BACKLINE coach Jade Rawlings says the Demons are now clearly focused on producing a strong, competitive performance against the West Coast Eagles at Patersons Stadium on Saturday.

Speaking to Dee TV, Rawlings said the “competition forces you” to quickly move on from all performances – and in Melbourne’s case, last round’s 64-point loss to GWS at the MCG.

“If you dwell on self pity for any longer than 24 to 48 hours, then we’re affecting our preparation for Saturday night,” he said.

“With a six day turnaround, we can’t compromise that. We were pretty full on – on Tuesday – reviewing the game, and being pretty upfront about where our reality sits and then what the expectation is internally.

“Then we’ve got to put in practice what we want to do on Saturday night.”

Rawlings said initially the coaching staff’s “gut instinct” was to make wholesale changes, but a measured approach was taken in terms of selection this round.

But Rawlings acknowledged it had “been a struggle” for all associated with the red and blue following last Sunday’s shocker.

“To perform the way we did [last] Sunday was completely unacceptable and a lot of people are impacted by that,” he said.

“We all get angry at the players, but they hurt as well, given the performance, but they were the ones, along with us as coaches that accept responsibility for the performance.

“We were pretty brutal in the way we reviewed it. You can go two ways with it – you can tuck it under the carpet and say it was an aberration or you confront it and deal with reality.

“For the players – unfortunately, we had to do that and it was pretty confronting for a few of them – to see what efforts were served up on Sunday.

“But we feel as the way to move forward for the last two games is to do that and hopefully they show some resilience and look to eradicate what happened [last] weekend.

“We want to finish the last two games with a real spirited performance and competitive [effort] and one that shows a bit of boldness. They really want to redeem themselves [after] what happened last Sunday.”

The experienced assistant coach said it “always challenging” in regards to how coaches handle players, following disappointing performances.

“No matter how many years [you’re] involved … do you go in with the heavy hand and hit them for every error that they made or do you just give them a bit of space and not talk to them?” he said.

“I’m really close to the playing group and feel connected to them and you get really disappointed with performances, but at the same time, I’m in it as much as they are.

“Did I do everything I could have to allow them to perform their best on the weekend? I’ve been able to chat to them a fair bit over the last few days. [We] deal with it, move on and [discuss] what’s it going to look like on Saturday?

“You hear it from a lot of clubs, but to travel after the week we’ve had is a really good opportunity. To galvanise and be close to each other away for three or four days [is a great opportunity].”

In regards to his own backline players, Rawlings said he wants them to play with “spirit and competitiveness” against the Eagles.

“[I know] what they’re capable of and what we’ve been accustomed to from this group over a number of years,” he said.

“Redemption is the main thing. You get an opportunity to bounce back in this game and our opportunity is this Saturday night against the Eagles.”