BERNIE Vince says coach Paul Roos’ message to work “harder for longer” came to the fore in Melbourne’s 32-point win over Richmond at the MCG on Friday night.

Vince said it was Roos’ strong theme all week, which really resonated with the Demons. 

“Roosy’s message all week was ‘harder for longer’. In the end, I thought we were,” he told Dee TV.

“We outnumbered them at the contest, especially when it got wet.

“We’ve had pretty poor third quarters in the first few weeks, so it was a real focus … so we were really happy with that.”

Vince, who put his side up by 25 points at the nine-minute mark of the final quarter – after kicking Melbourne’s first of its two final term goals – said he thought it was the sealer.

“I went back and tried to take the 30 seconds and have a couple of deep breaths,” he said.

“As soon as I hit it, I thought ‘this is going straight through’.

“I gave it a bit of a celebration and went over the top, but I thought we were home.”

Vince thanked the Melbourne fans for their support throughout the match. 

“It was very good. [I’m] always happy to win those ones, especially Friday night footy in front of big crowds,” he said.

“It’s great to see a lot of Melbourne supporters there – even though it was Richmond’s home game.

“It was very enjoyable.”