MELBOURNE stuck fat during a tough Round 12 encounter against Geelong to stamp its ticket to a home qualifying final next weekend. The Demons shook off a determined Cats outfit with a five goals to two third term proving the difference in the game.

With not much separating the sides otherwise, Geelong booted 4.8 to Melbourne’s 4.3 across the remaining three quarters, but the dominant premiership term lived up to its name as the Dees will remain in Melbourne for the next few rounds and almost certainly the entire finals series.

“I thought it was a really good contest tonight, the Cats were very good,” Demons coach Mick Stinear said. “Compared to last year really really happy with the home and away season we’ve had and the work that’s gone into it. “Look forward to our next challenge, but I feel like we’ve got a lot of learnings to come out of the season, but you’ve got to wipe the slate clean and start again. “Tonight put us in a really good spot to start again next week.”

Stinear said while ideally the team would have followed on from the third quarter breakaway to finish strongly and record a more comfortable victory, he was “just happy to get the win” and secure second spot on the AFLW ladder.

“It took us a little while to adjust early, but their midfield really strong, hard to play against, they took territory on us quickly and forwards were getting up and trying to beat us out the back,” he said. “I think once our team settled the backs held up really well and then we started to use the ball a little bit better and get some looks in our forward half and be able to settle the game.

“We would have loved to have run out that last quarter a little bit better but it was a high pressure game from Geelong they didn’t let up and we’re just happy to get the win and earn that second spot.”

While the Demons will now take on a Brisbane side that knocked off Melbourne up at Brighton Homes Arena, Stinear’s group will now play the Lions at Ikon Park for a spot in the preliminary final, and most likely avoiding the rampant North Melbourne before a grand final.

For the Melbourne coach, the victory over Geelong was about connection and gradually building towards what looms as a huge post-season series.

“I think just the connection as a team and we’re able to play to each other’s strengths,” Stinear said of the most pleasing aspect from the win. “We’ve had some really good moments, there’s been a lot of positive footy being played but I feel like the opportunity is to do that more consistently and being a little more ruthless and be harder to play against and harder to score against.

“It’s exciting, I feel like our best is good enough to contend with any of the other finals teams, but we’ve still got to go and earn that, and we’ve got to be stronger in this next four week block if we want to challenge the best.”

While not perfectly placed heading into another November finals tilt, Stinear said there was “some growth” from the defeat to Brisbane in Round 11.

“There were similarities to last week’s game and tonight’s game and we certainly had some growth,” he said. “We still feel like we’ve got significant areas to improve like tonight the ball travelled from one end to the other too quickly.

“We want to keep that ball in our forward half and get more return in front of goal. “But playing against the best teams and competitive teams and that’s what finals is about and we feel like the last three weeks has prepared us for that, even the last four weeks I think we’ve had Freo, Sydney, Brisbane and Geelong.

“They’ve been really good challenges and set us up nicely. We start again and really optimistic with the team we’ve got and excited.”