MELBOURNE 5.2 7.3 13.4 18.5 (113) GEELONG 3.1 6.4 11.5 13.11 (89)
Goals: Melbourne: J Garlett 4, A Neal-Bullen 3, B Vince 2, J Howe 2, M Jones 2, B Stretch, D Tyson, J Spencer, M Gawn, N Jones. Geelong: D Lang 2, S Johnson 2, S Kersten 2, S Motlop 2, T Hawkins 2, C Guthrie, J Selwood, J Walker.
BEST: Melbourne: Vince, N.Jones, Gawn, Viney, Dunn, Garlett, Brayshaw. Geelong: Motlop, Blicavs, Lang, Guthrie, Caddy, Stokes.
Injuries: Geelong: J Murdoch (hamstring).
Umpires: Chris Donlon, Troy Pannell, Andrew Stephens.
Official Crowd: 28,007 at Simonds Stadium.

A day of celebration for football's most predictably reliable servant threw up all manner of surprises on Sunday, the most jaw-dropping and damning of them being that Corey Enright's 300th game coughed up the great Cat's 100th career defeat.

Melbourne had headed back home along the Princes Freeway with cause to smile just once since 1988, under Neale Daniher's tutelage a decade ago. The Cats were looking forward to heading into the bye with a knees-up for their much-loved veteran and a fortnight to shake off the cobwebs.

After a 24-point loss, they draw mid-season breath mired in the competition's mid-to-lower reaches with six wins and six losses. Melbourne's fourth win was as painful to Geelong as it was stunning evidence that the Demons are building something powerful and will have more happy days ahead.

Perhaps the stunned locals should have seen it coming; the 300th games of Ian Nankervis and John Newman, the only other Cats to reach this lofty mark of longevity, also ended in defeat.

Melbourne's heroes were many and varied. Nathan Jones and Bernie Vince had 73 possessions between them and instigated a dominance of the stoppages that amounted to 15-13 in centre clearances and 53-40 overall. Jack Viney harassed Joel Selwood so successfully the Cats' captain could must only 16 touches.

Max Gawn played a blinder, and there's a sentence you probably haven't read before. Lynden Dunn was terrific in defence, Jeff Garlett kicked goals as he's done for a long time and Alex Neal-Bullen like he's never done before.

The last line of a theme song sung with gusto — "keep your eye on the red and the blue" — was the easiest assignment of the day. The Demons were everywhere, winning 57 more possessions for the afternoon - 27 more of the hard-won variety - and using them to stunning effect.

It took 11 minutes for the first goal (to Steve Johnson via a silly 50-metre penalty against Tom McDonald), and 11-and-a-half for Harry Taylor's first mark. No Jesse Hogan or Cam Pedersen seemed to set Taylor up for a big day, even more so when he lined up on Rohan Bail, yet he would take just five more grabs and never exert his conductor's control on the game.

Five Melbourne goals came in the next dozen minutes, two of them to Neal-Bullen, and they shot out to a 20-point lead. Jones and Vince had 25 first-quarter possessions between them, their team seven centre clearances to none, and Viney laid down an early marker by keeping Selwood to only two touches.

Gawn, the gangly, bearded Demon with the brittle body, took marks all over the ground, dominated the hit-outs against Josh Walker and Mark Blicavs, and went to half-time with 13 possessions (more than every Cat bar Steven Motlop), a dozen of them contested. He slowed a little, but could afford to.

Uncharacteristic acts of Geelong frustration had instant consequences, notably when Blicavs gave away an off-the-ball free kick for slinging Vince, the Demons surged forward, Mathew Stokes made a flat-footed attempt to rush a behind and Garlett swooped on the spillage.

When Tom Hawkins presented either side of the long break to regain the lead for his team a second-half resurgence seemed as inevitable as Cam Guthrie's switch to long sleeves, but the Demons defied expectation again with three unanswered goals, the first of them when Jake Spencer followed Gawn's one-grab lead. The margin was back out to 16 points, and even the video review refused to come to Enright's party as Matt Jones squeezed a goal past the milestone man's fingertips.

Selwood's mantra on these rare dirty days is don't let a bad game become a shocker, rather keep busting a gut and find a way to lift your team. Darcy Lang is watching his captain closely, and set up Walker before cleverly soccering his second, then Selwood made his most telling contribution by exploding out of the middle and finding Shane Kersten.

Normal service to resume? Not quite, as Garlett and Neal-Bullen each kicked their third. Viney was a metaphor for his team's refusal to go away, escorting Selwood to the bench (under the blood rule, of course) and giving him an earful all the way.

Jeremy Howe, hailed by coach Paul Roos for still having an impact despite rarely winning the ball, goaled from virtually the Moorabool St footpath to earn the Demons an 11-point three-quarter time lead, the most striking example of a day when Melbourne's set shot goalkicking was exceptional.

Four more Demons' goals to start the last quarter took the margin beyond five goals and prompted the unusual sight of fans in blue and white heading for the exit. This was some day, just not the one they'd been expecting.