This instalment of Monarch Monday and Neale Daniher’s day posed more questions of Melbourne than the Magpies.

The Demons had started the season disastrously, at 0-5, but had recovered to the point that finals were theoretically possible, having been revived by Kysaiah Pickett’s brilliance, the constant output of Max Gawn and an improved capacity to score from entries into their often misfiring attack.

Could they score often enough from those attacking forays they were bound to generate on the King’s Birthday holiday, or would they fall prey to the patten of bombing high and long to out-numbered forwards? Or would they, as when upset by the Saints in Alice Springs, simply botch shots on goal?

What we could be assured of was that Melbourne would be fierce in the contest, and that with Jake Lever and Steven May teaming up in defence, Gawn pushing himself to the limit, and the red-and-blues rising in honour of their fabled coach Neale Daniher, that they wouldn’t fail for effort or perseverance.

They wouldn’t freeze on their biggest stage of the season.

At three-quarter time, the Demons trailed by just seven points, having willed themselves back from a deficit that peaked at 20 points earlier. A few weeks earlier, they’d been in a slightly worse position at the Gabba and........

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