Melbourne coach Paul Roos says Demons have improved but refuses to talk about playing finals

MELBOURNE will not motivate its players with talk of finals despite pulling within a game of eighth-placed West Coast.

Nathan Jones celebrates a goal against Collingwood. Picture: AAP

MELBOURNE will not motivate its players with talk of finals despite pulling within a game of eighth-placed West Coast with a convincing win against Collingwood.

The Demons won their first Queen’s Birthday clash since 2007 and recorded two wins against the Magpies in the same season for the first time since 1988 with a 46-point triumph at the MCG.

The 6-6 Demons travel to face Sydney off a six-day break before the bye with ruckman Max Gawn in sizzling touch and Swans counterpart Kurt Tippett set to miss.

Coach Paul Roos said he addressed the Magpies’ unbalanced side at quarter-time, instructing his team to bring the ball to ground and put their skates on.

But Roos said he wasn’t surprised at Nathan Buckley’s decision to pick three slow 200cm players and that it caused headaches in the first term.

“We saw in the first quarter what they were trying to do,” Roos said.

“We’ve got a couple of young defenders in Sam Frost and Oscar McDonald so you probably felt that was their plan going in, to get the ball in long and deep.

“We spoke about it at quarter-time that we have to bring the ball to ground. Once we were able to do that the game turned a little bit.”

Christian Petracca and Tom Bugg. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Melbourne recorded 189-114 handball receives and accumulated 122 more uncontested possessions as it sliced the Pies apart in the final three quarters.

After the first break the Pies managed just four goals as the Demons piled on 14 with tagger Tom Bugg taking damaging wingman Steele Sidebottom out of the game.

Pies talls Mason Cox and Jarrod Witts failed to impact the game while ex-Pie Ben Kennedy recorded a career-best 29 disposals for the Dees.

Roos said he was “really pleased” the Dees had squared the ledger at 6-6, their best standing since 2006.

The Demons have not featured in September since 2006 while captain Nathan Jones is the sole survivor of their previous Queen’s Birthday win, back in 2007 when coached by Neale Daniher.

“We think we’re growing as a footy club, we think we’re getting better,” Roos said.

“When you’ve gone through a patch like we’ve been through for the last six or seven years you’re going to have to break some hoodoos in order to get better.

“It’s a big day for us. We wanted a response today and it was a really important day for us.”

But Roos warned it could unravel quickly.

“Not at all (will we talk about finals),” he said.

“Things can change really, really quickly. If we lose today we go 5-7 and you start to think, ‘How much have you improved?’

“We know we’ve improved, so today is a stepping stone along the way to where we want to get to.

“When we get there will be determined by how well we play and how all teams play”.

Originally published as Melbourne coach Paul Roos says Demons have improved but refuses to talk about playing finals