Coach Mark Neeld indicated the club would keep faith with its crop of battling youngsters.
The Demons' primary focus ahead of Sunday's clash against the Western Bulldogs will be on eliminating clangers.
Speaking at AAMI Park on Monday, Neeld reminded everyone, including the players, that his side was in the game with 11 minutes to go in the third quarter against the Tigers. At that point the Demons were 15 points down.
By the time the three quarter-time siren rang the margin was 59 points.
It was an unacceptable 11 minutes from any perspective. But the coach wasn't dwelling on the scoreboard. He was focusing on what lessons could be learned.
Neeld suggested it was a combination of mistakes and young bodies unable to keep making good decisions when tired that led to the "unacceptable" patch of unanswered goals.
Now was the time to stick with those youngsters who were making the effort to get better, he said.
"I know a lot of the young kids, particularly the ones around the middle, when they are fatigued (it is) a massive challenge to stick to the structures and keep running, because to be good at AFL footy is a really hard job, so we want to get games into those guys and keep demanding elite standards."
It means there may be changes ahead of Sunday's game, but not many.
Neeld said that despite the massive differential between Melbourne's uncontested possession rate and that of the opposition (Richmond had 138 more uncontested possessions on Saturday) it was not as hard to close the gap in that area as it might seem.
Neeld put the imbalance down to Melbourne mistakes, saying that each of the eight "absolute clangers" that happened on the weekend could result in the loss of four potential uncontested possessions for the Demons and a gain of four for the opposition. Fix all eight and that bridges the gap by about 60 possessions. When that happens the scoreboard can look better too.
It wasn't a matter of bringing outside runners into the team to address the issue, either. Fixing the mistakes was what mattered most.
While such talk seemed technical it reflected the repetitive, non-glamorous work that bottom teams need to do to get better.
Neeld said he was happy with Brad Green's response after being demoted to the VFL but was still unsure whether or not he would return against the Dogs.
If Green does come in it might be at the expense of either James Sellar or Stefan Martin, who played as tall forwards and relief ruckmen on Saturday. But Neeld said he was quite happy to play all three talls (including Mitch Clark) inside 50 if they "are all in form and warrant selection."
Sellar and Martin earned 16 possessions between them on Saturday and Martin was eventually subbed off.
