COACH Paul Roos said his team looked as though it had checked out for the season.

Tom McDonald, who was Melbourne’s best in its shattering 98-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, said he wasn’t sure how his team could bounce back.

Either way, it was a horrible day for the Demons.

McDonald, who collected 29 disposals and had 10 marks, and worked tirelessly all day, said he wasn’t “really sure yet” how the Demons would rebound from the loss.

“We’ll have to have a good chat during the week and find out why everyone wasn’t prepared to start the way we should start. Whether it was individual preparation or mindset, [I’m not sure],” he told Dee TV.

“I thought we trained well during the week and set ourselves up for a good performance and it just didn’t happen.

“We’ll have to go back and view the whole week and what went into it and ask the hard questions: ‘why [did it happen?]’.”

For Roos, he said the loss was a classic case of team that could see the season’s end was nigh – although he was most frustrated by that notion.

“To me it looked like a team that had top-four to play for against a team that is looking for the year to finish,” he said.

“The worry is when you get to this stage of the year you can’t get into the players’ minds about how they want to play the remainder of the season.

“There was no question from the Bulldogs point of view that they were going to come to play.”

With matches remaining against Carlton at the MCG, Fremantle at Domain Stadium and Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne can’t let these opportunities slide.

All represent great challenges – albeit at varying levels.

And the Demons must respond, starting with its one and only clash against the now bottom of the ladder Carlton next Sunday. And frustratingly, it has bounced back a few times this year, when it has either copped a hiding (think Hawthorn) or when it should’ve won matches (think Essendon and St Kilda). 

“We have to get them up now and make sure they do finish of the year,” Roos said.

“Clearly our guys are getting really tired – it's something we tried to address during the week by giving them a couple of days off.

“It hasn't worked this week, but we have to get ourselves up to play Carlton this week – it's a really important game for us.”

With Melbourne having notched up its best season since 2011 – it is easy to forget that progress has been made, when poor performance such as this occur.

But wins over the now fourth placed Western Bulldogs, Richmond (sixth), Geelong (ninth) and Collingwood (11^th) throughout the year are all big ticks. The Demons have also defeated teams it should beat such as the Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions, which are below them on the ladder. And as alluded to earlier, the Dees should’ve also claimed victories over Essendon and at least one over St Kilda.

Carlton is the only team it hasn’t played in 2015 and based on this season, Melbourne must bounce back against the Blues.

“The next three weeks are really critical,” Roos said.  

“We know where we are heading – the third quarter reinforces that.

“We are aware that with a young group, we have quite a few injuries to our seconds and that their energy levels are on the edge. We need to get up and play a hell of a lot better for the last three games.”

And that starts against Carlton next weekend.