MELBOURNE’S 10^th loss in succession against the Cats, its second half contest and Aidan Riley’s strong contested performance were among the stats to emerge from round 17’s ‘By the numbers’ …

• The Demons have now lost four in succession for the first time this year.
• Melbourne has now lost 10 in a row against Geelong. Its most recent win against the Cats came in round six, 2006 and it also drew against Geelong at the Cattery in round 21, 2006.
• Geelong kicked 8.3 to 2.3 in the second term to win the quarter by six goals. The Cats also won the first half by a whopping 59 points: 11.10 to 2.5. Interestingly, the Cats only booted another six goals in the first, third and final quarters.
• Melbourne won the third quarter by four points. In a low-scoring term, the Demons kicked 2.1 to 1.3. In fact, the Demons booted 3.1 to 3.8 in the second half to lose that period by just seven points.
• The Cats had 32 scoring shots to 11.
• Geelong kicked the opening seven goals, and nine of the first 11 majors of the match.
• The Demons didn’t kick their first goal of the match until the second term, when Jeremy Howe booted back-to-back goals at the 16 and 20-minute mark. It was Melbourne’s only majors of the first half.
• Geelong had nine more tackles than Melbourne: 89 to 80.
• Aidan Riley had a team-high 14 contested possessions – one fewer than Geelong’s Hamish McIntosh, who had a game-best 15.
• Joel Selwood was the game’s leading ball-winner with 31 disposals. Another four Geelong players (Steve Johnson 27, James Kelly 27, Steven Motlop 26 and Corey Enright 25) had more touches than Melbourne’s highest possession gatherer: Nathan Jones (23).