MELBOURNE caretaker coach Todd Viney believed his players were up to the task on Saturday despite a tumultuous seven days that culminated in the sacking of Dean Bailey on Monday.

The Demons ended a four-year relationship with Bailey two days after they were thrashed by Geelong last Saturday.

Despite the difficult period, which was further compounded by speculation surrounding the positions of CEO Cameron Schwab and football manager Chris Connolly, Viney thought his players were not affected by the off-field drama when they faced the Blues at the MCG.  

"We spoke about he challenges they'd face coming up to this game but we also spoke about the responsibility earlier in the week," he said after the 76-point loss.

"It was like a bit of a mourning process, where they went away on the Monday and they'd just lost their coach of four years, and they found that hard.

"I was pretty confident when they turned up Tuesday morning that their heads were in the better space and we had a couple of really good training sessions, and I thought that stood them in a good position to start well and play well today."

The loss to the Blues was the Demons' third in a row. But Viney said he didn't believe his players suffered from a crippling lack of confidence and instead needed to be better at the "fundamentals"; including contested ball (which they lost 148 to 127), and forcing turnovers.

"I don't think losing by 76 points helps [their] confidence, but I'm going to keep dragging it back to get the fundamentals right, of playing our game plan we want to play and adhering to the structures we want," he said.

"We didn't go in thinking we were going to lose by 76 points.

"If you break it down, do we go away thinking our effort was improved on last week? I thought for at least three quarters the effort was really good and they hung in there, and in the second quarter, we got blown out of the water.

"The game was lost in the second quarter, so I couldn't really say the effort in the second quarter was where we wanted it to be

"In the first quarter, I thought we'd regrouped pretty well from the week, I thought we'd started well; we just couldn't put it on the scoreboard.

"From the week we'd had, I think you needed to start well on the scoreboard to make yourself feel better."

Viney alternated between coaching from the box and the bench in his first game as caretaker, and was challenged when the Demons lost James Strauss to a broken leg in the first quarter and then Luke Tapscott to concussion early in the fourth.

Even so, he said he enjoyed the challenge of coaching in what would be his first of five games at the helm.

"I presume it gets easier with more in control and not losing a couple of players," he said.

"It's never easy. I've been in the box enough and I've got enough experience to know it is difficult.

"I felt quite comfortable and relatively in control but obviously the result was disappointing."

Viney said there weren't enough winners from his team to influence the result but praised the performances of Jack Trengove, who "tried his backside off all day", Colin Garland in defence and Jack Watts in attack.

He said he hoped to play Watts, who has played a bit-part role down back this season, in front of goal more often over the final four games.

"We'd like to use him more permanent forward but by playing him a little bit in the back half throughout the year, I think that's given him a little bit of confidence."