TOM McDonald says the Demons had genuine belief that they could overcome the Sydney Swans, despite trailing by 26 points at three quarter-time in Saturday night’s clash at the MCG.

Although Melbourne ended up losing by 31 points, McDonald said Melbourne was positive it could overcome one of the best teams in the business at the final break.

“We said ‘we’re in for a crack here’ and we kept it constant towards the end,” he told Dee TV.

“We just couldn’t peg it back in the last quarter and then fatigue set in.

“It gets very hard to kick a winning score in the last quarter, when you’re down by four or five goals – it just requires too much energy, so we need to get closer by three quarter-time, because it really hurts you, when you’re down by four or five goals.”

McDonald, who had a fine dual with superstar Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, before the key Swans recruit left the field with a knee injury in the third quarter, said he saw further improvement in his team this round. 

“There were a few things that we very positive and we just shot ourselves in the foot in the end – we couldn’t execute going forward and that’s where we let ourselves down,” he said.

“Our tackling and pressure was really good, and that slowed them down for a lot of the game.

“There was a lot of good things to take out from it, but we lost it ourselves – they didn’t win it in my eyes.”