MELBOURNE’S performance on Queen’s Birthday failed to reflect its work to the mid-way point of the season.

But Jake Lever says it serves as an important reminder of where the club is at.

“We’ve set ourselves a really, really good platform for the second half of the year,” Lever told Melbourne Media post-game.

“But we haven’t achieved anything, and we understand that as a group – that’s what we just spoke about.

“For us it’s going to be really about how we respond in the second half of the year, because what we’ve done in the first half of the year, it’s only built a good platform – it’s not worth anything at the minute.”

Heading into the Round 14 bye, the Demons sit on top of the AFL table with an 11-2 record to their name.

And while Monday’s 17-point loss to Collingwood was uncharacteristic in many ways, Lever is confident his side can use it to improve in the last nine games of the season.

“The maturity in the group is at a whole [new] level that I’ve never seen before, since I’ve been here,” Lever said.

“The ability for guys to take ownership of what part of the game they didn’t really master today, and really come back to training next week and really put that on show and train it.

“We’ve responded well to the Adelaide loss, for us now, it’s really about getting on the bandwagon.”

Watch Lever’s full match review below: