COACH Paul Roos says the next stage of his side’s development is to rid making critical errors in the dying stages of matches.

Roos said the fact that his team had gone from regular floggings last year to competitive performances in 2014 meant that the Demons could no longer afford to make costly mistakes when the game was on the line – as was the case last round.

“If you’re getting beaten by 80 points, one possession doesn’t really make a difference – if you drop a ball or it goes out of bounds on the full,” he said from AAMI Park on Tuesday.  

“But if you’re down to six-point games, 10-point games and three-point games – like we’ve been a lot this year, then every single possession counts.

“That’s the really big takeaway as a team now and the players have got to understand that. The good teams do that and [if] they make a blue, they put that aside … and make the next contest.

“We’re now in the position to do it and we’ve got to learn and we’ve got to get better at closing out games. Thankfully we’re in games for longer and we’ve got to do that again this weekend.”

Meanwhile, Roos said he hadn’t spoken to the AFL or the umpiring department about the controversial rushed behind decision against Rohan Bail during last Sunday’s six-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

“I can’t control those things,” he said.

Roos indicated that the rushed behind rule – brought into the game following the 2008 Grand Final – was a hasty decision.

“You’ve got to be careful making decisions on one game … on the back of one game in a Grand Final. The laws of the game – we’ve seen two runners [cut down to one] now, on the back of one game.

“I don’t concern myself too much [with umpiring decisions and the laws of the game] … you learn after a while, you can’t influence and you can’t impact.”