“TURNOVERS, turnovers, turnovers … Melbourne, have we got ’em for you!”

It sounds like a cry from a dodgy TV advertorial.

But the reality was that turnovers and silly errors effectively ended any chance of Melbourne notching up its first Queen’s Birthday win since the great Neale Daniher coached the Dees to victory over the Pies in 2007.

Aside from some costly mistakes, and a rampaging Travis Cloke, who kicked seven goals and won the Neale Daniher Trophy for best on ground, Melbourne otherwise played with genuine heart and its effort couldn’t be questioned.

In the end, as coach Paul Roos said, Collingwood’s ball use was quite simply the difference in the end, which resulted in a 25-point win to the Magpies at the MCG on Monday. 

“We cracked in most of the game … the effort level was there, which was positive, but you can’t just gift goals like we did to good sides,” he said.

“It makes it so much harder and you have to work 15 to 20 per cent harder to win the game.”

Roos praised Collingwood’s win, but added that his side had ample opportunities to take the four points.

He said that his side sapped its own confidence by mucking up passages of play.

“[Collingwood] was good – don’t get me wrong … but we did a lot of things right,” Roos said.

“[We were] gifting goals to the opposition … they’re good enough to kick them themselves, but when you deliver them on a silver platter, it does make it hard to win – no question.

“We did a lot of things right and the players executed really well for probably 80 per cent of the game … but we were able to let them back in.”

Skipper Nathan Jones echoed Roos’ sentiments, saying that too many turnovers happened.

“When Collingwood bolted out of the blocks, we fought our way back through our efforts around the contest and our tackling,” he told Dee TV.

“Those mistakes became really glaring and they were costly turnovers – we gift them goals.

“[The turnovers] really shifted the momentum and they’re the ones that are really frustrating.”

Veteran leader Daniel Cross said not hitting targets and the inability to produce the fundamentals well contributed to the turnovers. 

“We knew that [Collingwood] were going to pressure. Some of our decisions like our loopy handballs going forward and a few basic kicks straight to them – that kills you as well,” he said.

“By not giving that first option by hand, [we] got ourselves in trouble and [Collingwood] just came forward and smashed us.

It resulted in turnovers and they’ve got numbers out the back, so we were scrambling from there.

“That was probably the big thing that hurt us.”

No doubt.

Quite simply Melbourne’s ball use and turnovers cost it on far too many occasions. Ultimately, it cost the Demons the match.

But in terms of the endeavour and effort – it couldn’t be questioned on Melbourne’s biggest home and away stage of the year.