MELBOURNE youngster RickyPetterd says that there was no way the Demons under-estimated Richmond before Friday night's loss at theMCG.

"We gave them too much of a jump," Petterd said. "Weknew they were going to come out firing and we thought we were ready, butobviously to come back from a deficit like that (10 goals at half-time) ispretty hard."

He said the Melbourneteam had the right approach before the game.

"We knew what we had to do and weren'tover-confident and knew the Tigers would be tough, as they were, but itjust didn't seem to fall in place tonight. They are a confidence team and oncetheir tails are up, we couldn't stop them."

Petterd couldn't be blamed for the poor start as he was onthe pine for the entire first term, but he was an effective player in theresurgence after half-time.

"I sat on the bench for the whole of the quarter andfor half of the second quarter. It was pretty frustrating.

"During the warm-up I felt really good and reallybouncy. I knew I was starting on the bench but wasn't really sure how long Iwas going to stay there. But that's for the team and whatever we need."

From the bench he had a bird's eye view of the bizarrecriss-crossing of players as Brett Deledio tried to pick up Aaron Davey and SimonGodfrey tried to match up on Deledio.

Coaches Neale Daniher and Terry Wallace had the playersdarting on and off the bench during the first five minutes to try and get thecombinations they wanted.

"It was actually pretty good to watch. I didn't know whatwas going on, or who they were trying to pick up. It was weird and a bit funnywith each coach trying to get the match-ups the way they wanted."

ASgfter such an impressive introduction to AFL football, Petterdhas had to re-align his personal goals since the start of the season andgoes into the last 10 weeks wanting to absorb more experience.

"I've just set myself to play good footy at whateverlevel I play at. If I get dropped back to Sandringham,that's the way it is. I just want to keep improving.

"The VFL is a very good level of football but I lovepaying for the Demons. It's a great feeling. We just want to get something outof the rest of the season."

At the start of the season Petterd said he was just lookingto carve a niche in the VFL with Sandringham.

"I played four games with Sandy. When I first got drafted I wasworrying about just making the Sandysquad. I thought these blokes have own the last three flags in a row, and itwould be very hard, so to get a few games under my belt with Melbourne has been a great experience."