COACH Paul Roos says Melbourne’s inability to play out 120 minutes of football was the catalyst in its 22-point loss to the Adelaide Crows at the MCG on Sunday.

Roos said the Crows were “very good” at playing out the whole game and was akin to when his team recently played and fell short to the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans.

“The sample is that we were really good against Hawthorn for long periods of time and the Bulldogs for long periods of time. Sydney was a really difficult game, because of the conditions,” he said.

“We probably felt that five or 10-minute patch in the third [quarter] was the difference. The first quarter, even though they (Adelaide) were a couple [of goals] up, it was probably more our turnovers and ball use.

“But the better teams just do it for longer and we can’t quite get to that level at the moment. We’re just not quite at that level for long enough at this stage.”

Roos praised his side’s second quarter, but added that it was still a work in progress to produce that type of football across four quarters.

“Hopefully the fans that came along and watched the game can see some real progress and a pretty good game of footy,” he said.

“We need to get better in all phases ... but what we’re trying to sell as a footy club is that we are getting better and there is no question.

“You watch the game and it was a very good game of footy – there was a lot of pressure around the ball and we were able to score really well at times. They were able to score really well and they did it better than we did.

“It’s important that we keep improving, rather than [trying to play] attractive footy. I’d rather win 10 goals to nine. The Grand Final in 2005 was eight goals to seven – I’d rather win a Grand Final eight goals to seven than lose.

“But for us, it’s more about improvement in different phases of the game and we’ve made a huge step forward in our ball movement, which is clearly where the game’s going.”