COACH Paul Roos says some of his players looked fatigued in its 41-point loss against North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.

Speaking post-match, Roos was disappointed by the result, but stopped short of saying it was a step back, after a much-improved season.

“It’s certainly not as good as we’ve been playing, so we analysed the game and there’s reasons for it, but we’re certainly disappointed,” he said.

“I thought some of our guys looked really tired tonight. Some of the young guys are getting to the middle of the year and that’s the mental challenges for teams for where we are – is getting up week in, week out.

“I thought we just went away from some of the real basic things we’ve been doing really, really well. That’s what happens when you play against a team that gets the ball on the outside and runs and they make you pay.”

Roos said it reinforced that Melbourne had to be switched on every week if it was to keep making inroads.

“Definitely for us, we can’t have bad patches and we got to within seven points in the third quarter and then it dropped off again,” he said.

“We’ve got to be consistent with our effort because there’s a reason why [we’re] down that lower end of the ladder.

“You see those bottom five or six teams that when they compete, like the Giants did today and the last couple of weeks [they can win], but you have to bring effort for 120 minutes and you can’t afford to drop off, because the talent level is not as great as the top five or six or eight teams.

“Definitely for us [coaches] and a reminder for our players – as hard as it is – it’s got to be every minute of every game.”

Roos said Melbourne’s turnovers again proved costly in the finish.

“You get killed by turnovers … if you’re turning it over, you miss out on one and they get one, so I just thought we made some really poor errors and some easy simple basic ones – [like] missing targets from 20 metres,” he said.

“That’s the mental tiredness that the players have got to get over – it’s a long game and it’s a long year, and good teams turn up every single week to play.”

In terms of potential personnel changes for next Sunday’s clash against the Western Bulldogs, Roos said he was not going to give games away.

“We just want to set a standard for our players to come into the team – I think that’s really important at this club, because it hasn’t happened before,” he said.

“We’re certainly not going to gift games. Just because they’re young, I think the club’s been down that path and [said] ‘let’s get some games into some young [players]’ – I don’t believe in that, because I think you can get some habits playing seconds. Then, if you deserve to play, you’ll get a game.

“That’s the system we’re creating – and we’re not going to hand games out just because you’re a young kid and we want to see you. Hopefully, the young kids that come in like as Christian [Salem] had done and Jay [Kennedy-Harris] had done and Kenty (Dean Kent) – we want to drive some high standards in our seconds and if they play well, they’ll get a game and if they don’t, they won’t.”

But Roos was hopeful of getting midfielder Viv Michie back in the side in the near future.

“It’s just getting that fitness level [back] – he was out for four weeks … we’ll review the game and the seconds game and he’s certainly one we’d definitely like to get back into the team, but on the back of good form,” he said.