CAPTAIN Nathan Jones says Melbourne’s 38-point loss to the Sydney Swans at the MCG on Saturday night was quite simply “a game of two halves”.

Jones said his team was disappointing in the first half, but showed fight after the long break to win the second half by two points.

“I thought they (Sydney) really showed us up in the first half, in particular. I thought they got some of the tactical moves that we planned for – they got it in place and were then able to manipulate the game,” he told Dee TV.

“I thought they just showed the way with their attack on the footy and their ability to defend and their ability to tackle.

“They set the standard in the competition – and playing Freo and Sydney in the past couple of weeks, we’ve been exposed to that.

“Credit to our guys, I thought we fought back in the second half, but unfortunately we didn’t take our opportunities and we got the margin back a bit. But in the end, it’s really disappointing. For us to continue to take steps up the ladder and continue to rise as a team, we’ve got to get consistency with our best footy. You’ve got to serve 120 minutes, particularly against the top four teams.”

Jones said the fact that Melbourne came back from a 59-point deficit in the third term to get back to 30 points in the final term was a good sign of character from the group, but still not good enough.

“The positive signs show that the group’s got some spirit to dig in, but really we shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” he said.

“I thought they (Sydney) jumped us early with their intent to tackle and chase and win the contested footy and defend, and we didn’t have enough players early on willing to do that.

“Credit to the boys, we did fight back and got it back to a respectable margin, but that’s not what we’re about. Honourable losses aren’t what we’re about and we’re trying to build something that’s consistent. Our brand was on display for only half of the game.”