PAUL Roos has conceded Melbourne "dodged a bullet" in its one-point win over Essendon on Sunday.
Roos conceded the Demons were on track for a hefty defeat at half-time, managing just 11 inside 50s for the half and failing to match the Bombers' effort.
But after reminding them of "two or three offensive things" they worked on during the week, his players worked their way back into the game.
Then, on the back of what he called their best piece of play for the year that started with Bernie Vince's tackle of Ben Howlett in the back pocket with just over a minute remaining and ended with Christian Salem's accurate set shot, they stole a memorable one-point victory.
"We were pretty fortunate but to come back and really compete and give yourself a chance to win, I think that was a significant step forward," Roos said afterwards.
"They should have put us away. We certainly dodged a bullet - at half-time we only had 11 inside 50s and we were playing pretty poorly.
"Full credit to our guys, it could have easily been a 70-, 80-point loss.
"They were pretty stiff but we're pretty excited about winning."
In between Vince's tackle and Salem's goal, which sailed through with 19 seconds left, there were several hard-ball gets with Cam Pedersen, Nathan Jones, James Frawley, Jordie McKenzie – who did a sterling job on Brent Stanton – and Tom McDonald involved.
The ball finally ended with Dom Tyson forward of the centre circle, who handballed to Jack Viney under pressure before he flicked it to Daniel Cross.
Cross then chipped the ball to Salem, who was 30m out directly in front.
This all happened after the Bombers led by 33 points early in the third quarter and David Zaharakis kicked back-to-back goals with three minutes left to reclaim the lead.
"To come back late in that third quarter and kick some really critical goals … then even when Zaharakis put them back in front, I thought that last passage of play was probably the best we've had all year," Roos said.
"That's a credit to the players to get over the line.
"In the first half I just didn't think we were competing.
"They were out running us both defensively and offensively, which made it hard to score and hard to stop them from scoring.
"It was the effort we talk about on a weekly basis and just trying to get that right and be prepared to compete and in the second half, they did that."
Roos said he felt the Bombers had played with plenty of energy and didn't look affected by players being issued with ASADA show-cause notices on Thursday.
After kicking just three goals against Collingwood last week, the Demons' defensive game plan was hotly debated throughout the week.
Roos said their second-half turnaround, which looked far more attacking than the first half and last Monday's loss, was an example of his team learning about balance.
He also said the fact they absorbed the first half onslaught of the Bombers' 38 inside 50s meant they avoided the type of loss they might have suffered last year.
"We know it is about balance and again we certainly want to be a much better defensive team than what we have been the last two or three years; there's no question about that," he said.
"Last week that came at the expense of offense but I still think last week we had enough of the ball - we just turned it over.
"At times this year, we haven't been able to score that well but I think we've shown some resilience and we've been able to keep teams to manageable scores and I guess that's part of the learning process for these guys."
