NATHAN Jones says overcoming Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium this Sunday will be a serious task for the Demons.
The co-captain said GWS was playing strong football and overcoming the competition’s newest team would be a genuine test for the Demons.
“I think from where we’re coming from and where we’re at, at the moment, any team is going to be a challenge,” he said at the MCG on Tuesday.
“Facing the Giants up there, they beat us up there last year, so good on them and I think they’re going into the game as favourites, which is great for them.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to get away from Melbourne and to try and galvanise as a group and confront them head on.”
Jones said last round’s 93-point loss to the West Coast Eagles at the MCG was hard to take.
“It burns. It’s difficult and really hard to swallow,” he said.
“With footy, you get another opportunity and you get another chance and the only thing you can do is face up and move on – that’s what the group is trying to do.
“We tried to digest as much as we could from the game, yesterday in the review … and it was pretty long and pretty confronting some of the footage that the players saw and some of the errors that we made.
“The next thing we can do is get back on the bike and train hard this week and face another challenge in the Giants.”
Given Melbourne’s round two performance, Jones said the players knew change was imminent.
“As a playing group, it was really disappointing and … some heads will be on the chopping block come selection and Roosy has said publicly that he’s going to throw the team around as well,” he said.
“It’s going back to basics and we weren’t able to execute [our skills] on the weekend, which was really disappointing that the real fundamentals of the game we can’t even put together at the moment.
“When you do that against a team like the Eagles, they’re going to punish you and they did that on the weekend.”