JACK Watts says he’s not sure if he would’ve taken a 4-4 win/loss record after eight rounds, as he believes Melbourne missed a couple of opportunities in its first third of the season.

Speaking to Melbourne TV, Watts said it was an fascinating situation for the club, as he would’ve accepted a 50 per cent winning percentage at this point – based on where the club has been in recent seasons – but given it has also been in some winning positions this year, it could’ve been even better.

“It’s an interesting one. We’ve probably let some [slip] through our fingers and [then] won some close ones [but] that’s footy isn’t it,” he said.

“You can’t win them all; you can’t win all the close ones.

“We’re in a position to mount a good challenge for the back half of the year and keep improving.”

Watts said the team took plenty out of last round’s loss to the fifth-placed Western Bulldogs. 

“They [the Bulldogs] are a pretty good team. We went in with the mentality that we wanted to match them in contested ball and I think they were plus 30 in contested balls, so we knew that was their strength and we tried to go at them and just weren’t quite there,” he said.

“They’ve been playing that way for three to four years now and we’re on that journey [now].

“It was a little bit of an eye-opener, but I thought at the same time, it gave us belief and confidence in the way that we’re playing. The fact that we’re doing it the right way – we’re going to have a lot of fun in the years to come.”