MELBOURNE supporters had their hearts in their mouths on Saturday night as Jake Lever hobbled down the race in the second term, but the prized recruit returned to the field and played out the game at the MCG.

After rupturing his ACL last season, Lever has managed just five games in the red and blue in 2019, but fortunately avoided any damage to his knee against the Tigers.

“I just rolled my ankle – same ankle as I did about 10 weeks ago,” Lever told Melbourne Media post-game.

“I tried to get out after half-time and wasn’t feeling too great, but went back down and re-strapped it and it was all good.

“I played out the game and actually felt much better when I re-strapped it so I’m heading in the right direction.”

The 23-year-old had 14 disposals and took eight marks in the Dees’ 33-point loss to Richmond and appears to be finding his feet in the side.

“Personally, I think the game, when you come back, it is a bit foreign to you in terms of the contest and just reading the flight of the ball,” Lever said.

“I think over the last five weeks I’ve got a little bit better at that.

“It’s probably a step in the right direction personally for myself again tonight, but … losing, it’s just really hurting at the minute.”

The Demons fell to their 14^th loss of 2019, unable to compete with Richmond as the rain fell in the third term.

“We just didn’t adjust to the conditions,” Lever said.

“Richmond to their credit … are probably the in-form side in the competition and they adjusted much quicker than we did.

“We’ll look at that and see if we can adjust quicker next time it rains.”

While Melbourne was outplayed in the end, it competed strongly against one of the premier teams in the league, and Lever says his side can take some confidence from the loss.

“I think in the first half we can take massive positives out of it,” he said.

“It is pretty frustrating coming off at the end of the game and we’ve lost, but you look at that first half and it sort of looked like the footy we were playing last year.

“We’ve showed this year that we can play that type of footy for two or three quarters but it’s just about consistently doing it for four quarters. That’s what the best sides do, and you look at Richmond tonight and that’s what they did.”

A major flaw in the Dees’ performances recently has been their last quarters, getting overrun in the past five weeks, but pleasingly for the red and blue, they grinded out the game on Saturday night.

“I think when you come in at three quarter-time and you’re 30 points down it’s really about taking the game on and being really aggressive,” Lever said.

“I thought we played out the game really well.

“In the end Richmond kicked a couple of goals which was disappointing, but I think we look at that first half and we can see some positives out of it.”

The challenge doesn’t get any easier for Melbourne, hosting Collingwood in Round 21, but the Demons will be looking to play with a similar intensity again next Saturday afternoon.