WHAT do you say following a loss like that? What can you say?

For coach Paul Roos, he too was bewildered by Melbourne’s 64-point loss to Greater Western Sydney at the MCG on Sunday, which he said was “not of AFL standard”.

“It was a sub-AFL performance,” he said adamantly.

“I’m embarrassed, but the players can speak for themselves. You have to be [embarrassed] – and that’s not taking anything away from the Giants, but they had three [players] down [with injury] and it’s a great effort [for them to win].

“From where we’ve come – to drop off below AFL standards, that’s what we talked about after the Giants game [in round three earlier in the year]. We certainly picked up after that.”

Roos said the Demons had played at AFL standard for 14 rounds this season, but simply fell away against the Giants.

It was a poor effort by the Demons, considering the Giants outran and outworked the Dees for much of the match without three key players – Callan Ward, Phil Davis and Jonathan Patton, who all suffered injuries.

“That tells you about where they’re at, which is a big tick for them and where we’re at, which is sub-AFL footy,” he said.

“They let themselves down and they let the supporters down in particular and I think they put the cue in the rack.”

Roos said he was careful not to say something he would regret after the match – and in fact chose not to address the group.

“I didn’t speak to them after the game – there’s no point,” he said.

“Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.

“That’s the balance of the group – I’m sure they’ve heard a lot of negative stuff over the journey and it’s a balance between being positive and negative. There is nothing positive to come out of today. There are plenty of negatives, so I just chose not to speak to them at the end of the game.”

But upon reflection, Roos said it was also a reminder of how far the Demons are away from making significant inroads.

“For this club, it was never going to be easy this year,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone would have said that, so it doesn’t really change the path.

“I keep saying to the players ‘if you can’t keep up – you don’t stay on a senior list’. For us to get better as a team, you assess your group on a weekly basis and then once the season finishes, you assess the group at the end of the year and then we need to get better as a team.

“I think we’re under no illusions to where we were 12 months ago and it’s going to take a long time – a long haul.

“It was a huge step back.”