ACHIEVING consistency remains Melbourne’s biggest issue so far this season, according to coach Dean Bailey.

Bailey acknowledged his team had been “a little bit up and down” as it prepares for Sunday’s inaugural clash against Gold Coast at the Gabba.

“We need 120 minutes of competitive footy and when you’re struggling during a game, you don’t want to have that period to be too long at all. You want to stay in the game,” he said from AAMI Park on Thursday.

“Every minute we play, we’ve got to be playing with a high degree of intensity, otherwise it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, they’re going to have a chance to get back in the game.”

But Bailey said it was too early to tell if Melbourne’s inconsistency was a long-term issue.

“If you’re going to compare years to years, we’ll wait until round 22 and then have a full comparison,” he said.

“To have a look at something in a short phase is an incorrect way of judging it, but you can only judge on where we’ve been in the last three weeks.”

Pressed if he was worried about the prospect of Gold Coast recording its first win over Melbourne, Bailey remained focused on one area.  

“We’re after 120 minutes of contested football for the whole period of the game,” he said.

“We’ve got to get our game going and our level of attack on the footy and our intensity back to where it should be. We haven’t hit that level so far this year - in any consistent form. That’s going to be our challenge.”