RICKY Petterd says he took a calculated risk when he put his body on the line and made a brilliant lunging smother during the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to Hawthorn.

Petterd dived across the boot of Hawk Jordan Lewis - a la Heath Shaw’s effort on Nick Riewoldt in last year’s grand final replay - resulting in a behind to Hawthorn.

“I was on the wing at the time and I had my positioning right - inside the defensive 50 and just covering our exit to be a go to [player],” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“But I saw Hodgey (Luke Hodge) take a pretty good mark and then I saw Lewis peel off and I knew there was every chance he was going to give it, so I reacted pretty quickly.

“I just went for everything and if he had have stepped [around me], I would’ve looked pretty silly, but fortunately for me, he went for the kick.”

In terms of ‘one percenters’, Petterd said his effort was one of his best.  

“It was up there, but I haven’t done enough of them of late. We just need to lift that side of the game,” he said.

Reflecting on the 54-point loss, Petterd said the Demons simply gave up too many easy goals against a quality opposition.

“We let Hawthorn kick a few goals on the trot,” he said.

“We just can’t afford to do that with a team like Hawthorn - they’ll punish us every time.

“A couple of times, we got to within three goals, but we just sat back a little bit and we can’t do that to a quality side like Hawthorn.”

Although the Demons remained in touch until mid-way through the third term, Petterd said it was difficult playing catch-up football.

“It was definitely mentally and physically draining when you get back to within three goals and work your arse off to get there, but then you fall back five or 10 per cent,” he said.  

“But Hawthorn punish teams like that and we’ve just got to follow through.”

Melbourne now plays Geelong Cats at Skilled Stadium this Saturday, representing another tough challenge for the Demons. But one Petterd said the red and blue are ready to tackle.

“Again, they’re another good team. We’re in a pretty hard run at the moment and they’ve got a pretty good record down there, but we’ll go down with every intention to break that. We’ll do everything we can to rectify that,” he said.