TOO MANY uncontested marks from the opposition and some “coughed up goals” were the main reasons for Melbourne’s 29-point loss against Brisbane Lions at Visy Park on Saturday, according to coach Dean Bailey.

Bailey said these areas would be addressed in the lead-up to Melbourne’s final NAB Challenge match next weekend - against Hawthorn or Fremantle, depending on the outcome of the West Coast Eagles and Collingwood NAB Cup match on Saturday night. 

“We allowed too many uncontested marks to be accumulated against us,” he said post-match.

“I think we’ve certainly got to fix that before we play the next game, absolutely. So that was disappointing.

“The stats were close, but at the end of the day, we coughed up a couple of real easy goals against us again. We’ve got to cut that out of our game, if we’re going to be closer in the contest.”

Melbourne led by four points at quarter-time, but trailed by 10 points at the main break. That margin blew out to 28 points at three quarter-time, when the Lions kicked six goals to three.

It was Melbourne’s first NAB Challenge match this year, after it was bundled out of the NAB Cup by Essendon last week.

Yet Melbourne’s pre-season started on a positive note, when it recorded back-to-back victories against Adelaide and Port Adelaide on the opening night of the NAB Cup.

But on the back of two losses, Bailey said Melbourne’s pre-season campaign had become inconsistent.

“I thought our performance over in Adelaide was good. The next game against Essendon [was frustrating]. We won two quarters, but the other two quarters we got well and truly beaten in those two quarters,” he said.

“Today, even though we started OK … the theme today was that we didn’t press-up hard enough when they had those uncontested mark chains.

“We really coughed up a couple of simple goals in front of our goal and you just can’t afford to do that anymore. Unfortunately, a couple crept in today and credit to Brisbane.

“I thought a couple of their midfielders performed particularly well - [Simon] Black and [Daniel] Rich were good with their ball use. Our stoppages were a little bit down on where it should be.”

Bailey said Melbourne must respond strongly before entering the premiership season.

“Next week is a really good challenge for us. We need to perform better and people expect us to perform better and we need to put that on display the next time we play,” he said.

Melbourne statisticss v Brisbane Lions
26 disposals - Brent Moloney
22 - Nathan Jones
19 - Rohan Bail
18 - Neville Jetta
16 - Michael Evans
15 - Mark Jamar
14 - Colin Sylvia
14 - Luke Tapscott
13 - Lynden Dunn
13 - Daniel Nicholson
12 - Matthew Warnock
12 - Ricky Petterd
12 - Jared Rivers
12 - Joel Macdonald
12 - Tom Scully
9 - Stef Martin
9 - Jordan Gysberts
9 - Jeremy Howe
8 - Matthew Bate
8 - Jamie Bennell
8 - Tom McDonald
7 - Addam Maric
7 - James Strauss
4 - Jack Watts
3 - Lucas Cook
2 - Jake Spencer