MELBOURNE might only have won four matches in 2009 but captain James McDonald can see through the gloom.

McDonald, among his side’s best in Saturday’s 57-point loss to Carlton, says the experience his young teammates are gaining can only hold them in good stead for coming seasons.

The Blues booted six goals in each term against Melbourne and the skipper acknowledged that while his own team had done well to kick 15 goals, it needed to work hard on stopping its opposition.

“Obviously they [the Blues] are in pretty good form at the moment,” McDonald said after the match.

“I think [for the] first quarter and a half we were pretty competitive and then they got away on us a little bit.

“We still kept scoring … on the attacking side it was all right but probably defensively we need to do a bit of work because they got some easy goals.”

Like his coach, McDonald said the losses of Ricky Petterd (groin) and Matthew Whelan (hamstring) had impacted greatly, the 32-year-old saying his side’s rotations suffering the most.

“We had a few blokes out on their legs towards the end but I thought the boys fought it out reasonably well,” he said.

While McDonald said his own form “wasn’t too bad” – the leader showing the way with six tackles and 28 disposals, of which nine were contested – he also rated the performance of some young Demons whom he says will benefit from experiences such as Saturday.

“Obviously the second half of this year we’ve been gearing ourselves for next year,” he said.

“The emphasis [has been] on trying to get plenty of games into the young fellas and give them experience and throw them around into some different positions so they get a look at it.

“That’s sort of the approach we’ve taken and it’s been good.

“I think Mark Jamar kicked five goals today up forward and I don’t think he’s ever done that before, and Neville Jetta in the midfield was pretty good.

“There’s some good signs with Matthew Bate in the midfield and Jake Spencer in the ruck was good at times, so the more games we can get into them the better we are going to be for next year.”

But for now the Demons must try to finish 2009 in style, although that won’t be easy against the ladder-leading St Kilda next Sunday.

“It’s another great challenge for us,” McDonald said.

“It’ll be good for us to finish with a game against arguably the best side of this year … it’ll be great, especially for all the young boys to se what level they’re up to and see how close we are or how far we are away from them.”