A FOUR quarter effort.

It was a key takeaway for Melbourne’s Tom Sparrow following his team’s 22-point loss to Sydney on Thursday and one that he says will continue to be a focus in season 2024.

The Demons and Swans battled it out in the first half of the season-opener, with a contested game of footy playing out from the opening bounce.

But after the main break, the travelling side’s brand of footy dropped away, Sydney running with its momentum to get the first win of the year.

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“Obviously it wasn’t the ideal result, but it was really good to be in Sydney and it was a cracking weekend for it,” Sparrow told SEN’s Mornings.

“It was good to come into the season and see what we’re up against and move into the week with some really big learnings.

“We found that in the second half, versus the first half, there were a lot of stark differences.

“Our contest was much better in the first half, our time in forward half was much better.

“The game flipped on its head in the second half and Sydney were much better than us, credit to them.

“We’ll go away and work on a few things that weren’t efficient in the second half.

The bottom line is, we just need to play our way for all four quarters, and we didn’t give that on the weekend, so that’s something we’ll be looking to implement on Sunday.”

Melbourne’s midfield is packed with league-leading talent and has been touted as one of the best in the competition in recent years.

But on Thursday night, it was Sydney’s engine room that impressed most on the season-opening stage, with Sparrow admitting that the Demons’ contest had work to do.

“We put our hands up as a midfield,” Sparrow said.

“Around stoppages we needed to be better, Sydney was very strong in that part of the game on the night.

“And then for them to be able kick the first four goals in the last quarter, that put us on the back foot early.

“We need to be able play our brand of footy for a full four quarters.”

The Demons will now look to bounce back this weekend as they take on long-term rivals, the Western Bulldogs.

Always a highly anticipated match-up, Sparrow said the team was eager to return to the home of football and put on a show for the Melbourne faithful.

“I think it’ll be a big game,” Sparrow said.

We’re back at the MCG, we’ll be super pumped to get our fans to the game, a crowd makes a whole lot of difference for us.

“In terms of the rivalry, we had a few years of close and big games, and I think it’s just super exciting, after the weekend, to hopefully come out and walk the walk on Sunday.”

Melbourne will host the Dogs at the MCG, with the first bounce scheduled for 1:00pm. Tickets to the match are available here.