MELBOURNE'S inaccuracy in front of goal against Geelong was an aberration and not a trend, coach Simon Goodwin says. 

The Demons had 32 scoring shots to the Cats' 26 at Etihad Stadium, but kicked themselves out of the game with a poor conversion rate of 13.19 in their 29-point loss.

Geelong reeled off 16 straight goals after being 1.2 in the first term to finish the afternoon with 20.6, while the Demons' early misses in front of goal became contagious. 

"We just had a really bad day. It's something that hasn't been a problem throughout the season or the JLT Series so we had a bad day," Goodwin said.

"When you get five or six missing, it becomes a bit of an effect where everyone starts to miss, and that's what we saw today." 

The Demons' missed shots, especially in the second and third quarters, were gettable, with Nathan Jones 0.3, Dean Kent 2.3, Billy Stretch 1.2, Dom Tyson 0.1, Bernie Vince 0.1, Jeff Garlett 1.2 and Sam Weideman 0.1 all on the wrong side of the scoring ledger.

"It was frustrating. Clearly you've got to kick goals to win games of footy and we didn't do that today," Goodwin said. 

"Geelong, late in the game were terrific, with Dangerfield and Selwood outstanding around the footy. 

"I thought we played well enough to win the game but ultimately Geelong deserved to win the game."

The Demons booted 18.12 under the roof at Etihad Stadium in round one against St Kilda and had a return of 13.8 against the Blues last week to suggest inaccuracy has not been an ongoing issue. 

Nonetheless, Goodwin said his team would continue to work on its goal-kicking at training, but there would be nothing out of the ordinary this week. 

With Jesse Hogan to miss another match due to suspension, Goodwin said the Demons would persist with their young forwards which include Weideman (five games), Tim Smith (one), Mitch Hannan (three), Christian Petracca (19) and Alex Neal-Bullen (17). 

"The forward line actually functioned alright, it probably didn't function that well late in the game because we didn't move the ball as well as we should have," Goodwin said. 

"But to have 32 scoring shots, your forward line is doing something right. 

"If we convert better, it'll be a better scoreboard."