LEADER Daniel Cross says Melbourne’s second quarter against the Sydney Swans at the MCG on Saturday night was proof it can match it with any side in the competition.

The Demons held the Swans goalless and applied strong pressure, but Cross said the challenge was to maintain it consistently across four quarters.

“We can match it with the best sides. We kept them to three points in the second quarter and it’s a minimum standard that we should bring every week,” he told Dee TV.

“There were really good patches through the other quarters as well.

“To keep them (the Swans) to a low score – nine goals – was a good effort, but we need to make the most of when we’ve got the ball as well. [We] overused it a bit by hand and [we didn’t] get it to our key forwards, who competed well.

“If we clean those things up a little bit, it’ll probably help us going forward.”

Cross said the pressure applied from his teammates against the Swans was “terrific all over the field”.

“We set up pretty well around the ground and that stifled them a little bit. They’re a great contested stoppage side and we knew that coming in.”

“You can’t give the ball back to such a well-drilled side, so that’s probably what really hurt us.”

Although the margin wasn’t a massive defeat, Cross said the Demons still couldn’t accept five-goal losses.

“It wasn’t a blow out, but we can’t accept any losing margin really,” he said.

“We’re not about that anymore – there’s no honourable losses, We turned the ball over too much and they (the Swans) hurt us when they got the ball back. That was a disappointing area for us.

“We certainly had intent and pressure from most of the guys, which was a massive improvement from last week, but that’s the minimum standard that you have to have every week.

“It’s a tough game that we play and you can’t have any passengers any week, so that’s what was disappointing.”