MELBOURNE suffered a handful of injuries to cap off a disappointing day at the Blue Lake Sports Ground in Mount Gambier where it went down to Adelaide by 56 points in Saturday’s NAB Challenge clash.

Key defender/forward Ben Holland (corked hip), backman Matthew Warnock (ankle) and rookie Daniel Hughes (illness) were the casualties.

Holland injured his hip in a marking contest when running back with the flight of the ball, while Warnock hurt his ankle in the first half and did not return after the main break. Hughes played the opening quarter before falling ill.

Defender Daniel Bell, who played on Andrew McLeod and spent time on Brett Burton, said the Demons were in the contest until half-time.

“We got on top early, but there was a fair wind and we were going with it and had a few more opportunities in the first quarter and probably didn’t get as much result as we would have liked,” Bell told melbournefc.com.au.

“In the second quarter, they had a lot of the ball and kicked a lot of points but then in the second half we ran out of legs and a couple of people went down with injuries.

“They just kept running from their backline and they ran over the top of us in the end.”

Bell singled out first-year teammates James Frawley, Ricky Petterd and Colin Garland for their efforts.

“Frawley was really good, Col Garland showed a fair bit as well and Ricky Petterd got a fair bit of it, so it was good for those guys,” Bell said

“Frawls’ was up forward a bit and he went down back in the last half and really showed a bit and Garland played back and up forward late and he had a few shots at goal and presented well and Ricky was running around through the middle.”

The South Australian said he was impressed with the regional grounds facilities.

“The ground was pretty good. It wasn’t too hard and it was about the samesize as the MCG, but it was just a bit windy,” Bell said.

“I’d been here for a camp when I was in under-15s and I’ve come up to Mount Gambier to play cricket.”