COACH Paul Roos says he was really “proud of the guys” after his team remained in the hunt for much of its clash against the Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Although Melbourne lost by 25 points, Roos said it was a strong performance after a disappointing second half fadeout against Greater Western Sydney in round two.

“The difference in the end of the game was that they’re bigger bodies and they had a few more inside 50s,” he said.

“The easy goals that we missed … we’ve just got to take our chances.

“I felt we gave a really good account of ourselves … in all but 10 minutes.

“We had two bad quarters last week, but the three games have been pretty good, but we’ve got to keep educating [the players].”

Roos said Melbourne’s goalkicking was frustrating, given the Demons had the same amount of scoring shots as the Crows – 20 each (Adelaide 12.8 to Melbourne 7.13).

“We talk about contested possession, uncontested possession and tackles, but goalkicking percentage is massive,” he said.

“That’s the difference [in the result], apart from the bigger bodies and conditioning, but [otherwise] I was proud of our guys.”