DEFENDER James Frawley says the Demons must remain focused for the rest of the season, despite being out of the finals race for 2011.  

 

Melbourne’s loss against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday officially ended its slim chances of playing further into September this year.

 

But with matches against Gold Coast and Port Adelaide to finish up the home-and-away season, Frawley said it was imperative Melbourne finished the season strongly.

 

“Finals are out of the picture now, but we’ve still got to focus on the final two weeks,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

 

“We’ve got to win those matches, so we can enter pre-season with some confidence.

 

“All of the young players will look to having a strong pre-season, because a lot of the guys are still getting pushed off the ball by other teams. We’ve got to work hard then, but hopefully we can have a couple of wins in the next two weeks.”

 

Frawley said Richmond dictated the opening term, which resulted in Melbourne playing catch-up football.  

 

“You just don’t want a first quarter like that where they jump on you,” he said.

 

“The first half was played on their terms and it wasn’t until the third quarter when we were able to show what we could do.

 

“We contested the ball, but we didn’t live up to our expectations, after we let ourselves down in the first half. But after we came back in the third quarter, the final quarter took it out of us.”

 

Frawley conceded the Demons were spent in the final term, after hitting the front from a 26-point half-time deficit.

 

“Definitely, whenever you give teams a head start, you’re always playing catch-up football for the whole day,” he said.

 

“It does take a lot of energy out of you. We got a bake at half-time, so we could start playing some reasonable football, but we shouldn’t have to have that.

 

“Everyone should be switched on and cracking earlier. But we weren’t happy with the first half.”