LAST week, coach Paul Roos flagged up to three or four changes for Melbourne’s round 10 clash against Port Adelaide in Alice Springs, even though it had defeated the Brisbane Lions by 63 points at the MCG.

In the end, a couple of changes were made.

Defender Neville Jetta came back from a one-match suspension and midfielder Dom Tyson returned from illness. Youngster Clayton Oliver missed with a quadriceps injury and utilty Viv Michie was relegated to an emergency.

The reason for making three or four changes was sound, as Melbourne is still a young team and keeping the players fresh and healthy remains one of the great challenges for all AFL teams.

But making three or four changes to a winning side is also difficult, particularly when the team had won by more than 10 goals.

When the game was done and dusted on Saturday, on the back of Melbourne’s 45-point loss, Roos said he should’ve stuck with his original thought.

“I’ve got to take responsibility – we said we were going to do that last week and we didn’t do it. That’s really poor by me,” he said.

“It was a six-day break and we had an opportunity to do that and we didn’t take the opportunity.

“We’ve got to do a better job at picking the team on a weekly basis.”

And that makes for a fascinating week at selection.

Casey had a bye on the weekend, adding some intrigue to the picture.

Key forward Chris Dawes, former co-captain Jack Grimes and Michie were emergencies against the Power.

Dawes and Grimes have yet to play a match this season, but the former has shone in his past three matches for Casey, after returning from a calf injury, and Grimes’ most recent performance included 35 disposals. Key defender Lynden Dunn has also impressed for the Scorpions in recent weeks.

Another former co-skipper Jack Trengove is also getting closer to selection after missing almost two years with a foot injury.

Roos said it was difficult to know exactly how the side will look so early in the week.

“It’s hard to look at the side, when you’ve just finished, but it was something I mentioned last week and something we spoke about at match committee, but we didn’t do,” he said.

“We’ve got to take responsibility, as much as the players.

“Next week, we play Hawthorn, another experienced team and we certainly need to have a look at that.”

At least one forced change will be made – you would think – with Col Garland (cheekbone) – but how many others remain to be seen, as Melbourne takes on Hawthorn at the MCG this Saturday.

Still, it’s hardly panic stations.

The loss was against a more experienced line-up and one that had come within a kick of the Grand Final two years ago.

Melbourne’s season stands at five wins and five losses, and it sits ninth on the ladder – a position it hasn’t been in for quite some time. It remains the club’s best start since 2006.

And it was important that Roos reinforced this after the loss.

“We think we’re improving. We talked about speed humps and ups and downs. We’ve seen Port play really well and we’ve played them here a few times and they’re a more than capable team,” he said.

“We’ve just had too many players down. Our players fought back and had a crack, and there were some terrific individual efforts to get back into the game, but collectively we were down. A lot of our goals came from great run down tackles or a Hoges (Jesse Hogan) mark or more individual efforts. Theirs came from more team efforts, because they had 22 good players and we had a handful.

“We’re still cracking in, which is good, and we’re still having a go and we’re still getting better. We understand that it’s a journey ahead in a young team and you sometimes hit a few speed humps.”

The weekend was one of them.