THE performance of key recruits Heritier Lumumba and Jeff Garlett were two of the positives to emerge from Melbourne’s disappointing two-point loss to Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, according to leader Chris Dawes.

The key forward said Lumumba (a match-high 31 disposals) and Garlett (four goals) were among those to stand up.

“It’s important to find the balance [of the loss] – don’t forget the positives, particularly a lot of the individuals and a lot of the new guys to the club,” Dawes told Dee TV.

“[Heritier] Lumumba was really good and Jeffy Garlett was really good. [Aaron] vandenBerg played his role up forward and Ben Newton [was good]. Those guys had really good nights.

“The disappointing thing was to lose the match, given for the most part we felt we controlled most quarters. The disappointing thing was … little patches in quarters where we didn’t control the game – we gave up easy scores.”

Although Dawes conceded Essendon was far from full strength, he added that the opposition still had “a number of good players in”.

“We’ve also got to learn from our mistakes and we were pretty sloppy from some of our forward entries and we had a lot of opportunities to score,” he said.

“I think we can use this week to sharpen up and … then we’ll have a week to really sharpen up for round one.”

Dawes said it was disappointing that he would miss the opening round of the season through a suspension from last season, but he wasn’t dwelling on it.

“I’ll still be able to get a run around that same day as the boys play round one against the Gold Coast. I’ll be able to play a VFL practice match, so it’s disappointing that I won’t be out there to help us beat the Suns on the ‘G,” he said.

“As far as my preparation, it’s a slight hiccup, but I’ll still get a run around and some match practice.

“I’m just viewing the pre-season as a whole as a massive success for me, especially given my last three pre-seasons have been interrupted. I’m fully confident at this stage.”