NEW coach Neil Craig says Melbourne is simply “non-competitive”.

Speaking after his first post-match media conference, since taking over from Mark Neeld last Monday, Craig didn’t mince his words when he reflected on his side’s 35-point loss to St Kilda at the MCG on Saturday night.

“We’re non-competitive at the moment in real terms for what competition looks like for me, but we’ll keep working hard. We need to get our standard up in terms of what competition looks like,” he said.

“In our first quarter, the contested ball was minus 17 – that’s not going to get you close. To the guys’ credit, for the next three quarters, it was fairly even in that area, so we’ve really got to tidy up [in that area].

“What I do know is that I have great faith in this playing group to want to get better, as Mark did, so we’ll continue to work really hard.”

Craig was asked for his thoughts on the club being labeled a “huge impediment on the industry” by Peter Jackson, following the departure of Neeld, and he concurred with the new chief executive.  

“You could argue that we created it, so let’s accept responsibility for our own performance. This club will continue to be ridiculed and it will continue to be made fun of and it will continue to be belittled until we improve our performances,” Craig said.

“Now, I personally don’t like it, but that’s what we’ve got, so we’ll accept the responsibility for our performances and we’ll accept the responsibility to try and get out of it.

“Those being ridiculed and made fun of in the public arena disappoints me to be honest in this competition, but we’ve created it, so we need to get out of it. We’ve made the bed and we need to lie in it.”

The former Adelaide coach said the club wouldn’t be giving away matches to players who didn’t deserve them under his watch. 

“You want to play for the Melbourne Football Club – you’ve going to have to earn the right with performances [for Casey] at Casey Fields,” Craig said.

“That’s turning out to be a fantastic relationship for Melbourne, with Rohan Welsh coaching there and some of the performances there.

“You can never give a game of AFL football [away] – it’s too valuable and it’s a really important characteristic for young players to learn and value a game of footy.”

Craig said if Melbourne was able to execute good quality work during the week, maximise its training time and the players looked after themselves, then he was certain progress could be made in the second half of the season. He added that nothing was easy to fix in the AFL because it was “a fiercely competitive competition”.

“They’re a very responsive playing group and always have been since I’ve known them. They want to be good and they’re sick of being bad. I believe they understand that they’re now in charge of leading this football club and the responsibility that goes with it,” he said.

“Once they’ve accepted that, we’re responsible for our performances and we’re also going to be responsible for improving it.

“We’re going to do our best, because we’re not going to put up with that and players don’t want to put up with that.”

Meanwhile, Craig said forward Chris Dawes, who was subbed out in the final term, was unwell and it wasn’t due to his ankle injury, which also forced him to be substituted against Collingwood in Melbourne’s round 12 loss, before last weekend’s bye.

“He was ill last night (Friday), but he decided to declare himself [available] and I was more than confident to back Chris in,” he said.

“I saw Chris play in a final out here, when he was at Collingwood and had a really bad knee injury and perform, so I know [that when] Chris says he can perform, he can perform.

“He wasn’t at his best, he would admit that … but Chris Dawes has been a fantastic contributor to our football club with his attitude and his training standards. He’s a delightful young man to have in any football club. I loved his game against Collingwood until he got hurt and I think he’ll be a very good player for Melbourne.”