THE second part of the trilogy was released on Saturday night and it’s fair to say it was far better than the original, but still didn’t live up to expectations.  

Melbourne’s trilogy of playing the three teams to have featured in the past three Grand Finals – Fremantle, Sydney Swans and Hawthorn – in consecutive weeks was always going to be a massive challenge. 

The first part wasn’t great. Melbourne went down to Fremantle by 68 points and on the weekend, the sequel looked set to be worse, when Sydney led by 40 points at the main interval. But the second part of the plot took an improved twist when the Demons improved significantly and actually won the second half by two points.

Coach Paul Roos said Melbourne was looking at a three-figure defeat before showing some fight after half-time.

“I thought the second half showed we’ve come a fair way as a footy club,” he said.

“That was a 100-point loss [in the making] at half-time and we played against a team that was clearly going to be at the pointy end of the season.

“I was really pleased with the players in the second half. They really fought it out and gave ourselves a chance to score and play the way we wanted to play.”

Roos said quite matter-of-factly that Sydney at its best is no match for many teams in the competition.

“The first half, we just couldn’t get into the game because of their (Sydney) pressure. At some point, you’ve got to give credit to the opposition because of where we’re at and where the opposition is at,” he said.

“If they’re (Sydney) playing their best footy, it’s very, very difficult for us to play in the state that we’re in. At half-time, we talked a lot about the way we want to play and we came out and did a much better job in the second half.”

Interestingly, Melbourne was down by 59 points in the third term against the Swans, but managed to get back to five goals in the final quarter.

Compare that to the loss against Fremantle, when Melbourne trailed by 30 points early in the final term – and ended up losing by more than 11 goals – and it was clearly a better showing against the Swans.

“I was really disappointed in last week. We just felt we really fell away at the end of the game, but with all due respect to Freo, I didn’t think they had to play that well to beat us last week,” Roos said.

“I thought it was a much better – and far better – performance than last week.

“Clearly what we’re trying to do as a footy club is emulate Freo, Hawthorn and Sydney, and we play them in three weeks, so it’s a great opportunity for us to try and compete, but also work out what they do really well.”

Roos, who of course coached the Swans from 2002-10 and guided them to the 2005 premiership and 2006 Grand Final, said Sydney’s style had been built and remained a constant “for the best part of 15 years”.

And it’s incredible to note that the Swans have missed the finals just three times since 1996.

“We’re just not at that level of Sydney,” he said.

“We’re still trying to fight our own battles out there … but we were miles better than we were last week.

“We’ve still got a long way to go before we can compete with those teams.”

Captain Nathan Jones said it had been a great test for his side to come up against Fremantle and Sydney. And he added that the challenge will continue this Saturday, when the Demons attempt to end an 11-game losing streak against Hawthorn.

“I think they (Fremantle and Sydney) really set the standard in the competition with that contested ball, tackling, and their ability to attack and defend,” he said.

“I honestly believe in what we can serve up and our best is good enough, but when you’re playing the calibre of Sydney and you only play for half the game, you see what happens.

“We’ll get back on the horse and we’ve got another big challenge next week against Hawthorn. It’s another chance for our boys.”

It’s also another opportunity for Melbourne to nail the performance it wants to show in this tough trilogy.

And wouldn’t the red and blue faithful love it.