COACH Simon Goodwin says the players and coaches are already looking to respond, after a poor performance against Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday.

Melbourne went down to the Hawks by 67 points and Goodwin said the group was desperate to bounce back against Richmond at the MCG on Anzac Day eve.

“We’ve got nine days and we’ve got to get ourselves together and I think we as coaches and players are really looking forward to it,” he said.

“We’ve got a long break and sometimes you want the game to come a bit quicker, so you can get back in there, but we’ve got to rebound. I think as a club we need to respond as best we can.

“They’re a proud group, and they know they’ve done a lot of work to build themselves into the position that they are. They know that it didn’t reflect anything of the way they want to go about their footy. They’re looking forward to responding.”

Goodwin said the loss was “as disappointing a day as you’ve seen from our club”.

“It was poor. I thought Hawthorn was terrific. They handled the conditions better and they structurally set-up better. It certainly didn’t reflect the way that we've played for a while now, so that was disappointing,” he said.

“We went away from some of the things that have been really critical to us. There were a lot of critical contests, where we weren’t to the level, so that’s disappointing, because we’ve spent a lot of time building that up as a footy club.

“That’s probably where the game was won in the end – they probably won both ends of the ground convincingly.”

Goodwin praised the performance of co-captain Nathan Jones, who kept Tom Mitchell to 24 disposals, after the Hawthorn star had averaged more than 45 touches in the first three rounds.

“I thought Nathan played a terrific team first role. I still think Tom had some influence in the game, but I thought Nathan Jones’ ability to go and do that role was really important for us,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of midfielders that go through our midfield, so that didn’t hinder our ability to win the ball.

“Nathan’s one player of eight or nine guys who go through there, but I thought Nathan completed his role exceptionally well for the day.”