AN EXASPERATED Simon Goodwin has placed the onus for his side's three-point loss to Hawthorn squarely on his players' shoulders.
After the game the Melbourne coach declared the players brought a questionable attitude to the game against Hawthorn on Sunday.
With the opportunity to bolster its position in the top eight, Melbourne was playing catch-up from the beginning as it trailed by 27 points at quarter-time and then 29 points at half-time, before eventually losing by three points.
"This game demands a fair bit out of you and if you don't bring a level of intensity and effort to the game and you're not prepared to defend you get results like that," Goodwin said in his post-game press conference.
"It's a brutal competition and to Hawthorn's credit they brought it early and we weren't able to match them in that phase of the game."
WATCH Simon Goodwin's full post-match press conference
Goodwin said his side's tackling pressure, work around the ball and team defence was not up to scratch, as Hawthorn had nine scoring shots to two in the first term, and the loss was symptomatic of those problems.
The Demons worked their way back into the game with a seven-goal to three third quarter to bring the margin to within one point at the final change.
Melbourne drew level with the Hawks at the eight-minute mark of the final term, however, they could not quite reel Hawthorn in.
"I'm proud that they continued to respond when challenged but I'm very frustrated with what I saw early because if you bring that to a game it's not going to stand up too often," Goodwin said.
"We got a response around the style we want to play and we really went back to the basics of how we want to play the game.
"We made some positional moves with some players and to the players' credit they did respond… but once again it was too far to come back."
Despite his disappointment, Goodwin praised the efforts of co-captain Jack Viney (33 disposals, 15 tackles and eight clearances) who had his best game of the season, and defender Sam Frost who played perhaps his best game in Melbourne colours.
Frost's willingness to take the game on and his zest for the contest was a driving factor in Melbourne's fightback.
"Sam really stood up for us and gave us really good drive out of there when the time required," Goodwin said.
"He's really emerging over the last three weeks and I'm rapt for Sam because he's put a lot of hard work in."
The challenges don't get any easier for Melbourne with top-of-the-table Adelaide, smarting after its first loss of the season to North Melbourne, at Adelaide Oval to come next Saturday night.
Goodwin said both Jayden Hunt (left shoulder) and Josh Wagner, who copped a big knock to the midriff midway through the final term, would be available for the trip against the Crows.
"It's good to get on the road – it's our first away trip so to get on the road and really galvanise as a team, and look to play our best footy, that's all we can really do this week," Goodwin said.
