MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey will review the footage of Sunday's 19-point loss to Hawthorn and determine whether the club has grounds to seek clarification on a number of tackles that were not awarded with free kicks.

The Demons won the eventual tackle count against the physical Hawks 64 to 50, but Bailey was still seething after the game following a number of decisions, including one involving Aaron Davey and Jarryd Morton at the 19-minute mark of the final term.

"I thought we tackled really well all day and didn't get rewarded," Bailey said, after the game.

"I've got no doubt tackling is important, and you should get rewarded.

"We came with an intent to tackle; we've had a real focus on it for really the whole year, and today we probably tackled as well as we have.

"Our tackles were able to stick and they were unable to get their hands free and handball out from a tackle, which clubs have been able to do to us before.

"But we drove the shoulder and tackled well – we would just like to be rewarded for tackling, that's all."

While Bailey applauded the Demons' "fightback" against the top-of-the-table side, he remained disappointed his players weren't able to reverse the result from round one this year, where Hawthorn won by 104 points.  

"We didn't win. We still didn't win the game," he said.

"There's been improvement from the first game. Eight weeks later we were more competitive for longer, and if a couple of things had gone our way, we may have been closer at the end."

Bailey labelled the match a "David Neitz-type game", as he believed the outgoing skipper would have "loved" to be out there to "drive the nail home".

He also said the weight of Neitz's inspirational speech, delivered directly before the side ran through the banner, will not be fully realised until next week.

"The game is about attitude, and being prepared every week to put your best foot forward," he said.

"What 'Neita' would have demanded from them was to be competitive, and you can't ask for more than that.

"He's asked of his players to do that every time he's played because he's shown the way, so how much influence was on it? We'll probably wait for next week to see what happens when he doesn't do it.

"Let's hope they can stand up next week and do it without David saying those things before the game."