Roos bounced by desperate Dees

Melbourne 13.12 (90) def. Kangaroos 12.14 (86)

Melbourne fought hard to snatch a four-point win over the Kangaroos thanks to James McDonald’s last-gasp goal in the final term at the MCG this afternoon.

Both sides had chances to take control of the match, but with only three points separating the two teams at the final change, it was always going to be a tight finish between two rather even teams.

Daniel Pratt opened the scoring in the final term with a goal to put the Roos in front by nine points, but Melbourne was piling on the pressure with three points in a row to bring the deficit to a straight kick.

Roo ruckman David Hale worked forward and kicked a goal to make it a 12-point ball game, but a long goal to Paul Wheatley and two inspired majors to Aaron Davey put Melbourne in front and the Roos on the back foot.

Nathan Thompson kicked a goal against the flow of play to level the match, then took a screamer over Nathan Brown before missing from outside 50 metres to put his side ahead by the narrowest of margins.

But while Thompson inexplicably took himself off while Sav Rocca was also on the bench, McDonald kicked what would be the game-winning goal while the Roos kept pushing forward in the closing stages without an obvious marking target.

Yze kicked four goals and Davey three for the victors, with Byron Pickett working ferociously around the ground picking up 21 possessions and continuously pressuring the opposition and Travis Johnstone dished off 20 disposals.

Thompson gallantly played a lone hand up forward for the Roos, while Brent Harvey kicked two goals and picked up 15 touches.

It was a slow, if not hotly contested, start to the game, with only three goals kicked between the two sides. After both teams missed several chances in front of goal, it was the Kangaroos who took a seven-point lead into quarter-time thanks to a late Kasey Green goal.

But the game was blown wide open in the second term with the Dees slamming on five straight goals while the Roos seemingly turned to water.

Debutant Matthew Bate bagged a goal with his first kick in senior football to get the ball rolling, and Yze kicked truly soon afterwards to put Melbourne in the lead.

Then ill discipline cost the Roos further: Brady Rawlings gave away two 50-metre penalties to take Brad Green from the backline to within goal kicking range where he calmly slotted his first major, then in the subsequent Demons attack several Roo defenders flew for the same ball with Yze benefiting by staying at ground level with his second goal.

Thompson got one back from a free kick for the besieged Kangaroos, but Johnstone – who had managed to break Rawlings’ strong tag to be influential in the second term – kicked his side’s sixth for the quarter and Melbourne led by 20 points at the main break.

But while all the momentum seemingly was with Melbourne, the Kangaroos booted four goals – two of them to the hard-working Thompson – in the first 10 minutes of the third stanza to snatch back the lead and make the game a hot contest.

The lead changed four more times before three-quarter-time, with another late Kasey Green mark and goal giving the Roos a slight three-point advantage at the final change.

With the game in the balance, it was Melbourne who came to the fore to claim victory by four points thanks to some delightful work from Yze and Davey up forward and McDonald’s goal, while Thompson couldn’t get his side over the line despite putting up a contender for mark of the year.

Melbourne will look to make it three wins in a row when they take on Geelong at the MCG next Friday night, while the Roos simply need to come away with four points to keep their season afloat when they play Hawthorn on Sunday at Telstra Dome.

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