Old habits haunt Dees in frustrating AFL wildcard exit

Old habits from a previous regime came back to haunt Melbourne at the worst possible time.

After a year of attacking flair with goals galore, the Demons were unable to transfer that into their wildcard final against Carlton at the MCG on Saturday night.

Bursting out of the blocks with the first four goals of the contest within 20 minutes, Melbourne managed just three more majors for the rest of the night to go down by 19 points.

It culminated in a club-record fifth consecutive finals loss, going with their painful straight-sets exits in 2022 and 2023.

Even during top-four finishes in those years, former Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin regularly faced question over how their forward line was functioning.

The Demons would continually have clearance dominance and a stack of inside-50s, but their connection up forward was lacking.

On Saturday night, Carlton defenders Jacob Weitering, Harry Dean and Nick Haynes kept cutting off the Demons' forward entries as Melbourne blasted away at goal.

After quarter-time, Melbourne went inside-50 32 times for a return of just 3.10.

Carlton defended vigorously, but the Demons were their own worst enemies - spraying easy chances and burning teammates in better spots for a chance at personal glory.

Although Jacob Van Rooyen hadn't been starring in recent times, the young key forward's three-game suspension for striking Port Adelaide's Aliir Aliir might have ended the Demons' season.

Van Rooyen takes one of the opposition's best defenders and provides valuable ruck support for nine-time All-Australian Max Gawn.

Matt Jefferson was also a key out, the young forward hurting his knee in a loss against the Western Bulldogs last week.

Instead, Melbourne had veterans Jake Melksham and Tom McDonald toiling away inside-50 in what ended up being their final AFL games.

For all the positive change Steven King created in his first season as Melbourne coach, he will be left wondering all summer why it fell apart once finals came around.