CAPTAIN Nathan Jones says “it’s hard to put a finger on a reason why” Melbourne produced a terrible first half against Carlton at the MCG on Sunday and put in another insipid display.

The Demons kicked just 2.3 to 10.2 in the first half, yet booted 5.10 to Carlton’s 2.4 in the second half to lose by 23 points – after trailing by 53 points in the second and third quarters.

Jones said he totally understood why the club’s supporters were bitterly disappointed with their recent performances.

“We’re really hurting as a playing group and I can understand the fans would be so, so disappointed and extremely frustrated, particularly with the form we showed only a month ago,” he told Dee TV.

“We’re really in a bad rut at the moment, the playing group – there is no doubt about that. We’ve really lost our edge, particularly at the start of games.

“The most frustrating thing for me is not being able to respond after such a poor effort last week against the Doggies. We came out and started the game as flat and as poorly as we did.”

Jones said he was also annoyed with his own game.

“I’m really disappointed in my own performance. I think I’ve been down for probably a month now and that’s probably reflective of the team,” he said.

“We’re looking at every avenue to try and rectify that. We changed the week a little bit this week but I’m extremely disappointed.”

Jones said the fact that Melbourne had performed well in third terms in recent weeks only added to the disappointment. 

“That’s been the story of the last three weeks. We played two really quality sides in North and the Doggies and in those games and we showed glimpses and patches,” he said.

“Again we played really poorly, but credit to Carlton. They were terrific in the contest, but we came out after half-time and played some of the footy that we expect to play.

“We’ve really lost that edge and we were playing with that intensity and effort earlier in the year that I hadn’t been a part of here [at Melbourne] and I think that’s really fallen away.

“I don’t have an answer why. We’ve addressed it at training and in particular in meetings, we’ve been really honest and trying to educate the players in the direction that we’re heading.

“That’s really fallen away in the last three weeks and it’s something we’re all extremely disappointed about.”