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Melbourne great Garry Lyon has hailed his former club’s tackling pressure in their drought-breaking finals win over Geelong on Friday night.
The blueprint behind the Demons' Elimination Final triumph was the relentless pressure they applied, laying a total of 89 tackles and swarming the under-siege Cats at every opportunity.
Lyon hasn’t seen that sort of tackling intensity from a Melbourne side for two decades.
“That was the best pressure, tackling from a Melbourne side in 20 years,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“You don’t want to be sensationalist, I thought Geelong sat right back on their backside, there was some fumbling and the Cats didn’t cope with the pressure.”
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Essendon great Tim Watson says Geelong were totally rattled by the perceived pressure applied by the Dees.
“They (Geelong) didn’t cope at all,” Watson said.
“They completely lost their way because of the pressure that was applied.
“Even when the pressure wasn’t there, it was just the referred pressure and they still couldn’t find a way through.”
It was Melbourne’s first finals victory since 2006 and they now look forward to a meeting with Hawthorn in a blockbuster Semi-Final this Friday night at the MCG.