Demons close on McClelland Trophy after Freo win

Melbourne have all but claimed the McClelland Trophy and its accompanying $1 million prize after beating Fremantle in the penultimate round of the AFLW regular season.

The club with the most combined points across this season's AFL and AFLW competitions will receive the title plus $1 million, shared between the club and its players.

AFLW leaders and reigning premiers Melbourne, who beat Fremantle by 33 points on Saturday, lead the race on 128 points, ahead of Brisbane (116) and Collingwood (112).

The Lions, who host Melbourne next week, are out of the race after their shock loss to St Kilda on Saturday. 

Collingwood play Sydney on Sunday, then Richmond in the final round and can technically still win it.

But Melbourne's exceptionally strong percentage across the two competitions means the Demons would need to lose heavily against Brisbane, while the Magpies need two big wins to overtake them.

If Collingwood lose or draw on Sunday, Melbourne's win will be confirmed with a round to spare.

Regardless, the Demons weren't getting caught up in the hype.

"We've got a massive test against Brisbane on the road and that's where we want to be," Melbourne coach Mick Stinear said.

"We want to be playing against the best teams and a great challenge to travel again.

"We anticipate there'll be some external noise around the importance of that game. 

"But it's ideal for our group just to be able to focus on creating and playing footy together and doing what we love and really creating something special as a team and doing that across four quarters against a team that's desperate to do the same.

"We think that'll give us the best preparation going into finals."

Fremantle went with Melbourne early at Casey Fields but a dominant second quarter set the Demons up for a 8.13 (61) to 4.4 (28) victory.

Melbourne (32 points) consolidated top spot while 13th-placed Fremantle, in the logjam of teams sitting on 16 points, are four points outside the top eight, with their poor percentage effectively ruling them out of contention.

Paxy Paxman (27 disposals, one goal) was typically prolific and well-supported by Eliza West, Lily Mithen and Eliza McNamara, while Kate Hore and Eden Zanker kicked two goals apiece.

Hayley Miller, Dana East (11 clearances), Ange Stannett and Kiara Bowers were busy for the Dockers while Megan Kaufmann kicked three goals.

Melbourne took control of the match when Zanker marched into an open goal early in the second term.

Paxman and Eliza West snapped two more in quick succession to put the Demons on top.

Kauffman coolly goaled against the run of play to cut the deficit to 18 at halftime.

Hore and Fremantle's Serena Gibbs traded third-quarter goals to keep the game alive at the final change.

But Blaithin Mackin hammered home a long-range major with seven minutes on the clock to ice the win, while Hore and Zanker each goaled in the dying minutes to blow the margin out.

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