‘We were boring’: Demon’s alarming admission

Being “towelled up” by West Coast in a shock result in Perth earlier this year should be enough motivation for the Melbourne players to bounce back after key defender Jake Lever said they “just didn’t play” in the final quarter of last Friday’s loss to Brisbane.

But Lever was adamant the Demons were “absolutely” in the premiership race despite falling to 10th after failing to kick a final-quarter goal for the second match in a row as the Lions powered back from a four-goal deficit to win by five points.

Melbourne kicked 2.8 in the second half, and just four behinds in the final term, as the home team ran over the top with 3.6 among 16 scoring shots in the last two quarters.

Since round 10, Melbourne has gone from having the best final-quarter scoring differential to the worst in the league and Lever said it was because his teammates played “boring” and non-attacking football as the pressure rose.

“Felt like for three quarters we played probably our best footy of the year and you could see in the last quarter a team that was trying to hold on to win and a team that kept playing to win. Frustrating,” Lever said,

“It felt like we deserved a little bit more but nothing is given to you in this game.

“I thought our biggest positive was our contest work and our pressure. It’s something we have really tried to hone in on for the last couple of weeks and I feel like it came out.

“But I thought in the last quarter we just didn’t play. We kept kicking the ball down the line, we were very boring. It felt like we were trying to save the game. It’s really flattening.”

Despite the loss, Lever said the Demons were “only a game off third” on the ladder ahead of the return bout with the Eagles but with clashes against top-eight rivals Essendon and Fremantle to follow.

West Coast had won just two games when the two teams met in round 11 in Perth but one-time Rising Star favourite Harley Reid put on a clinic, pushing aside some of the seasoned Demon midfielders in an emphatic display that propelled the Eagles to a shock 35-point win.

That memory hasn’t left the Melbourne players, and while buoyed by what he saw for three quarters at the Gabba, Lever said the onus was on them to ensure they backed it up this Sunday.

A loss could be enough for Melbourne to lose touch with the top eight.

“We can’t be a team that’s one week on, one week off,” he said.

“West Coast really towelled us up last time so we’ll be looking forward to making amends in that aspect. I think if we focus on ourselves and bring that contest and pressure we’ll be in the game and that’s all you can ask for in the AFL at the moment because its so close.”