MICHAEL Hibberd says Melbourne’s 14-point loss to North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday was the team’s most disappointing defeat of the year.

Hibberd said the manner Melbourne dropped its fifth game of the year was frustrating.

“It probably is [the most disappointing loss this season],” he told Melbourne TV.  

“It’s a tough pill to swallow losing like that. We were in the game there in the last quarter and we had the chance to win, but another slow start really cost us. If we started a bit quicker, it could’ve been a different result.

“We’re coming to that middle part of the year where we need to start stringing some wins together, if we’re going to be serious and play finals. That’s a tough loss, but we’ll get back on the horse and hopefully get a win next week against Gold Coast.”

Hibberd said there were multiple reasons for Melbourne’s slow start, which resulted in a 26-point deficit at quarter-time.

“We couldn’t pinpoint one thing that it came down to. There were a few things … some individuals weren’t on their game early and as a team we weren’t cracking in around the contest,” he said.

“We allowed the ball to come in pretty quickly, especially through that first quarter. They had a lot of run off half-back that really broke us apart.”

The 27-year-old said the second quarter, when Melbourne kicked 6.2 to 2.2, was a tense period.

“It was unbelievable in the second term. We really turned the game around. We got within a kick after being almost five goals down. It shows that when we’re on, we can play some really good footy,” he said.

“We’re strong around the contest and we’ve got good midfielders that crack in and if we do that for four quarters, we’re going to be a really good team.”

Hibberd said the loss was particularly annoying after his side defeated the Crows at the Adelaide Oval by 41 points last round.

“It was really frustrating, because we put in a really good performance against Adelaide and we set the benchmark of how well we want to play – week in, week out,” he said.

“We didn’t live up to that standard tonight and we lost because of it.”

Although Hibberd had 33 disposals, on the back of his career-best 34 last week, he felt his game was inconsistent against the Roos.

“I got a couple of touches, but at times I wasn’t effective with them,” he said.

“I could’ve used the ball a lot better and I could’ve helped my teammates a lot more in the backline. I don’t rate my performance on disposals – we lost the game and I had a part to play in that as well.”

Looking ahead to next Saturday’s clash against the Gold Coast Suns at TIO Traeger Park, Hibberd said it was another important test for Melbourne.

“It’s a big game again, like this week. Every game’s big now and we need to get as many wins as we can,” he said.