IT’S NO SECRET Melbourne’s year hasn’t gone to script, and changes were made over the bye week in a bid to rectify its season. 

And after four gruelling quarters against Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday, the Demons finally got some reward for effort. 

“A lot of changes internally - all positive, different for a lot of people - but it allowed us the chance to reset and do something different,” Tom McDonald told Melbourne Media post-game.

“If we kept going the same way it would’ve been a poor way to finish the year, but this was all about getting better for this year and next year.

“I thought it was a really good response today.”

Although the Dees’ 14-point win wasn’t perfect, McDonald was pleased with how his side went about it in Round 14.

“It was probably pretty yuck for you guys to watch in the first half,” he said.

“It was scrappy and a lot of mistakes - kind of like our whole year’s been.

“We were happy with the way we were going about it, but the problem is we’ve had games where we’ve gone really well about it in the first half, and then the second half it drops away. Or we get frustrated with the skill errors, or miss goals and it sort of grinds us down.

“But it almost went the opposite way today. I felt that we finally got a bit of a run on, kicked a couple and brought each other into the game with some good team play through the middle and it sort of brought everyone together again.

“I’m really happy with the way the guys responded in the last half, it was a really good game for us.”

There’s no doubt the Demon players have been challenged in 2019 - none more so than McDonald - with confidence affecting the team’s performance.

And the 26-year-old says finding that self-belief is “the most important thing”.

“It can go week-to-week. It’s sort of irrelevant when we turn up next week if we don’t come with the same attitude,” McDonald said.

“But it’s a nice feeling now - we’ll just leave it at that and turn up next week with a good attitude and hopefully have another win.”

McDonald was a huge factor in the Dees’ victory on Saturday, with 28 disposals and three goals - including two last quarter majors and some crucial contested marks.

“It’s a much better feeling coming in here afterwards,” he said.

“If we had have lost, just because I played better, it still would’ve felt pretty average. Having that in combination is a nice feeling.”