THE Dees turned the tables on the Cats on Saturday night.
Geelong had defeated Melbourne by a narrow five points in a semi-final battle last year, but 266 days later, it was the Dees that snapped up the close victory.
Starting off fresh in Round 1, Melbourne travelled to GMHBA Stadium to secure the 6.4 (40) to 6.6 (42) win.
“They earned it. It was a tough, physical game,” Stinear said.
“Geelong had us on the backfoot early with a couple of goals, but I’m really pleased with the team’s ability to work through it, and I feel like they really deserved the win.
“We felt like we were winning the clearance battle, but we weren’t winning the territory. We’d win the ball, take it forward, they would win it in our forward line and then go back at us the other way.
“The second half we were a bit better ahead of the ball, we had a stronger contest, our ground level game in the forward half looked a bit stronger, so we were able to have more time in the forward half and get reward for effort.”
With a star-studded line-up, Geelong presented a tough challenge off the mark in 2024.
Stinear highlighted this skill level within their first opposition and praised Melbourne’s effort to break through it.
“There are some strong opponents with McDonald, Prespakis, and Morrison in there. I’m just really pleased with our team’s ability to compete and fight repeatedly throughout the last three quarters,” Stinear said.
“When we gave them time and space early in the game their skill level and efficiency were really damaging, so we had to try and take that away from them with a bit more pressure.”
A number of players stood tall in the Saturday win, Blaithin Mackin, Sinead Goldrick and Kate Hore among the mix of impressive Demons.
Hore was the clear standout, accumulating three goals, 23 disposals, 13 contested possessions and seven clearances.
“I think she certainly enjoyed the win. She’s got a great will to win and had great recognition from her peers in our meeting, they love playing with her,” Stinear said.
“Her finishing tonight was excellent, that capacity to be able to play midfield and go forward is great.
Goldrick, who was strong in her new role across the midfield, also had plenty of positive things to say about the Melbourne captain.
“She’s so classy, she just leads by example. You could put her anywhere on the field and she would do a good job,” Goldrick said.
“Today, she was outstanding as usual, and I think that’s the standard that you’re going to have of her, that she’s going to be one of the best players on the pitch, we’re very lucky to have her.”
The praise didn’t stop there, with Goldrick taking the opportunity to pump up fellow Irish teammate Mackin.
“She was amazing, that was her first game back. She was giving inspiration all over the pitch, so was Eliza McNamara, our wings played such a crucial role for us, which is a role that might not get a lot of recognition,” Goldrick said.
“Both of them ran their socks off today, and we wouldn’t have the win without the work rate both of them brought.”
Goldrick registered 14 disposals and five score involvements, including her first AFLW goal, an exciting milestone for the Demon who is entering her sixth season.
“[Lauren Pearce] handed it to me, so I just had to run it in, it was nice to get it,” Goldrick said.
“I think that ‘fight to the death’ was our mentality, and Geelong are such a good team.
“Their midfield are really strong, they’ve got classy forwards, and they kind of have strength everywhere, so for us today, our connection was really good and got us over the line.”
