A SHOWING of solidarity is imperative for the Demons following the recent losses of David Neitz and Russell Robertson, according to young midfielder Clint Bartram.

Bartram, 20, admitted the retirement of the club's captain two weeks ago and the season-ending injury sustained by Robertson during Melbourne's 79-point loss to St Kilda on Sunday have rocked the playing group.

But, he said a steely resolve to remain united, which even involved the players booting the coaching staff out of their post-match meeting, is what will carry the club through these troubled times. 

"We made a big emphasis of it in the meeting that we do need to stay united right now as a team and as a group, and even in our smaller groups we need to stick together," Bartram told melbournefc.com.au after Sunday's game.

"We've got an opportunity with Matthew Bate's 21st tonight, so it will be good to get around 'Bater' and just show some unity and really ride through these tough times.

"Then, when we come out the other side of this, it will be all the much better."

He said the decision to hold a player-only debrief directly after the loss was in order for the group to flesh out just where they went wrong against the Saints and express some home truths about it.

"It was a player-driven thing in there, and we just went through what we thought went wrong and picked out a couple of positives," he said.

"It was mainly getting the players' opinions on what we thought we can do to improve and where we went wrong today."

Bartram also said the dual loss of Neitz and Robertson could act as the catalyst for the club's resurgence, with the players already motivated to honour the goal-kicking pair's contribution to the club with a turnaround in form – starting next Monday against Collingwood.

"They're both legends of the club and they'll be honoured next weekend at the 150th Heroes function," he said.

"It's pretty saddening to see those boys go down, but it is a good opportunity for the younger guys to come through and show what they've got.

"We do have a lot of young talent coming through but to lose that experience is pretty costly.

"We just have to take a leaf out of their books and give a little bit of what David Neitz and Russell Robertson have given week in, week out for this club.

"We're looking forward to the Queen's Birthday, we always build ourselves up for it and we pride ourselves on playing well.

"It's one of the biggest stages of the year, and we're looking forward to playing well on it."