COACH Paul Roos says the most frustrating aspect of Melbourne’s 13-point loss to Essendon at the MCG on Saturday is that the past four weeks have been “really good”.

Speaking after Melbourne’s first loss of 2016, Roos said that was why the loss was so testing. Still, he praised the opposition for its effort in its win.

“You’ve got to give them (Essendon) credit. They played really, really well and everyone talked them down a lot, but they were just far too good in all aspects of the game,” he said.

“They beat us inside and they beat us outside and tactically they moved the ball really well. Even when we got in front, I thought we looked tired and we didn’t look like [winning]. Last week, we were up and about, and had a lot of energy and you sensed last week when we got in front that we were going to win.

“I think when we got in front [against Essendon], we didn’t really look like we could keep on going. Now that’s a combination of a lot of things, but our younger players looked really fried and really lacked energy, so we just had too many passengers to get over the line and get over the hump.

“It was a bitterly disappointing day, given our last month and where we think we’re at, but hopefully it’s not a true reflection of what we can dish up throughout the course of the year.”

Roos said several factors came into play as to why his side went down to the Bombers.

“While you want to play as a team, a team is made up of 22 individuals and every individual within that team needs to prepare himself well and needs to present well every single week,” he said.

“We didn’t have enough individuals [play well], so it does make you angry and it does make you angry for the supporters, but we’ve got to take responsibilities as coaches as well.

“Clearly, we didn’t pick the right team and we have been the last month – and I reckon we’ve been picking the right team. It’s hard off the back of a win to make too many changes, but I don’t think we picked the right team [against Essendon].

“Unless you see the signs during the week, it’s difficult to crystal ball what our Saturday’s going to look like.”