Did Melbourne celebrate too early?

Former AFL coach Rodney Eade wonders whether Melbourne thought they had a finals place sewn up earlier than they should have, after they stumbled out of the eight in the last round of the home-and-away season.

The Demons looked poised to end an 11 year drought of finals football this season, requiring a win against Collingwood on Saturday to lock up a return to September action.

However they went on to lose to the Magpies in a largely disappointing display, opening up the opportunity for West Coast to steal their place inside the eight – which they emphatically took after defeating minor premiers Adelaide on Sunday and jumping the Dees on percentage.

Eade believes the result may be a sign that the Demons thought they had completed the job too early – taking into account the alleged sledges to St Kilda players about playing finals in the Dees' Round 21 victory – and believes the problem may be historically rooted in a club bereft of success in recent decades.

“Just in my experience over a long time, they do tend to celebrate (too early),” the former Gold Coast, Western Bulldogs and Sydney coach said on SEN Breakfast.

“Historically there’s been a few teams in my time who haven’t achieved a lot, and then celebrate big wins.

“I think Richmond have done it really well this year (when) I think Richmond maybe ten years ago celebrated when they didn’t need to.

“Hopefully it’s a spur for them next year to be able to seal it when they need to.”

Garry Lyon says Eade’s opinion has some merit, with the Demons great having also questioned his former side’s inability to handle expectation at multiple points throughout 2017.

“Sometimes when you don’t have a lot of success, when it comes along, you think ‘gee, should we celebrate it?’ and then you do and then you have got to get back on the bus and back it up and that’s what they haven’t been able to do, back it up week after week,” he said.

“I’ve talked all year about their inability to handle expectation. That’s been a consistent theme for quite some time. It’s just when they get to a position where they can do something, perhaps they haven’t been able to get a hold of it.

“It would be disappointing if that’s the case, because they haven’t had too much to get cocky about.”