MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos has praised his players for not allowing three consecutive heavy losses to dampen their spirits ahead of Sunday's clash with the Western Bulldogs.
The Demons suffered heavy losses to Fremantle, the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn over the past month; the most recent to the tune of 105 points.
But they responded strongly against the Dogs on Sunday and ran out 39-point winners after maintaining a positive outlook.
"It was a really hard three weeks, playing the best three teams in the comp," Roos said.
Five talking points: Melbourne v Western Bulldogs
"We know we're not at that level so to keep the guys up, the whole club did a terrific job.
"I thought it was just a really complete team performance against a similar young team but a team that's really got confidence.
"I thought it was a terrific contest today, as I said to players it wasn't as if we fell over the line.
"We played well and they played pretty well also. It was good particularly after a tough three weeks."
Bernie Vince was one of the Demons' best with a commanding performance against young Bulldog talent Marcus Bontempelli, also finding time to kick two goals.
After missing last week, young forward Jesse Hogan terrorised the Bulldogs' backmen with three goals and three marks on the lead.
Click here to watch Paul Roos' full media conference
"He looked really fresh [after the week off]. It is tough for the younger players," Roos said of Hogan.
"One passage of play late in the game summed him up when he was on the wing and he ended up running all the way across the ground to get a mark on the other side of the ground.
"It's great when you have young kids that have really good instincts and they're really good competitors."
The Demons had 85 tackles to the Bulldogs' 84, which was an improvement from the 64 they managed last week against the Hawks.
Roos said that had been a focus going into the game after a week where they changed up their routine in an attempt to freshen up the players both mentally and physically.
"They play really good honest footy and that's the way we want to play," he said.
"We knew to beat them you have to be prepared to tackle them and to win the contest.
"They're super competitive against everyone and that's what we want to try to do.
"Both teams had a real crack today."
Roos was happy with the midfield contribution and said ruckman Jake Spencer, who had 40 hit-outs and 12 disposals, played his best game for the club.
"[It was a] really good balance, I just loved the balance today," he said.
"Collectively, it was hard to find a bad player for us."
Matt Jones was subbed off after being heavily bumped by Brett Goodes, and Roos predicted there would be sore bodies after many of the players cramped late in the game.
