MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin refused to be drawn on talk of "hoodoos" nor whether Saturday’s four-point loss to North Melbourne in Hobart had put paid to the club’s top-four aspirations, insisting the topic wouldn’t come into consideration until the completion of the home and away season.
At three-quarter time, Melbourne trailed by a goal but looked odds-on to come home with the aid of a strong breeze and finish over the top of a dogged North Melbourne outfit, but the Demons just couldn’t get the job done as the Roos held on to win a nail-biter.
"In the last quarter North Melbourne did it better than what we did," he said.
"It becomes a very basic sort of game in a lot of ways, but they just executed it better than we did.
"Ultimately it simplifies it as well, it’s a meat-and-three-veg day where you’ve got to get your hands dirty and just hang in there and hang in the contest and fight and scrap your way at times."
Five talking points: North Melbourne v Melbourne
The loss, Melbourne’s 17th consecutive defeat at the hands of the Kangaroos, was particularly hard to stomach given the likely loss of Jesse Hogan for some time with a broken collarbone, but Goodwin insisted any concerns about the losing streak were "irrelevant" to his side.
"I don’t subscribe to that at all," he said. "Every day is a new day, every day is a new challenge and today, again, North Melbourne were better than us.
"The theory of hoodoos and winning streaks is irrelevant to this group especially, but is irrelevant in general. Today was a fresh day, a fresh opportunity to put yourself on show and North Melbourne got the result."
The Demons face an increasingly tough task to break into the top four but are still on track to make a much-anticipated return to finals footy after an impressive season to date, however, Goodwin insisted his views on ladder position are the same in the wake of Saturday’s loss as they were following victory over Port in round 18.
WATCH: Simon Goodwin's full post-match media conference
"I said it last week after we won, it’s not where you are today, it’s where you are at the end of round 23," he said.
"How we play, how we perform from week to week will dictate where we finish. You get what you get in footy and we’ll continue to try and improve and develop as a footy club and grow and where we sit in round 23 will be where we sit."
