MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says those who believe the Demons’ bold effort against Hawthorn on Sunday was purely a result of the emotion caused by David Neitz’s retirement and pre-match address should think again.
Bailey, whose side gave the Hawks a big fright before eventually going down by 19 points, says the Neitz factor had played its part but his men deserved more credit after showing significant improvement in recent weeks.
“If you assume that the only reason they played well was because of the occasion then I don’t think you’re giving the players enough credit for playing for 120 minutes,” Bailey said.
“The game’s played for that long. I mean the emotion’s there for a short period of time [but] can you sustain it? It gets back to your attitude.
“So I would expect us regardless to show the same standard … you can’t rely on a David Neitz-type situation all the time to get you up.
“It’s a week-to-week proposition and it becomes your attitude and your preparation to give you the best chance to play well.”
Bailey said player attitudes had attributed to the better showing in recent weeks.
But he says his side has now set a standard which it must adhere to week in, week out.
“I think out of the game comes a real challenge for us to meet those standards and give ourselves a chance to win quarters and win the game,” he said.
“So we’ve got to look forward to playing well this weekend to meet the standard we’ve already set.”
Bailey said Demons supporters should take heart from the display they saw against the Hawks, when Melbourne fought courageously and almost pulled off the upset of the season.
“The good thing about the game was the intensity that we had and we were able to sustain it for long periods of time,” he said.
“We came from behind maybe three or four times for the whole game to get ourselves back in front.
“I think that’s a good sign, that’s something you can work on I would have thought.
“I think the Melbourne members and supporters who came to see us would have thought ‘they really had a go today, they really worked hard’ … the intensity was really good.”
This week Melbourne faces a St Kilda side certain to come out hard in the wake of some heated words from coach Ross Lyon, who labeled his side “soft”.
But Bailey says his team must control what it can and not get too concerned about the fired-up Saints.
“We just need to re-implement our attitude from the weekend, against whoever we play,” he said.
“They’re going to come with some serious intensity and we need to maintain what we did on the weekend for longer.”
Melbourne will be hoping ruckman Jeff White – a late withdrawal against Hawthorn –
and Ben Holland get through training this week and can take their places against St Kilda, while Russell Robertson is only rated a 50-50 chance of running out as he battles a corked thigh.
