Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\nHarris’ powerful presence in front of goal (4.4) and in the air, coupled with the Melbourne\u2019s dominance in forward supply (42-18) and slick movement by hand (+77 uncontested possession), ultimately proved too much for the spirited Saints to overcome, despite stemming their opposition\u2019s movements in patches.<\/p>\n
But the win could come at the significant cost of star Demon Olivia Purcell, who was forced from the action just minutes prior to half-time after twisting her left knee while attempting to tackle St Kilda\u2019s Georgia Patrikios.<\/p>\n
Purcell, who has had a horrific run with injury following a sickening facial fracture sustained in a practice match last season, was a standout in the Dees\u2019 early ascendancy with 14 touches and 261 metres gained by quarter-time, however was assisted from the field to bring an abrupt end to her best-on-ground performance.<\/p>\n
Despite her absence, the Dees\u2019 engine room still functioned sublimely as the likes of Kate Hore (26 disposals, five clearances), Tyla Hanks (29 disposals, 12 tackles) and Paxy Paxman (20 disposals) gave Melbourne\u2019s noticeably taller timber ample opportunities to stand above St Kilda\u2019s overworked backline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgia Patrikios (19 disposals, one goal), Tyanna Smith (20) and J\u2019Noemi Anderson (nine tackles) led the charge to stymie the Dees\u2019 midfield momentum after half-time as Ella Friend was moved to onto the impressive Harris to good effect, but the Dees were simply a cut above from siren to siren to keep them to just two majors for the game.<\/p>\n
It was only a week ago where the smooth-moving Saints had dispatched the highly fancied Adelaide at RSEA Park to open their account on a promising note, however Nick Dal Santo\u2019s side couldn\u2019t repeat the incredible feat, despite their effort at the contest remaining consistent throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n
After mustering just seven entries inside-50 for the opening half to Melbourne\u2019s 27, St Kilda repaired the deficit to somewhat curb the Dees one-way traffic, but the Dees\u2019 early scoreboard damage was too much to overcome.<\/p>\n
Multiple majors from Eden Zanker and Georgia Gall added to Melbourne\u2019s celebrations with emphatic style, and while an elusive five-goal haul from Harris went begging with minutes left on the clock, the final margin was more than enough to prove that Melbourne means business in 2025.<\/p>\n
Prayers for Purcell
While there’s no shortage of influential players in Melbourne\u2019s mission to return to finals football, the potential loss of Olivia Purcell would be a devastating early blow to Mick Stinear\u2019s brigade. Purcell was close to uncontainable in the first half and was well on track to tip into 30-plus disposal territory for the fourth time in her career before immediately grabbing her right knee after an attempted tackle in the shadows of half-time. Should scans confirm a dreaded ACL injury for the midfielder, it would be the second of her career having ruptured the ligament of the opposite knee while in Cats colours in 2021.<\/p>\n
Patrikios back on the scoreboard
Majors were scarce for the Saints today at Casey Fields, but Georgia Patrikios\u2019 first major since 2023 was something for the red, white and black to smile about. After missing the entirety of last season with a foot injury, the \u2018Doc\u2019 had her kicking boots on to give her side some much-needed scoreboard presence to begin the third quarter on a positive note. Patrikios ended her afternoon with a hard-fought 19 disposals, with her impact on the upcoming campaign sure to be central to the Saints\u2019 hunt for a maiden finals berth.<\/p>\n
Up next
The Demons will head to Victoria Park next Sunday to tackle Collingwood in the hopes of beginning their year with a 3-0 record, while St Kilda will host West Coast at RSEA Park. As part of next week\u2019s Indigenous Round celebrations, Melbourne and St Kilda will go by the traditional First Nations names of Narrm and Euro-Yroke respectively.<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE\u00a0 \u00a02.5\u00a0 \u00a0 7.8\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a09.9\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a013.11 (89)
ST KILDA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1.0\u00a0 \u00a0 1.1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02.2\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02.3 (15)<\/p>\n
GOALS
Melbourne:\u00a0Harris 4, Zanker 2, Gall 2, Paxman, Hore, Johnson, Bannan, Fitzsimon
St Kilda:\u00a0Anderson, Patrikios<\/p>\n
BEST
Melbourne:\u00a0Hanks, Harris, Hore, Zanker, Pearce, Paxman
St Kilda:\u00a0Smith, Patrikios, Watson, Anderson<\/p>\n
INJURIES
Melbourne:\u00a0Purcell (knee)
St Kilda:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
LATE CHANGES
Melbourne:\u00a0Nil
St Kilda:\u00a0Natalie Plane replaced Darcy Guttridge (ankle soreness)<\/p>\n
Crowd:\u00a0TBC at Casey Fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE has reaffirmed its credentials as a serious contender for this season\u2019s title with thanks to a four-goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-89591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}