DESPITE LEADING for 66 minutes of Saturday night’s match against Port Adelaide, the Dees fell short, losing by a mere two points.

07:32

RD 22 | Post-match Media Conference | Simon Goodwin

The media spoke with Simon Goodwin following our 2 point loss to Port Adelaide.

The home side fell at the last hurdle, its fourth quarter seeing the Power restrict the Dees to only two inside 50s and six uncontested possessions in the final 10 minutes of the match.

“I thought through the middle part of the [last] quarter we had some dominance where we could have hit the scoreboard a little bit more, and I think that was probably the story of the night,” Goodwin said.

“I think we had 20 more clangers than the opposition. We just didn’t maximise our ability to be efficient and hit the scoreboard, and we had those opportunities where we could have got a bigger lead.”

Aside from the team’s inability to convert in the last term, Goodwin praised his players on their performance, having made improvements on their 51-point loss to the Dogs a week prior.  

“After last week - the way that we played and how disappointed we were - I thought tonight certainly resembled the way that we want to be seen,” Goodwin said.

“We came with a plan. I thought the effort and the intent of the players was first class. I thought we were incredibly well-led by [Max] Gawn and [Jack] Viney in that space, but in the end we lost out to a team that’s playing some really good footy.

"You certainly can’t knock the fight of the group to get off of the canvas from last week."

Having lost three games by under a goal in the last seven weeks against strong teams, Melbourne has managed to show a level of fight in the challenge.

“It’s difficult. It’s those small margins between sitting where we sit and playing finals footy, and we have an expectation to play finals footy,” Goodwin said.

“When you’re losing close games the way that we are, three in the last seven weeks, you put yourself under enormous pressure and you don’t achieve what you want to achieve.

“Tonight was a step forward in some of the things we wanted to see from last week, but you can’t turn the tap on and off, so we’ll be going full boar right to the end of the year.

“We won’t be backing off one bit in terms of how we go about our footy."

Youngster Kysaiah Pickett kicked four goals and held 21 disposals, eight score involvements and six tackles, making him one of Melbourne’s most influential for the night.

“He’s an outstanding player, Kozzy,” Goodwin said.

“If you go back through the history of his career so far and what he’s delivering year on year, he’s a highly talented player that we see enormous growth within.

“He’s tracking into a fantastic player and tonight it was there for everyone to see. High impact around the ball, high impact on the scoreboard, and I thought his pressure was outstanding.

“We love the way he goes about it. He’s a great teammate, he gives everything for his club, and he’s improving all the time.” While the Dees will find it hard to make it into the final eight with two games left of the home-and-away season, Goodwin highlighted his confidence in the side and its culture.

“I’m optimistic about this football club, our playing group, and the young players that we have,” Goodwin said.

“We’ve got some great people and some great players.

“We’re looking forward to putting out performance like we did tonight even though we didn’t get the result.”

03:33

RD 22 | Post-match Interview | Jake Lever

We speak to Jake Lever after our 2 point loss to Port Adelaide.

Jake Lever, an integral leader within the football club, reflected on the team’s disappointment following the close loss.

“It’s tough. We felt like we had good opportunities to win the game, but for us in the end they were just too good,” Lever said.

“A big focus for us was playing as a team all week, and I felt like for the majority of the game we did that, so if you look at that aspect of the game, we were really proud.

“We’re competitive people, we want to win, doesn’t matter what stage of the season, what predicament we’re in, we always want to win.

“We weren’t able to get the result tonight, but I feel like we’ve built this week and now it’s just about being consistent.”

Lever also addressed the likelihood of missing out on finals this year.

“It’s really tough, because for the sort of last three years we’ve almost just been playing for a top four spot,” Lever said.

“It’s been a weird season for us, we’ve lost some key players, played some young guys. We haven’t got the results we’ve needed to for the past six to eight weeks.

“It does look like we’re going to miss finals, but we just want to keep winning. We want to keep playing the way we know we can.

“I think it’s really important that we continue to build our culture over the next two weeks. Reflecting back on 2020, we did the same thing and the next year we came with a lot of confidence and had a great year.”