A DEFLATED Simon Goodwin says his players are "sick and tired" of dropping winnable games after they were "taught a lesson" in Saturday night's two-point loss to Geelong. 

Zach Tuohy's goal after the siren delivered the Demons another heartbreaking loss, Goodwin's side now 0-4 in games decided by less than two goals this season.

The competition's No.1 ranked contested ball side was shown up in the final term, the Cats winning the count by 10 to kick eight goals to three for the quarter.

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"You can judge by the players' reactions tonight, they're getting pretty sick and tired of this getting to this position and letting it go," Goodwin said.

"I think you saw tonight a mature (Geelong) midfield group that's been in this situation a lot.

"Their real will to win the contest around the clearance and importance of that really stood out.

"That's our challenge as a club, you've just got to find a way in games like this.

"We need to learn from that, we need to be better than that. We're past the point of having admirable losses. We want to be a club that starts to win these types of games."

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With the game in Melbourne's keeping in the final 90 seconds, Goodwin admitted he was frustrated having no option other than to watch ruckman Max Gawn leave the field under the blood rule.

For the third time in five weeks the Demons dominated the inside 50 count but failed to make it count on the scoreboard.

Despite having 11 more forward entries in the first half, the Demons had just a five-point buffer into the main break.

"That's something we're going to have to keep getting better at," Goodwin said.

"In our period of dominance in the game, we still need to find a little bit more composure inside forward 50."

Goodwin praised Clayton Oliver's 40 possession game which included time rotating forward with Angus Brayshaw and Christian Petracca, while he was proud of James Harmes' tagging efforts.


Sent to Joel Selwood in the first half, Harmes limited the Cats skipper to eight disposals before trying to restrict the output of Patrick Dangerfield, who had gathered 21 possessions before half-time and finished with 28 for the match.

WATCH Simon Goodwin's full post-match media conference 

"We had Harmes do a job on Selwood, back end of the second quarter we moved him onto Dangerfield and in the last quarter Ablett bobbed up," Goodwin said.

"We had a lot of discussion about that (where to send Harmes), but you're talking about three champions of the game, you stop one and the other one bobs up."

Harmes could be set to lock horns with Adelaide star Rory Sloane next week, with the Demons flying to face the Crows on Saturday night.