CHRISTIAN Salem says his side’s execution of the fundamentals proved costly in Melbourne’s 26-point loss to Port Adelaide at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

The Demons got off to a strong start booting four of the first five goals of the game but let the Power back into the contest with some simple errors.

“We started well to be honest but went away from our basic fundamentals and made them look good off the turnovers,” Salem told Melbourne Media.

“They ended up punishing us with their quality going forward.

“It was a disappointing day, but we’ll review it hard and get ready for Geelong next week.”

Port Adelaide got the better of the Demons through the centre of the ground, with Scott Lycett and Paddy Ryder combining to challenge Max Gawn.

The onballers then went to work, with Tom Rockliff (44 disposals) and Travis Boak (34 disposals) hurting Melbourne on the attack.

“I guess it started from the midfield,” Salem said.

“We sort of shot ourselves in the foot a bit by the way we used the ball.

“We were a bit panicky and weren’t really nailing our fundamentals.

“Credit to them, they made us pay off the turnovers and ended up winning by a few goals.”

Melbourne’s midfield couldn’t go with the Power and as a result, the Demons backline found themselves constantly under pressure.

“We lost the inside 50s by 14 which doesn’t help,” Salem said.

“It just wasn’t our brand, so we’ll get back to the drawing board.”

While the Power impressed with their running game, Salem was disappointed with his side’s four-quarter effort.

“We were inconsistent,” he said.

“We started well playing it on our terms, and even patches in the third quarter we got the momentum back, but we were just doing it in patches, which these days isn’t good enough.”

The Demons lacked contributors throughout the day, and Salem says they will need a more consistent spread over the coming weeks.

“There’ll be a lot of disappointed boys because we had a good chance with the way we started the game,” he said.

“It’s just disappointing that we shot ourselves in the foot a bit, but that’s footy.

“We’ll learn and we’ll come back stronger – it’s a long season, so we’ll have to come out firing next week.”