THE ONLY thing that was missing was the ugly, but coach Mark Neeld said there was a mixture of “good and bad” from Melbourne’s 54-point loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
The Demons lost the opening term by 26 points and the third quarter by 28 points. But the Dees won the second term by a point and dropped the final quarter by the narrowest of margins.
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We let Green down: Spencer
It was these fluctuations that led Neeld to assess the match as he did.
“The second and fourth quarters, we were quite pleased with - the effort and ball movement and scoreboard,” he said at his post-match media conference.
“The indictors we use, we were quite pleased with.”
But Neeld said the start of the match was dominated by North Melbourne’s speed and skill.
“The first quarter, they were pretty slick the Kangaroos. They move the ball too quick for us to handle at this stage, but that’s OK - that’s where we’re at,” he said.
“We felt our effort in the first quarter was pretty good in a number of indictors we use.
“At quarter-time, there would’ve been a few people at the ground thinking ‘it’s going to be a 120-point loss here’. And I reckon they’ve seen it before and it wasn’t.”
However, Neeld left no one in doubt when he reflected on the third term.
“I thought the second quarter we dug pretty deep, but the third quarter was below AFL standard and we need to eradicate that as a footy club,” he said.
“We’ve got a young group, but as long as the core of the group remain together and understand that 75 per cent won’t get the job done.”
The Demons lost the opening term by 26 points and the third quarter by 28 points. But the Dees won the second term by a point and dropped the final quarter by the narrowest of margins.
We let Green down: Spencer
It was these fluctuations that led Neeld to assess the match as he did.
“The second and fourth quarters, we were quite pleased with - the effort and ball movement and scoreboard,” he said at his post-match media conference.
“The indictors we use, we were quite pleased with.”
But Neeld said the start of the match was dominated by North Melbourne’s speed and skill.
“The first quarter, they were pretty slick the Kangaroos. They move the ball too quick for us to handle at this stage, but that’s OK - that’s where we’re at,” he said.
“We felt our effort in the first quarter was pretty good in a number of indictors we use.
“At quarter-time, there would’ve been a few people at the ground thinking ‘it’s going to be a 120-point loss here’. And I reckon they’ve seen it before and it wasn’t.”
However, Neeld left no one in doubt when he reflected on the third term.
“I thought the second quarter we dug pretty deep, but the third quarter was below AFL standard and we need to eradicate that as a footy club,” he said.
“We’ve got a young group, but as long as the core of the group remain together and understand that 75 per cent won’t get the job done.”
