MELBOURNE will enter its first finals series in 12 years with back-to-back top-eight scalps after being labelled flat-track bullies only a fortnight ago.

The Demons followed their season-defining victory against West Coast in Perth last week with an equally impressive 15.12 (102) to 8.9 (57) win over Greater Western Sydney in front of their MCG faithful.

Seven straight Melbourne goals, including three to Christian Petracca, either side of half-time put paid to the Giants' challenge.

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The GWS fall was no better highlighted than when Jeremy Cameron fluffed a simple handball to Zac Langdon in the third quarter, with both players within 15 metres and with separation from any Demons.

That calamity sealed the Giants' goalless term compared to Melbourne's five majors.

Simon Goodwin's men secured fifth position, a home elimination final and a third season clash with Geelong, a side that twice edged them out in final-minute heartbreak in 2018.

"I'm just really pleased with the way we played. We've been working really hard on being able to play our best footy at this time of year," Goodwin told reporters.

"As the game wore on, I thought our contest work and our clearance work was really strong.

"I thought we defended incredibly well, which is something we've worked at for the majority of the year. The boys got their rewards on the back of that."

GWS, on the other hand, slipped to seventh and needs to beat the Swans, who outmuscled the Giants a week ago, in a Sydney derby to keep alive hopes of an inaugural premiership.

The Demons owned an unwanted 0-7 record against top nine sides through the first 21 rounds, highlighted en masse in the wake of their wasteful nine-point loss to the Swans.

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Worse news followed, with spearhead Jesse Hogan (foot) joining prized recruit Jake Lever (knee) in being out for the season and co-captain Jack Viney (toe) ruled out until finals – if they made it.

But Melbourne responded by ripping the finals monkey off its back in booking a September berth for the first time since 2006 with a momentous triumph at the Eagles' expense.

There was still more to play for when the Demons arrived at the home of Australian football on Sunday, given defeat would have seen them slump to eighth.

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The clubs shared the opening 10 goals in a high-quality start, but Melbourne – despite being two players down from midway through the second term – ruthlessly picked GWS apart.

It started in the ruck, with Max Gawn turning in arguably his most devastating performance in a dominant season against outmatched Giant Rory Lobb, and flowed into the clinches.

Gawn should have banked three votes as he tries to become the first specialist ruckman to claim the Brownlow Medal since Scott Wynd (1992) and the late Jim Stynes (1991) won in back-to-back years.

Melbourne has been the king of contested ball this year, but the Giants were No.1 in that category since reviving their season in round 11 against Adelaide.

That area of the game loomed as a barometer for proceedings and it was the Demons who owned it from the outset, eventually boasting a mammoth 139-111 advantage.

James Harmes (15) – who kept GWS star Josh Kelly to 19 disposals – Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw (both 13) and co-captain Nathan Jones (10) all won double-digit contested possessions.

Only Callan Ward (17) and Steve Coniglio (13), who started at full-forward, managed the same feat for Leon Cameron's Giants.

Cameron said the lopsided contested possession differential was a "hard thing to fathom" after his side's capitulation.

"I think our players are really disappointed, because that should have been a really good game today," he said.

"Take nothing away from Melbourne – they were terrific, and their intensity was outstanding and they thoroughly deserved to finish fifth – but we didn't step up to the plate after half-time.

"We need to take responsibility for that."

Melbourne's ball movement was excellent again and the Demons curbed the GWS machine equally well, their defensive game an underrated improvement in their late-season surge.

Only five clubs had conceded fewer points than Melbourne – the AFL's highest-scoring team – between rounds 16 and 22, and it then restricted the Giants to a meagre 57 points, their second-lowest score of the season. 

MEDICAL ROOM
Melbourne: The Demons lost Mitch Hannan as a late change – after returning to the senior side last week and kicking three goals – to a persistent right knee injury, with Jay Kennedy Harris replacing him. They were a player down from inside the first five minutes, with Lachie Whitfield – fairly – collecting Dean Kent in a shoulder-to-shoulder collision. Kent left the field grimacing and holding his right shoulder. Dom Tyson (suspected broken left wrist) went into the rooms in the second quarter and shortly after Jake Melksham left the field after a head clash with teammate James Harmes. Melksham passed a concussion test, but Tyson didn't return.

Greater Western Sydney: The Giants lost Rory Lobb to back tightness early in the fourth term, with coach Leon Cameron saying it wasn't worth risking his ruckman given the margin was already too much to make up.

NEXT UP
Melbourne's second straight victory over a top-eight rival saw it finish the home and away season in fifth place to earn a home elimination final against Geelong at the MCG. The Giants' loss left them in seventh, with an elimination final to come against the sixth-ranked Swans.

MELBOURNE  4.2       7.6       12.9     15.12 (102)
GWS GIANTS  4.1       5.5       5.8       8.9 (57)

GOALS
Melbourne: T.McDonald 3, Petracca 3, Neal-Bullen 2, Harmes, vandenBerg, Brayshaw, Gawn, Jones, Weideman, Melksham
GWS Giants: Coniglio 2, Tomlinson, Lobb, Cameron, Himmelberg, Langdon, Finlayson

BEST 
Melbourne: Gawn, Harmes, Brayshaw, Oliver, Petracca, Jones, Frost
GWS Giants: Coniglio, Ward, Shiel, Haynes, Kennedy

INJURIES 
Melbourne: Kent (right shoulder), Tyson (left wrist), Melksham (head)
Greater Western Sydney: Lobb (back)

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Dalgleish, Rosebury, Stevic

Official crowd: 37,285 at the MCG