{"id":316099,"date":"2023-07-14T12:27:13","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T12:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316099"},"modified":"2023-07-14T13:58:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T13:58:58","slug":"written-off-demons-hero-crumbles-lions-in-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316099","title":{"rendered":"'Written off' Demons hero crumbles Lions in thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne's<\/a> Jake Melksham has been crowned a hero after booting the winning goal in the dying seconds of the Demons' match against Brisbane<\/a>, clawing his side back from a 24-point deficit to take a one-point victory at the MCG on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Melk\ufeffsham took a crucial mark with 30 seconds left on the clock to crucify the Lions, who ran out of steam after a dominant third-quarter performance.<\/p>\n

The Lions were held to only one goal in the final term, while the Demons piled on \ufeffthe final four majors to record their 11th win and keep their top-four hopes alive.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Too quick for him': Ashes villain taunts Aussies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Wimbledon 'choke' job opens door for Jabeur<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Melksham \ufeffspoke after the game, saying his goal was "payback" for what he believed was a poor first half of football.<\/p>\n

"I kicked three on the full in the first quarter so it was a good payback," Melksham told Seven.<\/p>\n

After a dominant first quarter where the Demons piled on six goals to the Lions' three, the game continued to see-saw, with Brisbane taking a solid final-quarter lead.<\/p>\n

Enter Demons captain Max Gawn<\/a>, who collected 29 disposals, 39 hit-outs and 10 clearances to help guide his side to boot five of the last seven majors over a tired Brisbane outfit.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFL\/status\/1679832148050575365<\/a><\/p>\n

An emotional Gawn praised the efforts of Melksham, who, aside from his match-winning goal, kicked another and notched up 13 disposals across the night.<\/p>\n

"He's been written off so many times in the last couple of years," Gawn said.<\/p>\n

"I'm so proud of that kid."<\/p>\n

The one-point win comes after Melbourne controversially \ufeffaxed star ruckman Brodie Grundy earlier in the week<\/a>, forcing him down to the VFL to hone his craft in the forward line.<\/p>\n

Gawn, however, still holds hope that the ruck duo could work out for the Dees in the long run.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

"I'm still dedicated to make that work," Gawn said.<\/p>\n

"I think we'll be a real powerhouse, myself and Brodie.<\/p>\n

"I'm not giving up on that."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Demons now sit two games clear in fourth spot on the AFL ladder, only one game behind the Lions.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne's Jake Melksham has been crowned a hero after booting the winning goal in the dying seconds of the Demons' match against Brisbane, clawing his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316105,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316099\/revisions\/316105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/316102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}