MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos says his players looked like they were already on their footy trip after an unacceptable performance against the Western Bulldogs.

Melbourne lost to the Dogs by 98 points last Sunday at Etihad Stadium.

"The difficulty with this time of year is trying to get into the players’ heads. Clearly last week they looked like they'd switched off (and were) on their end-of-season footy trip," Roos told reporters on Friday morning.

Roos said he didn’t think it was unusual to get players up for the rest of the season, when finals was out of the equation. He added that there was “no doubt” it was a challenge to get the players up late in the year.

“From our point of view, we’ve got to reset for the three [remaining] games,” he said.

“The difficulty at this time of the year is getting in the players’ heads.

“Last week, they looked as though they switched off and were on their end of season footy trip.”

Roos said he understood why fans were frustrated with players’ performances.

“What we dished up last week was unacceptable and that’s why fans get frustrated with certain teams at certain times,” he said.

“I don’t think players never try … but fans get frustrated. You can either ignore it and pretend it doesn’t happen or you can try and do something about it as a coaching group.

“It is real and it is human nature and we’ve got to try and deal with it and we’ve got to do a better job. We felt like we prepared well as a group and we’ve got to do a better job this week at preparing well as a coaching group.”

Roos said there were so many reasons why players should play well right until the end of the season.

“Whether that’s getting a spot on this list or whether that’s showing another club that they deserve an opportunity somewhere else, so it extends through your whole playing group,” he said.

“It’s not really just your senior team … but we need to finish off as a footy club and it’s really important for the majority of those players on all of those lists.”

In a wide ranging press conference:

- Roos indicated he'd be open to staying at the Demons in a part-time capacity after Simon Goodwin transitions into the senior coaching role.

- He said Lachie Henderson's departure from the Blues opened a window into what could be the future, adding NRL style player movement would be ‘a disaster'.

- He said defender Neville Jetta could play again this season despite a neck injury suffered last week.

Melbourne plays Carlton on Sunday.