MELBOURNE hasn’t written off its season, despite a 104-point hiding by Hawthorn in the sides’ season opener on Sunday. Speaking at a recovery session at Junction Oval on Monday morning, Russell Robertson said the Demons need some self-belief, while Brad Miller rejected suggestions Melbourne were not a finals side.
“You can’t say that after round one,” Miller said.
“We’ve got a lot of kids on our team that are getting experience. You can’t inject 50 games into a few of the guys that we’ve got playing in key positions, so I think that’s a silly comment.”
Star forward Robertson, who bagged three goals in the last quarter, insisted that the players’ heads did not drop early in yesterday’s contest.
“I don’t think (they) did. But people might disagree with me,” Robertson said.
“Everyone’s going to be writing us off, (and) everyone’s going to be telling us how bad we are. We’ve got to try and block that out and believe in ourselves.”
Robertson said overcoming the round one capitulation will be a massive challenge for the playing group.
“It’s going to be a true test of our character as a club and as individuals as to how we deal with it,” he said.
“We’ve got a game against the Bulldogs this week. They had a win (and) we had a loss, so we’ve got to turn it all around. We can do that; we just have to believe in ourselves.”
Robertson admitted that the heavy defeat was right up there with some of the more disappointing days in his career, adding that the round one implosion was a difficult initiation for new coach Dean Bailey.
“He was really disappointed, but his focus is solely about forgetting about that as soon as possible,” Robertson said.
“We had a lot of high hopes going into round one. We trained and worked really hard during the pre-season, and (you) expect a lot of yourself in your first game. We’re pretty shattered with our efforts on the weekend, but the beauty of football is that you have another week.”
The 29-year-old said poor skills rather than lack of endeavour were to blame for Melbourne’s below-par showing.
“In this league, if you’re just a little bit off, you’ll get flogged every time,” he said.
“We’ll work on our skills (and) start hitting our targets, and I think that will be the big difference. We just have to stand up, and I know we can. I think we’ve got the players and the ability. It’s just a matter of getting it right in the head this week.”
Colin Sylvia, who was suspended for round one after missing a team curfew, joined the team for their recovery session at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, and is available for selection this week.
