A CAREER-best six goals from Tom McDonald against Collingwood at the MCG on Queen’s Birthday wasn’t enough for Melbourne to notch up its seventh consecutive win, but the key tall is far from distraught about the loss.

No doubt McDonald was frustrated, but he was adamant that eight wins and four losses was a strong start heading into the mid-season break.

“It was really disappointing in the end to lose by over five or six goals. It’s disappointing, and to play as poor defensively as we did is probably the worst part. We still scored all right but they just scored way too easily,” he told Melbourne Media.

“So, it was a bit of a rough day to end the half way point of the season, but I’m sure we’ll learn plenty out of it as well.

“There’s definitely an aspect of it’s not the end of the world.

“We’ve won six in a row before this and this was a poor game, but if we can take a few things out of it especially going into the bye and reset when we come back and have a few days break as players and recharge, it could be a positive going into the second half of the year.”

McDonald said Collingwood was simply too good across the board.

“At three quarter-time we felt we’re going to have to play really well but there’s a chance [of winning], but they were just too good in the end,” he said.

“In the last quarter, they kicked the first couple of goals and probably stretched it out a bit too far at that point.

“It’s just disappointing because at the start of the game we gave up five or six goals to one and that’s probably the real margin in the end.”

“It’s just too hard to peg back at the end of the game, so that’s probably the worst part – the start of the game.”

McDonald said Melbourne would take plenty out of the loss.

“We’ll do a bit of a review … and then we go away for a few days and come back in the right mindset for Port Adelaide,” he said.

“I was as much to blame for the defensive stuff as everyone else. I had some weaknesses in my game, early on I wasn’t marking it well, but it started to stick in the second half.

“So, that was a positive, that I was able to work through a bit of a slower start and still perform in the second half, but I’ve got plenty to get out of the game – to learn and get better at – so that will be a big part of the next week or so.”