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Melbourne veteran Brad Green says he is shattered by the Demons opening-round performance against Brisbane and it is time the AFL club showed some resolve.
Belted 17.17 (119) to 11.12 (78) at the MCG on Saturday by a Lions side widely expected to struggle this season, Green hoped the defeat hurt his teammates as much as it did him.
“Players have got to stand up and be counted,” ex-captain Green told the Nine Network’s Sunday Footy Show.
“No doubt that’s where you go home at night and stare at the ceiling and start thinking of things and no doubt we’ve certainly got to come out and perform better than we did yesterday.
“I go home and I just want to sit in the bedroom and don’t want to talk to anyone, I turn the phone off, it’s shattering … it sucks, it really does.
“We’ve just got to get back on that horse.
“There’s another game and we’ve got to get back going again, because at the moment it doesn’t look good.”
The recent death of iconic Demons figure Jim Stynes had been expected to have Melbourne players at a high emotional pitch for the match.
But Green said regardless of off-field circumstances, they had to produce better efforts.
“It’s what you get paid for, we’re there to play footy,” he said.
While coach Mark Neeld has overhauled the Demons’ gameplan, modelled at least in part on Collingwood’s boundary-hugging style, Green said players were still expected to take more risks than they did on Saturday.
“To have confidence to look inside and take that option, that’s where we’ve got to get back to and go for it,” Green said.
“It’s so easy just to bomb it down the line and let others compete for it.”
Melbourne next face a tough away clash with West Coast on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, former Lions triple-premiership coach Leigh Matthews said the Demons paid too much for ex-Brisbane recruit Mitch Clark.
Clark is on a four-year deal believed to be worth $600,000 per season and Matthews, who coached Clark for several years at the Lions, said he was not in that class, particularly as a key forward.
“He had a good year in the ruck in 2009 but he’s never looked more than an average key position player,” Matthews told the Seven Network’s AFL Game Day.
“I reckon Ben Hudson will be a better recruit for the Lions than Mitch Clark for Melbourne and save about half a million dollars in the process.”
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