COACH Paul Roos says the Demons must compete for 120 minutes against Geelong this Saturday at the MCG and Port Adelaide in round 18 at Adelaide Oval, otherwise another significant loss in on the cards.

The Demons endured a 63-point loss to Fremantle at TIO Stadium last Saturday night and Roos said his side needed to remain in the contest against the two top five sides to avoid a repeat of last weekend. 

“It’s all learning for the players. They’ve got to understand that what we’ve been talking about is playing for every minute of every game,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“If you don’t do that against Freo, Geelong or Port [Adelaide], you’re going to get belted, like we got belted on the weekend by 10 goals. It’s also taking your chances, so this is a big learning curve for our players.

“There are a lot of guys who are now playing in games that last year were getting blown away by quarter-time or half-time, so the morale gets down pretty early. We’ve got to hang in these games and make sure we give ourselves a chance. You can only do that by being prepared to play for the full game.”

Although Roos was frustrated with Melbourne’s second biggest loss of the season, he acknowledged Fremantle as one of the best in the business.

“After the game, you’re really disappointed, because I felt we let ourselves down late in second [quarter] and into the third. Then, in the cold hard light of the day, they’re (Fremantle) a really good side,” he said.

“I thought we were able to compete for 45 to 50 minutes early [on], but then they’ll grind you down and they’ll do what they do, over and over and over and over again.

“That’s what we need to get to as a footy team. There were some good signs, but missing goals doesn’t help, but at the end of the day, we played a high quality side and we just couldn’t compete for long enough.”

Although Roos’ side played in the Northern Territory last round, he said his players had had sufficient time to overcome the Darwin heat.

“Being a previous interstate coach, it doesn’t worry me, but it was certainly a lot hotter up there, but they’ve got a full week to recover,” he said.

“Geelong played in the wet on Sunday night and we played in the heat on Saturday.

“So for us, it’s probably even going into the game and we have no excuses for that.”