COACH Mark Neeld says he was “proud of the fight” his players showed against the West Coast Eagles at the MCG on Saturday, although his team went down by 94 points.

On the back of the club’s third greatest defeat last round – a 148-point loss to Essendon – Neeld said his players showed plenty of grit, particularly in the first half, before a poor third term cost Melbourne the match.

“The Eagles had us under a whole heap of heat in the third quarter – they’re a top four side – and that’s what they’re going to do to you, so we need to get better and be able to stand up in that area,” he said.

“At half time, we were really proud of the fight that the boys showed from last week, which was a complete train wreck.”

Neeld summed up Melbourne’s performance as “good and clearly not so good”.

“We thought the first half by us was a tremendous response from what happened last week, so I was really pleased with the first half,” he said.

“I thought the last quarter was a bit of a mixed bag and we’re going to get some of that, when we’re encouraging young guys like Dean Terlich, who I thought - in his second game - was really good. We’re encouraging him to stay bold and stay confident.

“I think we showed that there is certainly enough to keep forging on, working hard and driving these boys as hard as we possibly can. I think they showed that today and the third quarter was not good enough – we’re not going to shy away from that. But let’s keep driving and getting there.”

In reflecting on Melbourne’s tough start to the year, Neeld said there he didn’t “rant and rave” to the players, because little would be achieved from it.

“To me – and that’s my choice – it would be a disaster, when you’re dealing with a side and you’re trying to rebuild a footy club,” he said.

“We know we’re in for a short term rollercoaster and we get all of that – and that’s the decision that has been made – and we’ve started again. We’ll be good in time – absolutely no question.e boys in the recruiting department – we know that we couldn’t get 14 18 year-olds or 14 superstars in one whack, but already those guys at last year’s draft are starting to have an impact, which I think is really important.”