MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey has bemoaned the long lapses in competitiveness that cost his side dearly in Saturday's 56-point loss to Hawthorn.
The 2010 Demons looked alarmingly similar to the wooden spooners of last season on their way to a three-quarter time deficit of 71 points and Bailey admitted the team's work rate simply wasn't good enough at times.
"I'm not going to sit here and say, 'That's the way it is'," he said.
"We expect to improve - there's no question about it. We expect to be more competitive than what we were today.
"[The Hawks'] ball use in the first quarter and a half was pretty good - they didn't make too many mistakes - but that would suggest that our pressure on them wasn't high enough. It wasn't at a level to win the ball back.
"Today we were poor in the first half. At least we showed some fight in the second half, but we've got to be competitive for the whole game, not just in bits and pieces."
A summer of hard work on the track seemed set to bear fruit for the Dees in a spirited opening to the match at the MCG, but several scoring opportunities went begging.
"The start was very important to both teams and we didn't make enough of our early opportunities," Bailey said.
"When you go inside 50 a couple of times early you want to get an early score.
"Their ability to [execute] better than us was evident in the first quarter. They didn't make too many mistakes with their hands or with their feet. They were going inside 50 and scoring pretty well [whereas] we couldn't get our hands on the ball and when we did we turned it over.
"I thought we weren't hard enough at winning the ball back when we didn't have it."
Midfielder Brad Green was stretchered from the ground after a heavy knock in the first term. His ability to return and kick two goals was courageous, but he received little help up from his teammates in the forward line.
Bailey was hopeful Colin Sylvia could add to that mix when the Demons play Collingwood next week, but conceded Jack Watts, Cale Morton, Austin Wonaeamirri and Liam Jurrah were some time away.
However, he vowed to not allow injuries to tie his hands when picking the side to take on the Pies.
"When we get to selection there might be a couple of blokes who'll miss out," he warned.
The places of high-profile draftees Tom Scully and Jack Trengove are in no danger with their debuts a highlight for the Dees.
"They played over 80 per cent … and that's a good thing for them to play their first game and get it out of the way," Bailey said.
"I think as our young players improve we'll certainly improve over the year.
"We get another opportunity for the young guys to play next week against a very good team. We need to understand what we've done poorly in the first half and get on with next week's preparation because next week just counts so much more now."
