MELBOURNE co-captain Jack Viney says his side needs to be more efficient going inside 50 after wasting opportunities against Geelong on Saturday night.

The Demons were dealt a thumping 80-point loss at GMHBA Stadium but had their chances to score with a massive 73 forward entries throughout the night.

“It’s something to work on – that connection between midfielders, defenders and kicking inside 50,” Viney told Melbourne Media.

“To get that many inside 50s was a good result, but we obviously didn’t make the most of it, so we’ll need to work on that over the next week.”

Melbourne had a poor start to the match, down 24 contested possessions at the first break, and was sloppy with ball in hand.

“I definitely think our contest work over the football wasn’t up to the level,” Viney said.

“It was slippery, but it was slippery for them too and they handled those conditions much better than we did.”

But despite the poor start and the inefficiency, Viney said the midfield group was able to get back into it in the latter part of the game.

“Last week we felt our performance didn’t really resemble our brand at all and we wanted to get that back really quickly,” he said.

“So today, even though it was extremely disappointing from a scoreboard point of view, I think there were positives to take out of the clearances, contested (game), inside 50s.

“I think there were positives to take out of it, but still a lot of holes to round out the game.”

Geelong had 25 less inside 50s on the night, but scored freely upon entry with 13 second-half goals – an issue that the Dees need to address.

“When the ball’s transitioning that quickly you don’t really get a grasp of where the break downs are happening,” Viney said.

“It’s something the coaches will digest, and we’ll watch the tape to understand how to slow the ball up a bit.

“But it seemed every time they went inside 50 they scored, every time they won the ball they scored, so I think that kind of fight to death mentality when they’ve got the ball needs to lift a little bit.”

It was the second tough loss for the Demons in as many games to start the season, but Viney is hoping the group will be able to get their season back on track against Essendon next week.

“It’s a really disappointing day but I think it was a step forwards in a way in terms of finding our contest work back which is the cornerstone of our game,” he said.

“We need to work on our use around the stoppages and inside 50s and optimising our ball use.”