Usually at this stage of the AFL season, a team will burst out of the field like the three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva and announce themselves as a genuine premiership contender.

Brisbane has perfected this art to win back-to-back flags.

After Melbourne’s stunning win over ladder-leaders Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday in what has been hailed as the game of the year, the Demons are nicely placed in the straight.

The fact Melbourne are playing finals this year is remarkable given the talent that exited the club at the end of last season.

Most clever pundits had the 2021 premiers languishing at the bottom of the table this year alongside the other rebuilding teams, going through football’s equivalent of purgatory.

But new coach Steven King has reinvigorated the Demons with a free-flowing, attacking gameplan that is ideally suited to the MCG.

The Dees’ rapid ball movement against Freo was hypnotic to watch and is in complete contrast to former coach Simon Goodwin’s rigid and risk-averse style.

If Melbourne goes deep into September, King should be a shoo-in for coach of the year.

The Dees are now 10-1 at the G this year. A handy stat come finals.

With Melbourne now in striking distance of the top four, the Demons deserve to be spoken of as a bona fide premiership wildcard.

Given how the Dockers have torched their opponents late in games, Melbourne looked cooked when Fremantle went up by 15 points midway through the last quarter.

But the Demons showed a cool temperament when the heat was on, kicking four of the last five goals, to run over Fremantle by four points in an extraordinary thriller.

The blistering pace of the game was unrelenting and the two sides kicked a combined 17 goals in the finest exhibition of attacking footy this season.

There is a good chance the two teams could meet again come September. Both showed they can cope with the high-octane pressure that is finals footy.

The match had more momentum shifts, twists and plot turns than the film The Empire Strikes Back.

Fremantle came out firing, with chief protagonist Patrick Voss causing havoc up forward – and not just with his exuberant Gangnam Style goal celebrations – by scoring two quick majors.

Moments later, Harrison Petty added his own absurdity to the contest by rubbing his newly shaved head after kicking a goal, a clear dig at Voss, who had taunted him earlier in the season.

Petty showed he is more than comic relief by nailing two of his three goals in the last quarter, when the Dees appeared done and dusted.

But it was Melbourne’s unheralded, patched-up midfield that provided many of the masterful moments against Fremantle’s much-lauded engine room.

Kysaiah Pickett (27 disposals, two goals) and Tom Sparrow (24 disposals, two goals) dominated the clearances and stoppages.

Sparrow has been a revelation this season, thrust on to the ball with the departure of bustling midfielders Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca.

The 26-year-old is averaging 22 disposals, six tackles, five clearances, and a handy 11 goals in 21 matches this season.

It helps that he is getting the ball palmed to him by one of the greatest architects of rucking the game has ever seen, Max Gawn.

The eight-time All-Australian’s tussle with dynamo big man Luke Jackson was tantalising to watch.

Gawn (16 touches, 33 hit-outs) probably got the chocolates over Jackson (17 disposals, seven tackles, 26 hit-outs), but it’s highly likely both will be wearing All-Australian blazers at the end of the season.

Melbourne’s win was more impressive given that the league’s most damaging three-pronged attack of Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Voss kicked 11 goals.

But one of the keys to the Demons’ victory was their ability to do what other teams have failed miserably at all year: keeping potent playmaker and wunderkid Murphy Reid quiet.

For a player in just their second year, the 19-year-old has shown he has an endless supply of party tricks, but at one stage deep in the second quarter, Melbourne’s tormentor Koltyn Tholstrup had kept him to just three touches.

But it wasn’t just Tholstrup putting the squeeze on players.

Melbourne’s pulsating pressure was ruthless, which led to dour Dockers defenders Jordan Clark and Matthew Johnson making uncharacteristic mistakes late in the game.

No classic contest would be complete without some juicy bit of controversy: Bayley Fritsch’s mark over the boundary line in the dying seconds looked to be closer to the Shane Warne Stand than inside the field of play.

But in the end, the Dees absorbed the finals-like intensity better than Fremantle.

Don’t be fooled that Fremantle had nothing to play for. Trips to the G are few and far between for one of the AFL’s most frequent flyers.

Getting comfortable on the hallowed turf at the home of footy is imperative for the Dockers, considering the club seems unlikely to play there again this season unless they make the grand final.

And losing to the Dees is bound to create some doubt about Freo’s ability to perform on the big stage.

If Fremantle does make it to the last Saturday in September, they may just face a Demons side playing without fear.