"STAY calm, but get urgent."

Melbourne has slumped to 0-4 after its 39-point loss to Geelong – the margin having blown out in the final quarter – and coach Simon Goodwin has a simple message for his players.

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"I think that the real morale is to stay calm, but I thought we saw a sort of spirit tonight. A real determination for a week, and there was a spirit and an energy tonight," Goodwin said in his post-match press conference.

"And the message is stay calm. We're four weeks in. Stay calm, but get urgent, and that's been the message. We've got work to do, get urgent with that work, but stay calm and know that things can turn pretty quick."

Christian Petracca was visibly frustrated with teammates and the situation at hand as the game wore on, appearing to swipe a few angry tears from his eyes as he trudged off the field at the end of the game.

"He's a winner. He's determined, he's proud. He's like everyone. He wants really start to get some positive results," Goodwin said.

"He's a proud leader of our footy club, and all our leaders are like that, so, of course, he's going to be disappointed."

Asked if the contest and clearance-based game plan was still in vogue this year, Goodwin alluded to the Dees not taking their chances properly.

"I think you've got to be good at everything, that's the reality. If you want to be a good team, you want to be good at stoppage and contests, but you've got be able to create the turnovers and then you got about to punish them," he said.

"That's the game. You have to be able to punish the ones that you get, and right now, our execution and ability to punish isn't quite there.

"But the pleasing thing was we're able to get more high quality [turnovers] tonight."

Goodwin said intercept defender Jake Lever was a chance to return next week from an ankle injury, but more would be known in the next few days as he continued his rehab.

Geelong coach Chris Scott was pleased how his team were able to handle some structural curveballs, with the ever-versatile Mark Blicavs a late withdrawal due to gastro.

Jack Henry had also battled an ankle/foot injury prior to the opening bounce but opted to play, before hurting his hamstring in the second term, which at this stage appears to be a mid-range injury.

Sam De Koning played mostly defensive minutes, while Zach Guthrie became a key distributor in Henry's absence, taking 17 marks.

"Blicavs is such an important player for us, and him going out late threw our plans a little bit. We actually had an issue with Jack Henry an hour before the game, and it was sort of 50-50 as the whether he might play, and now we kind of rueing the decision, even though he started so well.

"Any team would struggle taking two of your best – if not your best – key defenders out of the team, so given that backdrop, we were really pleased with the performance.

"Connor O'Sullivan – he would have played anyway – but a spot opened up early in the year with (Jake) Kolodjashnij sort of being out, and Connor's come in and been really good for us and was fantastic tonight.

"Rhys Stanley was really good in the ruck we thought, and competed against one of the modern greats (Max Gawn) in that position and then in the shuffle, De Koning played a bit more back and he was really solid too, we thought.

"It wasn't your standard 'everything went to plan' sort of night, we did need to adjust on the run. I thought the players really responded with that little shift in plan."

Scott was effusive in his praise of Patrick Dangerfield, who was the difference in the game with three goals from his 20 touches, saying the midfielder-turned-forward was planning on playing in attack "for a long time to come".

"I thought he was brilliant. He kicked three, maybe could have kicked five, but as always, the thing I've admired about him is not necessarily his output on the stat sheet," Scott said.

"I'm not even sure whether he got a touch in certain situations, but his ability to keep the ball alive and break open a few packs – I just thought he looked really powerful ahead of the ball.

"It's obvious when he floats across the front of the pack like that, but there were things that maybe were less obvious that we loved about him ahead of the ball. It takes up a lot of time, thinking about how we maximise his impact, but it's just so pleasing to see at his age and stage of his career, to be such a threat ahead of the ball."