Two weeks after the euphoria of the win over Richmond at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne catapulted back to earth and landed in the country's red centre. It wasn't a crash landing and there was a lot to like about the Demons who lost their second NAB Challenge match to a more skillful and composed Cats outfit at Traeger Park, Alice Springs by a mere 13 points.

I have this feeling that the final margin might be a little flattering in view of the fact that the Demons achieved the result with the benefit of substantially less scoring shots, half the number of forward entries inside fifty metres and with the benefit of three nine-point supergoals which won't be available in the regular season but there were lots of positives among all of this including the comeback in the second quarter after a slow start and keeping Geelong goalless in the last.

While we should never be happy with a defeat, the way the team performed produced an interesting conundrum for the club's coaching panel which opens the door for a positive future. Melbourne exceeded 400 disposals for the second time in a row but had far less inside 50's (31 to 62). which means that if Paul Roos can work out how his team can translate 444 touches into a lot more than 31 inside 50's there will be plenty to look forward to as the season unfolds.

We are in the very early days of the Roos era and one would expect that he's been working on the answer for some time because it's not exactly a new phenomenon at the club. Part of the answer is to do away with a few of the less skilled players and therefore reduce the abysmal disposal and bad decision-making that results in bad turnovers and another part is to inject a few key talls - Frawley and Garland into the defence and Dawes and Clark into the forward line. The Roos style will get better and with the right personnel, I expect it will give his charges a good chance against all but the top sides this season.

Certainly, the addition of Vince, Tyson, Cross and Michie to the midfield and the promise of young Hogan were all major plusses and I couldn't help but wonder what might have been had Kennedy-Harris been given another run instead of sending him off to the backblocks of Gippsland.

We could be onto some good things in the near future and perhaps looking at up to 10 wins.

Melbourne 0.3.0.18 2.5.0.48 2.7.1.61 3.9.3.84

Geelong 0.6.5.41 0.8.6.54 0.14.9.93 0.14.13.97

Supergoals

Melbourne N Jones Michie Vince

Geelong Nil

Goals

Melbourne Howe 2 Bail Cross Hogan N Jones Michie Toumpas Trengove

Geelong Brown 3 Bartel Duncan Taylor 2 Caddy Hawkins Horlin-Smith Varcoe, Walker

Best

Melbourne Vince Tyson Cross N Jones Michie Dunn

Geelong Duncan Caddy Johnson Bartel Horlin-Smith Rivers

Injuries

Melbourne Toumpas (head)

Geelong Selwood (hamstring)

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Geelong Billie Smedts for striking Jimmy Toumpas in the third quarter

Umpires Fleer Wenn Deboy

Attendance 5,378 at TIO Traeger Park in Alice Springs

Can someone tell me where to find the official stats for the Geelong game.?

The AFL App has all the stats for each player and in total. Just download it and put it in the NAB Cup mode.

Thanks a lot,LC!