FROM a Melbourne perspective, it’s a wrestle to find the exact words to assess Sunday’s loss against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

On face value, given where the side has been this year, there were genuine positives, but there were also some frustrations.

Overall, it was a reasonable effort.

The positives were that Melbourne suffered its ‘best’ loss of the season by 28 points. The Demons also kicked 94 points on the road – their fourth highest score under coach Mark Neeld, and their ‘best’ score in a Neeld-led loss. The Demons also got further game time into the likes of Max Gawn, Michael Evans, Dean Terlich and Matt Jones. Further, the Dees fought back late in the game, kicking the last three goals, when the margin could’ve been blown out by 50-plus points.

Coach Mark Neeld spoke of what he liked about his team’s performance post-match.

“We thought that under five goals on the road, kicking 14 goals – those types of things were good,” he said.

“At times, our ball movement really challenged the Lions’ defence.

“They’re the positives and in the phase we’re in, we’re always looking for areas to improve, so clearly there’s a few momentum swings. The Lions got out on us on the congested situation really well and we didn’t cope with that - the centre bounce work was really good for the Lions and we weren’t combative enough in that area.”

The frustrations were that the Demons had yet another disappointing third term – it kicked 3.2 to 6.3 and has produced 8.7 to 35.20 for the season – and some lapses in concentration were costly. Defensively across the ground, the Dees were also inconsistent, adding to the frustrations.

Still, one of Melbourne’s better performers in the past two matches, Colin Garland, said the team had made genuine improvement since losing its opening two matches by a combined total of 227 points.

“We’re definitely coming along. We’ve still got a fair way to go, but the overall mood of the playing group is really positive,” the defender told melbournefc.com.au.

“We’ve got a lot of people out on the track now and Casey hasn’t lost a game, so there’s competition for spots, which is something we haven’t had in the past.

“The effort was there today – we ran ourselves into the ground. It was just a bit of class, a few mistakes and a few mental lapses. Blokes are going to learn from that - we’re in a positive mindset at the moment and we’ll go in with a positive mindset next week against Carlton.”

Big man Mark Jamar backed up Garland’s comments.

“It was a missed opportunity, but compared to the start of the year, it was a better performance. We can take positives away from it, which is all well and good, but it still hurts. I would’ve loved to have won that game,” the ruckman told melbournefc.com.au.

“The main thing is that we didn’t roll over and die.

“We were up against it, when they scored a few in a row. But then we pegged them back a bit and then they did and it happened a bit. It was our highest score interstate for quite some time, so that was a positive to take out of the game.”

Jamar said the players were “very disappointed” with the loss against the Lions, and they knew they had another tough challenge against Carlton at the MCG on Sunday.

“We’re better prepared to take on a side like that than what we would’ve been four weeks ago. They’re a good side and have got a lot of dangerous players, so it’s going to take a four quarter effort to be in the game with the Blues,” he said.

“The camaraderie has remained high all the time, and guys are playing more of their natural style now.

“They’re not in their shells and they’ve got the confidence to execute what they’ve been taught over the past 18 months. New guys are gelling well, so we’re improving each week and that’ll continue as the year goes on.”