WHAT could have been a day to remember for Melbourne became another familiar 2012 tale.
In the game again for three quarters - the first three on this occasion - the Demons conceded the final nine goals to lose by 34 points.
While many will take heart from the performance, the coaches and players won't be among those seeing the bright side.
A disappointed Melbourne coach Mark Neeld made that quite clear after the game.
"I don't like this losing stuff. It does not sit very well with me," Neeld said.
To ascribe any levity in his tone post-match to anything more than good manners would be a mistake.
Neeld recognised the game as an opportunity lost for a club that cannot allow honourable losses to become acceptable.
"We were in a contest today. We had an equal chance probably at three-quarter time to keep going through each contest after each contest and finish in front and we could not do it," Neeld said.
"AFL footy is tough, losing is just not a nice feeling."
It's particularly nasty when you lead for most of the day, jumping out of the blocks to record your highest first quarter score for the season against one of the competition's better defensive units and then, after being headed, kick back to a 20-point lead 21 minutes into the third quarter.
Then let the opposition kick nine unanswered goals.
It's enough to make a coach feel as though he is training a stayer to win a Melbourne Cup and then watching it get run down at the clocktower each time.
"We're getting there but in the big tough world of AFL, you need to seal the deal with four quarters, not three," Neeld said.
Neeld had done everything he could to keep the intensity high, emphasising to the players at half-time that near enough is not good enough, after supporters applauded the group from the ground.
"As great as what it is and it is emotional, it's like…'we'd really like that at the end of the fourth quarter'. I said that to the players," Neeld said.
Then at three-quarter time he reiterated the need to keep going and fighting to retain the seven-point lead they had established.
Having lost Mark Jamar to a calf injury and then being without Jamie Bennell, who went down in the third with a season ending knee injury, there was room for excuses at that point.
But good teams find a way in those circumstances.
Melbourne can't, just yet anyway.
"To win a game of AFL footy you have to get everything right for four quarters and we just could not do that," Neeld said.
"That is disappointing and frustrating and we are aware of that but that is good education for everyone involved. You have got to see out every contest and that is how you win."
To the independent observer, however, the improvement is becoming clearer. The coach saw the signs but wondered aloud whether they had been emphasised enough already this season.
"Do you celebrate the little successes?" Neeld asked. "You do to a point but I'm finding it a little bit harder just to eke out the positive messages but I will find them.
"As a group we just need to win a couple."
