Melbourne won’t let their fading AFLW finals hopes slip away without a fight.
That’s the message from coach Mick Stinear as the Demons stare down the barrel of missing the play-offs for the first time since 2019.
Consistently among the premiership favourites, Melbourne have made finals for the past five seasons under Stinear’s watch.
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But a slow 1-4 start to the season, compounded by a horror injury run, forced the Demons to win four games on the bounce to revive their campaign.
Thursday night’s six-point loss to AFLW high-flyers Hawthorn in Cairns — 3.5 (23) to 2.5 (17) — without superstar skipper Kate Hore (quad) and defender Gabby Colvin (concussion) proved costly.
It means ninth-placed Melbourne (20 points) are up against it as they sit behind seventh-placed Fremantle and eighth-placed Essendon, yet to play this round, on percentage.
St Kilda are also just four points behind, with a superior percentage.
Melbourne need to beat Collingwood at Ikon Park next Saturday, and have other results go their way, to seal a top-eight berth.
“We came in it to win,” Stinear told reporters in Cairns.
“But I guess four weeks ago we were down and out, we put our heads down and worked really hard. Proud of what we produced tonight, but it obviously makes things hard for our finals chances.
“But we’re not going anywhere. We’re going to keep working and evolving. We’ve got a good young group who played tonight and took some opportunities.
“And next week, we’re gonna finish off as strong as we possibly can and then hand it over to the footy gods from there.”
Stinear wasn’t taking four points against the Magpies for granted.
“They’ll want to finish strong, they’re a proud club,” he said.
“We’re expecting a fierce contest, and they’ll want to finish their season, get some momentum going into next year, so we won’t be taking that for granted.
“But yeah, we’re a team that’s hurting off the back of this loss.
“Hopefully Kate Hore returns to the team next week and we can finish strong and put ourselves in a good position and see what happens.”
Stinear said gun defender Sinead Goldrick had been cleared of any concussion after copping an accidental knee to the back of the head from Hawthorn skipper Emily Bates.
It is unclear whether Paxy Paxman (foot) will return, while Tayla Harris (shoulder) and Grace Beasley (ACL) are out for the rest of the season.