CO-CAPTAIN Jack Grimes says the team must regroup quickly for its road trip to Darwin against Port Adelaide at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.

Although frustrated by his side’s final quarter fadeout against Fremantle, which resulted in a 34-point loss at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, Grimes said the Demons needed to move on immediately, given the challenging home contest in the Northern Territory.

“We have to recover and more on, because Darwin is such a big trip,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“It’s pretty different footy up there with the humidity and heat, so we have to recover as quick as we can and refuel.

“I’d imagine it’d be a pretty light week this week going up there. It’s really a battle of who prepares themselves the best up there, because it’s such different footy in that it really does take it out of you.

“We want to make sure we’re doing everything and ticking every box to be the best prepared we can that week.”

Reflecting on Melbourne’s start against Fremantle, and its final quarter fadeout, Grimes said it was, overall, a frustrating performance.

“That was the main focus the last three weeks - the starts have really cost us. We really wanted to start with that intent and the sense of urgency out there - we felt like we did that,” he said.

“We were right in the contest, and we put Fremantle on the back foot at times. We put ourselves in a really good position at half-time and three quarter time.

“But you can’t do that and let one quarter slip, because good teams like Fremantle just take advantage of it. The start was good and it was an improvement on the last few weeks, but we’ve still got to work on the last quarter now.”