SO FRUSTRATED was coach Paul Roos post-match on Saturday that when posed the notion of what went wrong after his side led by 24 points up until the 16-minute mark of the second quarter, he simply mused: “Where do we start and how long have you got?”

Soon the overriding theme of Roos’ presser was that his side simply played as individuals – not as a team.

That in the end was the message from Melbourne’s 61-point loss to Port Adelaide at TIO Traeger Park – or to paint another unfortunate picture – an 85-point turnaround.

“I think it just illustrates the difference between our good and our bad,” he said.

“Our good is very, very good and our bad is still far too disjointed as a team where we start playing for each other and we stop playing as a team. That’s the difference.

“Clearly when you’re playing a top four side from last year, the gap between where they are and where we are is still pretty dramatic, if you also look at our performances against Freo, Hawthorn, Sydney and Port Adelaide – which were four of the top six teams from last year.”

Roos remains adamant that Melbourne’s best is “clearly” better than last year, but his team’s lack of consistency remains the sore point.

“Our worst footy is similar to where we were last year, so that’s concerning for us as a footy club,” he said.

“When we think about individual rather than team, we capitulate pretty badly, so that’s something we need to address … certainly against the better teams it means the score’s pretty lopsided when that happens.

“The disappointing thing for me is when we drop off, we drop off really dramatically. We’re able to play some very, very good football as we did for the first 45 minutes.

Roos said there was “still a talent gap between us and particularly the top four sides”, but was adamant that it should not hinder the effort displayed by his team.

“We believe from an effort point of view we should demand effort for 120 minutes, and if we give effort for 120 efforts, we’ll still get beaten by some of the better teams … but we’ve just got to get better for longer,” he said.

“It really gets back to when players go away from the team [game plan and it] manifests in a lot of different areas. They don’t do it consciously … but what you need to do is actually what you’re asked to do.”

“When our guys start thinking about themselves, it affects everyone in the team."

Still, Roos is optimistic that the club’s past performances over almost a decade won’t hinder the new breed coming through.

“For the young guys, if they’re learning and listening to the coaching staff about what needs to be done, then hopefully they can learn really quickly, because they’re young and they haven’t got too many bad habits,” he said.

“They’ve got to make a big jump from where they’ve come from, but if they’re prepared to learn and listen and action, then they don’t develop bad habits.

“Those guys, I’m really happy with the way they’re starting their careers and playing their football, so we’ve got to make sure that those bad habits don’t creep into those young players.”