MELBOURNE captain David Neitz admits he didn't see Sunday evening's slaughter at the hands of a merciless Hawthorn coming.
The Demons failed to fire a shot at the Hawks all match, and ended up copping a 104-point drubbing at the hands of a team many critics expect to push for a premiership in 2008.
Neitz, who seldom saw the ball delivered into his path with any fluidity, told the press the club simply needed to put the loss behind them and concentrate on toppling the Western Bulldogs next Saturday.
"We've still got to go through the video and to see if we can learn from (the match), but the Hawks were very good, (and) we were very poor. We couldn't put any pressure on them,” Neitz said.
"You think ‘how bad are we and how good are Hawthorn?', and I guess that's the question we've got to ask ourselves. We know that we played very poorly. The pressure wasn't there, and it allowed them to play really well. But it's round one - who knows how good Hawthorn are going to be, and who knows how well we're going to bounce back?”
Neitz did admit there was a genuine disappointment from the playing group that the Demons – who celebrate their 150th anniversary this year – put up such a poor first-up showing.
"We had two guys playing their first game and a coach in his first game so yes, it's very disappointing,” he said.
"We've got a couple of players to come back next week, but I don't necessarily think that's the answer.
"We've got to put this one behind us. I said to the players (that) it's four points gone begging, and we've just got to get on with the rest of our season.”
The captain said that future results would determine how the Demons playing group would be judged.
"It's pretty difficult to put a positive spin on anything from today. All we can do is use this as a motivating force for the upcoming weeks,” he said.
"It doesn't really matter what people think, it's what the result is out on the ground. Today, we were that bad. Next week we won't be that bad, and for the rest of the season we won't be that bad.”
