ASSISTANT coach Ben Mathews says if Melbourne doesn’t come to play against North Melbourne in Hobart on Sunday, it will be another tough day at the office.

Speaking to Melbourne TV, Mathews said no AFL team could take its opposition lightly, otherwise upsets would continue to be the norm – as was the case in round two, when the red and blue went down to the Bombers.

“If you don’t bring your A-game, in terms of competing from contest to contest on the weekend, generally the result pans out in the negative for you,” he said.

“That’s what happened to us last Saturday [against Essendon at the MCG] and we had to bring our A-game in the contest on Sunday.”

Mathews said there was “no doubt” Melbourne took a hit in round two and it was determined not to let it happen again against the Kangaroos.

“Essendon was very, very good and they deserved their victory. We thought we were really poor at the same time,” he said.

“Around the contest, we just weren’t hard enough and we didn’t work hard enough outside the contest.

“That comes back to us as coaches and the group as players, but we get another opportunity this week against a really good side in North Melbourne.”

Mathews said the players and coaches had gone through an extensive review of round two.

“There’s no doubt the boys want to be coached hard. We had some really robust reviews on Monday, but honest as well,” he said.

“We’re not in the business of whacking guys for no reason. The players put their hand up, the coaches put their hand up and we’ve looked at our preparation and how we went into the game.

“We’ve looked at other areas that may have contributed to why we didn’t turn up to work hard enough and compete hard enough, and hopefully we come out of it with a much better showing against the Kangas.”

Looking ahead to Melbourne’s first home and away match at Bellerive – and in Tasmania since round eight, 1952, when it lost to Fitzroy by 20 points at North Hobart – Mathews said the lack of familiarity wouldn’t pose a problem.

“We’ll go to the ground on Saturday afternoon, when we get down to Tassie, and just familiarise, walk around, see the stands and give the players a little bit of a feel,” he said.

“But when it comes down to it, it’s a patch of grass and there are lines drawn on it, like every other footy oval, and it’s what’s happening in between our ears that’ll be done the most.

“How we combat what North do very, very well [will be our challenge]. They’re tough, they have big, strong mids and they’ve got big, strong forwards as well that compete really well.

“They’ve got a strong defence, so they haven’t got too many cracks and hence they’ve won two from two in 2016. We need to be right on our game to make an even contest and hopefully get over them.”