ALTHOUGH his Demons couldn't drag themselves over the line in a genuine nail-biter against the Kangaroos, Paul Roos said he was pleased with the overall performance of his young group in Hobart on Sunday.
The five-point loss may go down as one that got away given the grit shown by Melbourne to bounce back and lead at half-time following a first-quarter mauling that saw the visitors concede the opening seven goals of the match.
WATCH: Paul Roos' full post-match press conference
But Roos clearly believes his side showed plenty of potential at blustery Blundstone Arena and admitted having 'mixed' feelings in the wash-up.
"It’s a fantastic effort," he told reporters in Hobart.
"In the here and the now you’re playing a ground you’ve never played at before, and in conditions you’re not used to playing in, and you start seven-zip down which is not a great first 15 minutes.
"To come back and compete really well was a terrific effort. The frustration stems from losing the game, clearly.
"Overall, where we’re heading, we saw today the showcase of the talent we’ve got.
"There’s a lot more positives than negatives but you’d have loved Billy (Stretch) to mark that ball and go back and kick the goal, that’d be nice."
WATCH: The last two minutes - North Melbourne v Melbourne
Staring at a six-goal deficit having conceded eight majors to quarter-time, the Melbourne playing group may have expected a rocket from Roos.
But the coach insisted his assistants believed the situation was never as bad as the scoreboard suggested, and knew the real proof would come once the Demons had their chance to kick with the wind in the second quarter.
"We were actually comfortable, as comfortable as you can be six goals down at quarter time," Roos said.
"I think what I’ve learned for this team is we have to be really educational and solution-based. We’re still a very, very young team.
"You can rev-up older teams and they flick a switch a bit, but our young guys want solutions. They want to know why are we up, why are we down, why are we playing well, why are we playing poorly, so that’s something the coaching group have made a big focus of.
Despite falling just short in Hobart, the Demons can look forward to their clash with Collingwood at the MCG next Sunday afternoon with renewed confidence and plenty of belief in emerging talent like Jack Viney, Max Gawn and Clayton Oliver, who all starred against the Kangaroos.
But for Roos, the main goal besides collecting another four premiership points will be on continuing the trend of improvement that has been the focus since round one.
"We’re all about improvement … from round two to round three we improved significantly against a high-quality opposition that has played prelim finals the past two years," he said.
"We’ve got to make sure we come and improve next week and the week after but it is a long season for young players, a long game."
