scoring opportunities in the second half.”

It all started in the defensive half, with Stinear praising the work of Maeve Chaplin and Sarah Lampard who stood up in the absence of Tahlia Gillard and Gabby Colvin, to lead a relatively inexperienced defensive group that featured first-gamers Molly O’Hehir and Laela Ebert, while Blaithin Mackin was moved there and Saraid Taylor stepped up as the main key defender.

“I think Maeve and Lampy down back have done an excellent job,” Stinear said. “Obviously they’ve been playing for a little while, but just their instruction and communication, ability to support those around them.

“Saraid playing as a key defender, with Tahlia and Gabby out it’s just been really good to see the leadership of others step up, and Blaithin playing down back hasn’t done that too often, but then Laela Ebert and Molly O’Hehir to slot into that defensive unit. Maeve and Lampy their leadership down there has been critical to helping us behind the ball.”

The other player whose full-time forward role raised some eyebrows was skipper Kate Hore, but Stinear reassured Demons fans she was fine or that it was not a permanent move, but rather the result of bone bruising from the practice match against Adelaide.

“Thankfully it settled at the back end of the week so she was cleared to play, but … deep forward to midfield you obviously take a few more knocks and we know it’s Round 1 we want her for the full season,” Stinear said. “She’s got through really well, we just didn’t want to push our luck.

“We’re obviously wrapped that she could play, but we’re just trying to be a bit smarter about the amount the contests she was in today. We’ll look for her to play a lot more midfield time and then complement that with a bit of forward time next week and beyond.”

Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett said she was “disappointed” with the way the Dogs faded in the second half.

“Probably a tale of two halves really,” she said. “Really disappointed from the scoreboard perspective. I thought our first half showed that it can stack up what we’re trying to do, we just need to do it for longer. Just fundamentally we were poor across the night, which doesn’t help, and then we didn’t maximise on our opportunities especially in that first half.”