MELBOURNE'S caretaker coach Neil Craig said the Demons did not want to become "a try-hard club" after the club's 68-point loss to Geelong on Saturday afternoon at Simonds Stadium.
He admitted it was outclassed, out-positioned and failed to adjust to the wet conditions quickly enough to seriously challenge the Cats.
In the end all Melbourne could claim was that it tried hard, but effort was nowhere near enough.
The gap between the two sides is so wide a tightrope walker would pack a cut lunch if trying to cross it.
The coach looked at contested ball statistics and saw a difference of just 11, enough to see improvement in an area that has plagued the club for a long time. It led the tackles too, some indication that it was not just letting the Cats walk all over them.
But Craig understood that on a depressing day of continuous rain that made scoring harder than usual, a margin of a little over 11 goals was too much.
"If you extrapolate what that could have been in dry conditions - that's a significant loss," Craig said.
"I was pleased with our capacity to just stay at it, even though it was pretty archaic in the way we went about it. I have great admiration for our mental capacity to stay in the contest, even though we were outclassed."
They stayed in a contest that was played predominantly in the opposition's forward half with the ball spending 71 percent of the game in Geelong's forward half.
It was no wonder key forward Chris Dawes was wearing long sleeves.
The fact Melbourne ended in front of the Cats for handballs (134 to 119) was an indictment.
On a day when slamming the ball on the boot and gaining metres was obviously the number one option for anyone taking possession, most failed to adjust.
Nathan Jones had 16 handballs and Shannon Byrnes 13 were offenders but both worked hard. Byrnes was very good with two goals.
Jimmy Toumpas played his best game for the Demons with 14 kicks and eight handballs and Matt Jones was smart enough to slam it on the boot with 16 kicks and eight handballs. Perhaps Jones's experience in local footy saw him quickly understand what rain meant.
Craig said handballing had become a habit that had served them well in previous weeks, but the idea should have been discarded more quickly given the conditions.
"Geelong apply great pressure, whether it be wet conditions or dry conditions, and of course if you are trying to use handball in those conditions you get found out really quickly," Craig said.
This led to some records it would be happy to handover anytime soon.
Melbourne's inside 50 count of 19 was the lowest ever recorded since the statistic began in 1999. The differential of 51 (Geelong had 70 inside 50s) was the biggest ever recorded.
It broke even for the stoppages but recorded just two centre clearances to Geelong's 16 and took just one mark inside 50 (a record too) against the Cats' 11 grabs in the forward 50.
Its score of 4.6 (30) was equal to the club's lowest at the venue, matching its effort in 1996.
Last week Craig said the Demons came up against a group one team in the Sydney Swans, when it went down by 31 points.
This week the Demons stood in the barriers next to a group one wet tracker running on its home course. The opposition hardly had to draw the whip in the run home.
