Paul Roos wants Melbourne players to forget a 105-point loss to Hawthorn, the biggest defeat of his AFL coaching career.
The Hawks heaped more misery on the uncompetitive Demons at the MCG on Saturday, winning 24.11 (155) to 7.8 (50) with minimal fuss and plenty of hard running.
Roos was more interested in the reasons that led to the dismal showing, rather than the glut of turnovers, lack of pressure, substandard skills and shambolic defending.
"Probably just to forget the game," Roos said of his message in the rooms.
"I just feel it was a combination of things ... their confidence got eroded, our young guys looked really tired and we really just couldn't run.
"After a game the easiest thing is to rip into them about effort and those sort of things.
"But you've got to give yourself some time to really analyse the game and make sure you're clear on what the reasons were that we put in a performance like that."
It all started so positively for Melbourne.
Bernie Vince's intercept was followed by an intelligent kick that created space for Jeff Garlett to run into.
Garlett did just that - plucking the ball near the 50m arc and carrying it all the way to the goal square.
Cameron Pedersen, a late inclusion for Jesse Hogan, then clutched a contested mark and converted.
The Demons had a 12-point lead after four minutes.
Were the reigning premiers really at risk of being rolled two weeks in a row?
The answer couldn't have been more succinct and would have been unpleasant viewing for those Melbourne fans among the crowd of 41,935.
The Hawks booted 23 of the next 26 goals, building a 26-point lead at quarter-time and increasing it at every break.
"It's been a deplorable afternoon from a Melbourne point of view," Demons legend Garry Lyon remarked on radio station Triple M.
Pedersen and Nathan Jones were among their side's best, based on endeavour as much as anything else.
"We just got belted," Roos conceded.
"We got a lesson from a team that ... we saw last year's grand final that they did that to the second best team in the competition.
"After halftime they went on a rampage."
Roos made it clear he was unhappy with the performance, but felt there may have been mitigating factors.
"The effort wasn't great," he said.
"But is that because the guys are really tired after a tough three-week block of playing games against the three best teams in the competition?
"We'll have a close look at all our players this week and whether we're training too much .. we need to make sure our energy levels are higher than today, because we looked exhausted."
A hamstring injury to Christian Salem didn't help in that regard.
"We were really pleased we were able to run out the game and win the last quarter as well," Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said.
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