That was despite Sam Durham completely dictating terms in the ruck over Harrison Petty,who looked like he was in danger of being snapped in half. Eventually,Goodwin moved Jacob Van Rooyen into the ruck,who at least provided a physical contest.

“Obviously,not winning a lot of hit-outs was challenging,” Goodwin said afterwards. “I thought the midfield group did a great job enabling us to get some territory from that part of the game.

“When you don’t have a dominant ruckman like Max,you play a bit differently for the opposition. We always went in with a plan to share the load with Petty,Van Rooyen and Turner. That was just finding out what was going to work for us on the night.”

In the end,it was Essendon,not Melbourne,who struggled to connect with their forward line. On a wet night,their lack of a specialist small forward was glaring. Jade Gresham is not quite that player. Jake Stringer,hardly small,didn’t hit the scoreboard.

For three and a half quarters,the Bombers could hardly buy a goal. There was a late flurry,largely driven by the remarkable Nic Martin. How Martin slipped to a supplemental selection is one of the competition’s great mysteries.

Ben McKay was another who stood up for Essendon. McKay may have been an expensive get from North Melbourne but he’s worth the money. His 21 possessions featured a colossal 17 intercepts. He is more than fulfilling the Bombers defensive brief.

But Melbourne had his equal at the other end. Steven May was a rock for the Demons with 24 possessions and nine intercepts;Jake Lever had 16 and 10. When these two are in tandem,there is still no harder team to get through than Melbourne.

The trump card was Kysaiah Pickett. Pickett,still just 23,was playing his 100th game and still looks like he hasn’t scraped his ceiling as a footballer. In a few deadly flourishes,Pickett all but finished the contest with a clutch final-quarter goal,followed by an assist.

But this wasn’t a game to get overly focused on individual efforts. Many were splendid,but this was a victory of substance over flash,of experience over hype,and of system over talent – not that Melbourne are short on that front.

“I think a lot of people wrote us off,” Rivers said. “But we came in with a game plan,we executed and we got the win,so[we’re] very happy.”

The Bombers were exposed as unworthy of the top-two position on offer by a team that was simply harder and tougher for longer. The Demons might be too beaten up to go too far in September. But they may well cause more trouble than the Bombers if they get there.