MATT Burgan looks at the stories, stats and surprises in his weekly column.

Summary
When Taylor Walker kicked truly for the Crows at the 27-minute mark of the final term on Saturday night, Melbourne was up by just eight points. Given the Demons led by 32 points late in the third quarter, there was a sense of déjà vu, following on from Melbourne’s heartbreaking kick-after-the-siren loss to Geelong at the Cattery in round 18. And when Eddie Betts’ shot for goal shaved the post and went through for a behind at the 30-minute mark, there was a sense that perhaps the footy gods were with Melbourne on this occasion. Some composure and hard-working efforts from Melbourne followed in the dying stages, resulting in Alex Neal-Bullen running into an open goal to kick the sealer at the 31-minute mark. It capped off a fine win by the Demons – their 11th for the season – and a critical one at that.

How’s stat?
Melbourne is now one win better at this stage of the season than 2017. At the end of round 19 last year, the Demons had claimed 10 wins and lost nine times. This time around, Melbourne enters round 20 with 11 victories and seven losses.

The number
20 – points was how much Melbourne trailed by at the 10-minute mark of the opening term. The Crows booted 3.2, before Melbourne registered its first score via a Tom McDonald goal at the 14-minute mark. At one stage, Melbourne produced a 52-point turnaround, before winning by 13 points.

Experience differential
Games: Adelaide Crows (2297) v Melbourne (1939)
Goals: Adelaide Crows (2168) v Melbourne (1373)
Average age: Adelaide Crows (25 years, 325 days) v Melbourne (24 years, 346 days)

Did you know …
Melbourne has now won three of its past four matches at Adelaide Oval? The Demons beat Port Adelaide (round 21, 2016) and Adelaide twice (round eight, 2017 and round 19, 2018), with its only defeat in that period being a 10-point loss against the Power in round 14, this year.

3 votes: Max Gawn
The ruckman did his Brownlow chances no harm when he had an equal career-best 66 hit outs. He’s now had 303 hit outs to advantage – no other club has reached 250 hit outs to advantage combined this year.  

2 votes: Clayton Oliver
Like Gawn, ‘Clarry’ continued his brilliant season, winning a team-high 31 disposals. Further enhanced his All-Australian claims with another outstanding performance with 14 clearances. 

1 vote: Tom McDonald
McDonald notched up his 40th goal for the season, after booting three for the match. He kicked one goal in the first, second and third quarters and pinch-hit in the ruck to continue his excellent year. 

Apologies to …
James Harmes, Jordan Lewis, Dom Tyson, Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Petracca, who all could’ve been among the votes.

Good to see …
Dom Tyson make a strong contribution in his 100th game. After some tough moments throughout the season, having been in and out of the team, he made a significant difference in the third term, when Melbourne set-up its win. Tyson had 11 of his 20 touches in the third quarter and reinforced why he’s an important of Melbourne’s 2018 campaign.

Oppo’s best: Matt Crouch
Crouch had a game-high 32 touches to be arguably his side’s best.  

Pic of the day


Melbourne's milestone men celebrate a goal (Photo: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

Facebook post of the day

Instagram photo of the day

These moments #Lewy300

A post shared by Melbourne Football Club (@melbournefc) on

Tweet of the day

Video of the day

In the mix
It’s hard to see many changes after Melbourne’s win on the weekend. Cam Pedersen and Aaron vandenBerg, who were both travelling emergencies, are again the most likely in the mix. Jayden Hunt is now available to resume after being sidelined with an ankle injury, but is likely to return via Casey. Sam Weideman and Josh Wagner are others in contention.

Next round
The Demons return to the MCG to face the Gold Coast Suns. Melbourne is overwhelming favourites, but cannot take this match lightly. Although Gold Coast has had a tough season, with a host of injuries taking its toll, it did beat the Swans two rounds ago. Melbourne easily accounted for Gold Coast by 69 points at the Gabba in round eight, and it will be desperate to notch up win No.12 for the season, as continues to push for September.

In the rooms


Jordan Lewis with son Freddie after the win (Photo: Caitlin Nobes)

Song to sum up the match
A View to a Kill - Duran Duran

Simon Says …
“As a club, we were probably under a bit of pressure this week after the way we lost last week, so to show that character and belief was outstanding. To be in a position where we were 20 points down early, clearly not playing our best footy and to have that response was certainly a great way to play. We took a really big step forward.” – Simon Goodwin