COACH Simon Goodwin says a recent calf injury may have held Dom Tyson back from playing in Melbourne’s opening round of the season.

Speaking post-match after Melbourne’s three-point loss to Geelong at the MCG on Sunday, Goodwin said Tyson and Angus Brayshaw, who were both emergencies, were overlooked as there were a host of players in strong form entering the premiership season.

“We had a lot of players that we in good form – fit and ready to go. We picked the best possible team we could,” he said.

“For Dommy, he had a calf injury, just before JLT [Community Series, game] one. It probably set his preparation back a little bit.

“In saying that, we still picked the best team we had available. We had 30 players to pick from – selection certainly didn’t cost us the game today.”

Goodwin said debutant Bayley Fritsch was “exciting” early on, while another first-gamer for the Demons, former Crow Jake Lever, had a tougher day, before fighting back strongly.

“I think by his own admission, he probably wouldn’t have been happy with his first half, but I thought he fought back really well in the second half,” he said.

“It was his first game for Melbourne and he’s still understanding how we play and operate – and he’s building a chemistry with our back six, so I’m sure he’ll respond and I’m sure he’ll get more comfortable as he plays more footy with Melbourne footy club.”

Goodwin said it was “agonising” losing to Geelong by less than a goal.

“But that’s footy. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but we weren’t good enough to take it,” he said.

“We’re certainly not in this caper for losses that are hollow like that – we’re in the game to win.

“We didn’t do that today, so we’ve only got ourselves to blame over the course of the match.”

Still, Goodwin said the Cats were still an outstanding team and paid credit to last year’s preliminary finalists.

“Geelong is very well-organised in terms of the way they set-up behind the ball. It’s been the hallmark of their game for a long time,” he said.

“We played a really good footy club today – don’t get me wrong. They played an outstanding brand of footy, so we knew it was going to be tough, but full credit to Geelong.”

Although Melbourne trailed by 27 points at half-time, Goodwin praised his side for fighting back in the second half.

“I think we’ve shown as a club for a long time now, last year especially, that we can find our way back into games,” he said.

“We did a lot last year when we on the ropes and the true fight and grit from this team is strong – they want to win. But we need to be really clear with what’s required for the whole game.

“Our first half and the way we defended certainly didn’t allow us to play the game we wanted to for the whole game, so that’s our challenge.”