COACH Neil Craig says the Demons didn’t adapt or handle the wet conditions quickly enough at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, being subsequently exposed by a vastly superior Geelong Cats outfit, which won by 68 points.

Speaking post-match, Craig said his team handballed too much and tried to play dry weather football.  

“If I had to be critical of our club today, it would’ve been that we didn’t adjust to the conditions with the way the ball should be moved. Anyway, we’ve experienced it, and that’s part of our development as a club,” he said,

“But they’re (Geelong) a really well coached side and a successful side in really wet conditions, and we got a bit overawed with all that. We’ll cop whatever criticism we’ll get for it, but it was a good experience for our guys to know what it feels like.

“Geelong applies great pressure, whether it’s in wet conditions or dry conditions and if you’re trying to use handball in those conditions, you get found out really quickly and we did.”

Craig said Geelong’s ability to restrict Melbourne’s forward entries proved telling in the wash-up. The Demons had just 19 inside 50s – the lowest ever recorded by Champion Data in an AFL match.

“We couldn’t get the ball forward. It got locked into their forward 50,” Craig said. 

“Our capacity to change our game in the way we executed was poor. We tried to use the handball too much, rather than the kick, and it was a yardage day.

“There were some good lessons to learn, but we paid a heavy price for it.”

Craig warned that Melbourne still had a long way to go in its development, and its loss against Geelong needed to be put into perspective.

“It was nearly a 12-goal loss in those conditions, so if you extrapolate what that could’ve been in dry conditions – it a significant loss in those conditions,” he said.

“We got outclassed and we got outpositioned, but unless you maintain the fight and the mentality to keep trying in this game, you’ve got nothing.

“We’re trying to build on that, but in the end, we need to add a lot more than that, because you end up being a try-hard club and that doesn’t get you anywhere either, so that’s where we’re at.”