ARGH! This wasn’t supposed to happen on the weekend. Not like that.

This was meant to be another close encounter, this time with the Demons getting the points on their home turf.

Not a six-goal-plus loss.

But full credit to St Kilda. The Saints don’t get the kudos they deserve from the wider football public for an emerging team. But with Melbourne and St Kilda in similar positions – both in terms of games and age experience, this should’ve been akin to their round 11 clash – a nail-biter and much closer.

On that occasion, Melbourne should’ve won. Some costly errors by Melbourne late in the game allowed St Kilda to win a thrilling two-point match at Etihad Stadium.

Again, this was a 50/50 contest, but really the margin – either way – shouldn’t have been greater than probably three to four at best.

And the fact that it was on the ‘G meant that Melbourne had the edge this time around.

It would’ve been quite reasonable to think that Melbourne and St Kilda had one win each after two encounters this season. Instead, the Demons came away with zilch.

Coach Paul Roos said St Kilda had the edge over Melbourne at the moment in terms of where both clubs are at.

“When you have a good win you go forward and when you have a bad loss it's always a negative. We played really poorly but we were still in the game. Those sorts of games were 100 point losses a year or two ago.

“We've clearly got a lot of work to do. Is it a week to whack them? And say, ‘look, unless we can get these things right we've still got to create our habits around the contest’. [We’re] getting beaten around the contest and getting out-tackled.

“St Kilda, at the moment, as a similar age group, are doing it better, and more consistently, as a group to their credit.”

Ruckman Max Gawn, who was one of Melbourne’s best against St Kilda, said the match should’ve been a lot closer.

“It [was a] really, really disappointing loss for us,” he said.

“We came into this game hoping for the best and now they are 2-0 against us in the last six weeks.

“They might be in a similar list position to us, but at the moment they are playing better footy than us. We need to go back to what we do best, which is our contested football and tackling and we have to bring that every week.”

There is no doubt two of Melbourne’s most frustrating and disappointing losses for the season have come against St Kilda.

It squandered a golden opportunity at Etihad Stadium in round 11 and it did not meet expectations on the weekend.

Again, St Kilda should be applauded for its improvement this season and the fact it has started to regenerate. But in the same way Melbourne is on its journey, it should’ve at least claimed one victory against the Saints this year.

It didn’t and that was a missed opportunity, where several improvements have taken place this year – namely more wins than in the past four seasons and a stirring win at Geelong.

But the losses against the Saints – a team Melbourne hasn’t beaten since its second elimination final win in 2006 – were a stumbling block in 2015.