MELBOURNE defender Colin Garland feels his team took a step back to the dark days of 2008 on Thursday night in the 54-point loss to West Coast but he and his teammates are committed to bouncing back.

Melbourne had shown good signs in wins over the Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions and a draw with the Sydney Swans over the first month of the season, but the loss to the Eagles was a definite step backwards.

Many observers expected Melbourne to continue the improvement shown last year following back-to-back wooden spoon seasons, but Garland felt Thursday night's effort turned back the clock too far. He knows they now have to respond next Sunday against Adelaide.

"As a group we probably thought we were past this. Playing in 2008 we copped some pretty bad losses, but as a group we thought we were past performances like this and it's just not good enough," Garland said.

"We have a lot of belief in this group even though this game was a shock. Judging by the feel of the boys we will come out firing next week because we have to and we have no option.

"It turns into an absolutely massive game for this club next week and we have to respond as a group, and show something."

Making the game worse for Garland was that it was also his 23rd birthday. He knew it was going to be bad when he and his fellow defenders were bombarded with West Coast entries inside-50, but they also added to their own misery by not being able to relieve the pressure.

"It's a shocking birthday. We were uncompetitive and we came with a big focus on our start, and we wanted to put the crowd out of it early but our inside-50 count was 22-3 at quarter-time and we just didn’t turn up with the right mindset," he said.

"They zoned really well and they have improved a lot. They put us under immense pressure as a back-line and midfield group so we were pretty much kicking to their numbers all night. Credit to them, but we do drills all the time to work through that and we just didn’t execute."

Even though Garland competed well and was Melbourne's best player on the night, he couldn’t take any positives out of the performance and is now fully focused on helping his team turn things around against the Crows.

"We have to get harder on ourselves as a group. The best thing about footy is that we have a chance to respond next week and that starts for us at training on Monday," Garland said.

"It's definitely hard to take anything out of the game even if you do play well in a loss like that. It was just so demoralising that now we are looking forward to Monday, getting the review out of the way and preparing for next week against the Crows."