CHRISTIAN Salem says closing the gap between the team’s best football and its worst remains Melbourne biggest challenge at the moment.

Salem said the team’s performance against Gold Coast in round one and then against GWS last weekend was a reflection of the need to bridge the gap. The second-year Demon said it was the big focus heading into Saturday’s clash against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. 

“When you look at it as a whole, we’ve played a bad half, but overall that first half was solid [against GWS] – and the four quarters against Gold Coast was good,” he told Dee TV.

“We look at it like that, [even if] there is a lot of work to be done to bridge the gap between our worst and our best. But we’re slowly starting to nut that down.

“We’re just looking forward to getting out there and trying to [play] some good footy.”

Salem said Melbourne moved on from its second half fade out against GWS early in the week, before quickly turning its focus onto Adelaide this round.

“It (the GWS match) was a very disappointing match from our point of view,” he said.

“We reviewed it Monday and by Tuesday we were over it and ready to look forward to a solid week.”

The classy Demon said he couldn’t wait to return to the City of Churches, given it was the first place he played in a home and away win for Melbourne.

“It was good, [because] it was my first win at the club,” he said.

“We’ve been over there twice [last year] – and we came close [against Port Adelaide] and had a win [over Adelaide].

“We fly over tomorrow (Friday) morning and we’ll do some activation there and have a team meeting and nut out what we’ll do.

“All of the boys are looking forward to it and ready to come out with a response.”

Salem, who has shifted to half-back this year, said he had relished the opportunity to play a new role.

“It’s something different and I never really played there too many years ago, so I really love it,” he said.

“The boys down there have been helping me out, like Dunny (Lynden Dunn), Garlo (Colin Garland) and Tommy Mac (Tom McDonald), so I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”