THE first indication that this much-hyped mismatch might not reach great heights came from a great height, Geelong's AFL and VFL premiership flags eventually arriving at the ground via two tardy parachutists, while the precious footballers who won them stood around getting cold.

Like so much of what followed, the delivery was poor, and only after a hasty repositioning of temporary flag poles were the Cats able to retreat indoors for their final preparations. Perhaps they never fully recovered.

Stage-managing everything in football doesn't work, just as spending the whole week arguing over how many lengths of the Flemington straight the premiers will beat the wooden spoon fancies by won't deliver you a walkover.

First, the positives. Melbourne was vastly improved yesterday, applying defensive pressure from the outset and seemingly more in tune with coach Dean Bailey's run-and-carry game than in a catastrophic opening fortnight.

And for Geelong, er, four premiership points. And nobody got hurt.

The negatives column bulged under the collective weight of mistakes from both teams. Kicks that went to opponents as if by design, marks dropped by hand and chest, free kicks conceded with reckless abandon.

Yes, too much is made of statistics, but there were a couple worthy of mention. More than a quarter of Geelong's kicks were errant, and more than a third of Melbourne's. Cameron Ling had 13 kicks, and did not find his target with 10 of them; Gary Ablett had 13 touches in the third quarter, half of which were errors.

If the Cats do go back-to-back, round three will not feature prominently in the "season that was" DVD. Tom Hawkins' five goals aside, and the increasingly vague efforts of Russell Robertson for Melbourne, the game's most memorable feature was its clangers.

Fittingly, Robertson kick-started the calamity, dropping what should have been a chest mark 20 metres from goal. At the other end, Cam Mooney marked on the edge of the goal square, inexplicably played on and shanked a left-footer out on the full.

James McDonald began like he was going to spend the afternoon giving Ablett free kicks for holding the man, while the Demons clearly thought jumping to a 17-point lead after 12 minutes was a mistake, too, so brought the Cats back into it with two shocking turnovers.

Nathan Jones was guilty of the first, and Nathan Carroll — who had already streamed through the centre and picked out Corey Enright 30 metres from anybody — most comically the second, turning to rush a behind from five metres out, but handballing only three metres and watching Hawkins stroll onto the bouncing ball and goal.

By the third quarter, it was getting silly. Ablett missed two goals he would normally gobble, then missed a mark on the lead, and several times misjudged the Dees' commitment by getting stuck in traffic as he took them on.

Cale Morton could have been the game's poster boy — full of endeavour but too often sloppy by foot. But when his first and second goals in AFL football came within five minutes of each other, the margin was only five points.

Mooney and Hawkins stood up and made the game safe. The latter, having done his best work close to goal with three tap-ins and the mark of the day all coming within arm's reach of the posts, broadened his repertoire to slam home his fifth from outside 50.

By now, Robertson was taking a highlighter pen to his foibles, missing targets, giving away free kicks and failing to apply defensive pressure. He reportedly wanted to leave Melbourne during the off-season, although his destination of choice probably wasn't Sandringham, where he may soon be.

While the mistake count was reminiscent of a more innocent time, when utter perfection was not so hungrily demanded, there were other old-fashioned elements to the game. Like match-ups that stayed one-on-one.

Joel Corey and Brock McLean were rampant running off each other in the first half, but McLean's 22 touches to the long break were restricted to 30 when Ling threw his blanket over him after half-time. Corey, meanwhile, continued his merry dance.

Cameron Bruce was a big plus for the Dees, keeping Steve Johnson's brilliantly eccentric ways in the shade, and slipping forward to kick three goals himself. McDonald stayed with Ablett, Paul Wheatley bettered Joel Selwood, Brad Green persisted on James Kelly.

And although the no-contest proved to be a contest after all, it was no contest to write home about.

GEELONG 4.4 8.11 13.14 16.16 (112)
MELBOURNE  3.4 6.6 10.8 12.10 (82)
GOALS Geelong Hawkins 5, Johnson 2, Ling 2, Mooney 2, Stokes, Ablett, Blake, Milburn, Chapman. Melbourne: Bruce 3, Morton 2, Dunn 2, White, Miller, Neitz, Wheatley, Green.
BEST Geelong Corey, Bartel, Chapman, Hawkins, Ling, Ablett, Scarlett. Melbourne Bruce, Green, Wheatley, Morton, McLean, White.
INJURIES Geelong: Gamble (soreness) replaced in the selected side by Byrnes.
UMPIRES Ryan, Sully, Wenn.
CROWD 23,969 at Skilled Stadium.

THE UPSHOT
DAVID has played Goliath and lived to tell the tale. That the Demons were more committed was a bonus, but the continued struggles of David Neitz and Russell Robertson to impose themselves is a concern.

TURNING POINT
NOTHING obvious, although Tom Hawkins and Cameron Mooney underscored the struggles of Neitz and Robertson by standing up when the game had to be won.

HOT AND COLD
THE Cats when they arrived on the ground for the unfurling of the premiership flags. And the Cats when they headed back inside, some 10 minutes later. Surely they did this better in 1964, when they unfurled the previous year's pennant.