MELBOURNE’S 17-point loss to Collingwood on Saturday wasn’t due to a lack of care, but Angus Brayshaw is incredibly frustrated by his side’s string of poor performances.

The Demons dropped their 15^th game for the season in Round 21, failing to put together a four-quarter effort at the MCG.

“It’s been a work in progress all year trying to find the winning mix,” Brayshaw told Melbourne Media post-game.

“We’ve shown bits of it and it’s just so frustrating because we know what we can do and we’re just so short of it at the moment.

“There’s one of two ways: We can be really disappointed and get down on ourselves, or we can take some positives out of this game.”

With just two matches remaining in 2019, Brayshaw said it’s important to trial some things and salvage something from the season.

“We tried a few new things this week with the way we tried to play and move the ball a bit more through the middle,” he said.

“For the first and fourth quarter I felt like that was what we were able to produce, and we were really competitive for those two quarters.

“Unfortunately, that’s the story of our season, we just haven’t been able to do it for four quarters.

“It’s two quarters not four, but something to build off.”

Although the Demons looked flat during the second and third terms, Brayshaw believes a lack of spirit wasn’t the issue.

“I feel like it was more just we’d look and if there was nothing on, we’d just resign ourselves to kicking long down the line,” he said.

The Dees were up against a strong Collingwood midfield, with Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Adam Treloar all having an impact throughout the game, but it was a challenge Brayshaw enjoyed.

“I felt like it was a good midfield battle all day,” he said.

“They’ve got some star players and we backed our own midfield in today.

“We felt like we were up for the fight … and I feel like it was an arm wrestle all day.

“If we can match it against them, they’re probably as good a midfield as any in the comp, so it’s a good yardstick.”

With just five wins from 20 games this season, Melbourne’s focus now turns to the Swans at the MCG next Friday night.

“Sydney are a good team, so next week we’ve got a chance to take another step forward and get something out of the backend of this year,” Brayshaw said.

“It’s going to be a big week for us to stay positive and keep moving forward.

“We’ve got to get something out of these last couple of games so it may as well be all positives.”