MIDFIELDER Bernie Vince says Melbourne struggled across four quarters, even though it remained in the contest until midway through the third quarter, when North Melbourne ran away with the match at the MCG on Sunday night.

The Demons lost by 41 points in the wash-up, but Vince, who was outstanding with 41 disposals, said his side struggled from the start. 

“We just went away from the things that we know wins games … it’s pretty disappointing for the group,” he told Dee TV.

“Not a lot of players played their role for the group and it was probably one of the most disappointing efforts for the year, even though we’ve had bigger losses.

“It was really disappointing, because we really set ourselves for this game and thought we matched up against them pretty well, so it was pretty disappointing.”

Vince said the Demons let the Kangaroos play to their strengths too often.

“We knew that they love the outside run and we probably let them get outside a little bit too much,” he said.

“We allowed them to get the uncontested lead up too much – we went away from the things that we know win for us – the tackles and contested ball, so [we were] probably lucky again to be so close at half-time.

“They just ran away from it in the end and it was a pretty disappointing four quarter effort.