That's the advice from veteran coaches Mark Thompson and Rodney Eade to counterpart Mark Neeld as he deals with a nightmare start to the season.
Neeld and Melbourne are under siege after they started with a 79-point loss to Port Adelaide and then last Saturday night's 148-point disaster against Essendon.
Thompson, the two-time Geelong premiership coach and now an assistant at the Bombers, said the weekend's mismatch did not reflect reality.
"You actually feel sorry for the opposition," he said on Fox Footy's AFL 360.
"But they were just lost and we're not that good, we're seriously not.
"They're not that bad, so you feel for the club."
Thompson said it was vital that Neeld stayed confident, no matter the stress he is feeling.
"You have to just rally your troops and as bad as you're going ... they can't be looking at the senior coach and saying `he's stressing, he's lacking confidence'," Thompson said.
"You have to get in there are reinforce what you've done, where you want to go.
"Just talk about behaviour - how we want to play."
Eade coached the Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs and is now coaching director at Collingwood.
There has been talk since Saturday night that Neeld must now be tough on his players, but Eade is not so sure.
"If you're going to smack them over the head, you have to pick them back up," he said.
"The main thing is, give them a little focus - that we can focus on, that's attainable ... (that) is based around effort."
Thompson went through plenty of tough moments during his time at Geelong.
But he always had confidence his players would rally.
"Even when Geelong were a good team, they'd occasionally come out and have a bad quarter," Thompson said.
"But you knew, with the quality of the people, that it wouldn't last."
