NATHAN Jones and Jack Grimes are resolute in the fact that Melbourne will bounce back after last Saturday’s performance against Port Adelaide.

At a media conference on Wednesday morning at Casey Fields, both Grimes and Jones said that the way Melbourne have been training will come to the fore soon.

“There’s been significant improvement as a club in terms of professionalism, the way we train and the intensity and urgency we train at. It’s now just pulling that all together and putting that out on display in the game, where it’s most needed,” Jones said.

Co-captain Jack Grimes reflected the statements made by Jones, saying, “We really made some big inroads over pre-season and we were probably expecting that to reflect on the field straightaway.”

Grimes went on to say that the group hadn’t lost any hope after Saturday’s 79 point loss.

“We realise there’s still 21 weeks to go, and one game doesn’t make a season.

“We’ve still got 21 other opportunities to prove ourselves, and we ‘re not just thinking that this season’s going to be all doom and gloom because of one game, that’s for sure,” he said.

When asked what his message to the Melbourne faithful was after the weekend, Grimes was clear.

“With the consistency that we’ve got to in training it will come out in our games.

“We know that the last place we’ll see it is the on-field performance, but we know that we’re getting there because we’ve had too many improvements over summer, and over the last 12 months, for us to not see that consistency on game day. It will come.”

Nathan Jones was also positive about the structures and game plan that Mark Neeld and the coaching staff have set out.

“We totally believe in the direction that the coaches are taking us in, it’s just executing that on game day which we haven’t been able to do,” he said.

Jones went on to say that there have been some positive steps taken, though it wasn’t evident on Saturday.

“It’s hard to explain because you (the public) haven’t seen behind the scenes, but there’s been significant improvement that hasn’t (been shown) in our performance,” he said.

Melbourne will look to recover and show these improvements on Saturday night when it takes on Essendon at the MCG.