Dees pray for way out of trenches

MELBOURNE will continue to cop the tag of being untrustworthy until it proves itself otherwise, Demons coach Simon Goodwin knows.

But he wants people to resist making unequivocal judgment until the end of the season.

Goodwin said the Demons had assessed every element of their game after last week’s horror 67-point belting at the hands of Hawthorn — a performance club chief executive Pete Jackson said “trashed our brand” — and he has demanded that his players respond tonight.

And it won’t be until they can deliver consistently that they will be able to shrug off the suggestion that they cannot be trusted to perform.

“I think that’s the reality,” Goodwin said. “We deal in reality. People can only make judgment on what they see.

“We will always hold that tag until we actually do something about it consistently. That’s not for one or two weeks — that’s over a period of time.

“We’re four weeks into a 22-week season, so I think it’s best judged come the end of the year.”

The Demons have been forced to wait nine days to attempt to rectify the poor showing against the Hawks as they face reigning premier Richmond at the MCG tonight.

Goodwin said “every phase” of his team’s approach had to be examined in recent days after it “fell apart” completely, with players put through their paces in match simulation to reinforce to players the roles that he said “disappeared last week”.

“Last week we had a game that didn’t resemble the way we wanted to play,” he said.

“Our responsibility as a club is to get that back as quick as we can and actually start playing the way that we want to play.

“That may take some time, but we’re looking forward to [tonight’s game] and making sure that we get it back pretty quick. We’ve had nine days to work on it.

“First and foremost we need to get intensity back in the way we play and that’s what we’ll be hoping to do.”

Goodwin said he also encouraged his players to draw upon the Anzac spirit as part of the team’s preparation after last week’s fade-out.

“Mateship is really important for us as a footy club,” he said.

“We’re going to need everyone to go about it in a manner that resembles some of that spirit.

“We can’t go out there and honour them but we use some of that spirit that they generate within that to lift our team.”