BERNIE Vince says this Sunday’s clash against Carlton at the MCG will be one of the club’s biggest matches for the season.
Vince said coach Paul Roos told the players that they must respond strongly this round, after last Sunday’s 98-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
“We were pretty disappointed in our result on the weekend. We only played one quarter of footy, which was that third quarter,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“People have asked why we didn’t play like that the whole game, but if we knew that – we would’ve.
“We had the review on Tuesday morning, which was reasonably brief for how appalling we played.
“Roosy (Paul Roos) was big on Tuesday being the last day on that game and moving on to this week’s game against Carlton. He stated that it was going to be one of our biggest weeks for the year against Carlton and we’ve got to bring a better effort this week.”
Vince said the fact that Melbourne was expected to perform much better against the Bulldogs – having already beaten them in a NAB Challenge match and in round eight this year – was part of the reason for the massive disappointment.
“You want expectation to be up, because you want to develop as a side,” he said.
“As our expectation changes from supporters, they’re going to get disappointed when we lose games, particularly in the way we lost on the weekend. All teams go through it, but when teams get better that's when expectation rises.
“But we didn’t see a 98-point loss coming. We knew the Bulldogs had improved out of sight – not only this year – but since we played them earlier in the year.”
With the punters favouring Melbourne over Carlton this round, Vince said expectation was again a theme the Demons must confront.
“When we have been favourites, we haven’t played very well,” he said.
“It’s easier to win an upset game, rather than when we’re expected to win. When you’re expected to win, there is more pressure, so we need to overcome that as a footy club as well.
“We need to do everything we can this week to win.”
