Melbourne swingman Tom McDonald has said the team was "in a little bit of disarray" during the final 90 seconds of the game, where Geelong stole victory thanks to an after-the-siren goal from Zach Tuohy.
McDonald told reporters the loss of Max Gawn to a blood rule in the final minutes hampered their structure, as McDonald was forced to go up in the ruck at the key moments.
"We probably would have sent either me or Max behind the ball and some more numbers to push back," he said.
McDonald denied suggestions his team was not mentally tough enough, saying "it's probably more the composure side of it rather than resilience, because it's not the effort and it's not the desire side of it."
"It's more thinking clearly at that stage of the game when you're just exhausted and the crowd are really loud ... it was deafening down there, and an all-Geelong environment pretty much," he said.
Melbourne will look to rebound from the loss when they travel to Adelaide to take on the Crows on Saturday night.
