MELBOURNE will look to its positives as a learning opportunity, despite suffering a disappointing loss to the reigning premiers.

After a closely contested first three quarters, where the Demons led at the final break, the Cats ran over the top of the away side with six fourth-term goals.

Dees defender Steven May highlighted his side's strength in the early periods of the game, but explained that the loss was ultimately down to the opposition's ability to make the most of their opportunities when they arose.

“It was a disappointing loss,” May told Melbourne Media.

“I thought we did a lot of things right for three quarters.

"You come down here against the premiers and you’re off for 10 minutes and that’s what you’re going to get.

“They’re a bloody good outfit and I thought we did a lot right, but critical contests when the game is in the balance is all it takes in the AFL especially against the top sides.

“A lot of the game looked like the way Melbourne want to play. It does hurt a bit, I felt like we let this one go.”

When you look to the statistics of the game, Melbourne were either close or led much of the categories, including inside 50s (53-52), clearances (35-47) and tackles (70-75), but weren't able to convert this to a win. 

May credited Geelong's skill in capitalising on turnover and saw it as a chance for the group to learn moving ahead to next week's match. 

“You really want that scoreboard nourishment when the games being dominated for patches," May said. 

"We had the ball in our front half, we were getting a lot of inside 50s, we were winning clearances - you add on a couple goals and all of a sudden maybe Geelong drop their heads...[but] we weren’t able to get that lead.

“Full credit to them, they took their chances. There was a couple of full field goals which we really don’t allow usually.

“There will definitely be a lot of learnings from this.”