ASSISTANT coach Jade Rawlings says Melbourne is determined to give a strong contest at Simonds Stadium on Sunday, despite the Demons having a poor record at the Cattery in years.  

Melbourne’s most recent win at Geelong came in round 20, 2005 when Russell Robertson played his finest game for the club, kicking a personal best seven goals predominantly on Matthew Scarlett and Max Rooke.

The Demons then produced another nail-biter the following year in 2006, when it drew with the Cats in round 21.

But remarkably, since 1967, Melbourne has won just five of its 36 matches at Geelong. More recently, the Demons have won just one of its past 18 at the venue.

Its most recent match was in round 16, 2013, when Neil Craig was Melbourne coach and it went down to Geelong by 68 points in cold and wet conditions.

Rawlings, the club’s backline coach, said Melbourne had not even thought about previous performances at Geelong and was simply looking to bounce back hard after its agonising two-point loss to St Kilda last round.

“It hasn’t been a great hunting ground for our club, but that’s in the past and their (Geelong) form line is interesting,” he told Dee TV.

“They couldn’t have performed any better against Port [Adelaide] and they copped Carlton a couple of weeks ago, where they were able to do a bit of damage and then they copped a bit of a touch up from West Coast.

“We’ll plan for their best and pick a team that we think is going to compete best for us.”

Rawlings said the players and coaches had an extensive review following its loss at Etihad Stadium last Sunday.

“How did we lose from that situation? It’s been heavily reviewed through the media and we dissected it as thoroughly as anyone. There were a lot of breakdowns as to how we didn’t close that game out, so that’s been reviewed, along with the other 118 or 119 minutes as well,” he said.

“But in the end, you get yourself in a position and a lead like that, and to not finish it – it leaves a pretty bad taste in all of our mouths.

“We really pride ourselves on our consistency and how we review, irrespective of the result, so we stayed with our same process.

“There was a lot learned, which was positive and a lot of areas we can get better at, but no doubt the last minute was reviewed and we looked at how it could’ve been done far better and more efficiently.”