AFTER an injury interrupted start to 2019, the full-strength Melbourne backline finally got its chance to play together at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Dees’ defensive group worked well for much of the contest, restricting the Western Bulldogs to just 10 goals, but Steven May says it will take a while for them to really hit their straps.

“I think just getting that game under our belts together, we’re only going to learn,” May told Melbourne Media.

“It’s Round 17 and that was our first game together, so onwards and upwards.”

Melbourne’s eight-point loss to the Dogs was the first time May has played alongside both Jake Lever and Neville Jetta, which is a prospect that excites him.

“That’s what I came here to do – I really wanted to be a part of that back six and seven,” he said.

“I thought Jakey was really good early with his positioning. Nev sort of took a bit to get going – he’s probably had a bit longer out in terms of training.”

As the game began to get away from the Dees in the final term, May was swung to the opposite end of the ground in a bid to impact inside 50 – an opportunity he enjoyed.

“I was a forward growing up and I always joke around to the coaches about going forward,” he said.

“But this week, with Tommy Mac (Tom McDonald) and Weido (Sam Weideman) going down, Goody (Simon Goodwin) just said at some stage we might need you to go forward to be another option.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen because I was down back with Frosty (Sam Frost) and we were holding our own down there and then I got the call and I was happy to go forward.”

For the majority of the afternoon, May found himself going head-to-head with Dogs youngster Aaron Naughton, and managed to keep him goalless.

“He’s a star, he’s going to be a really good forward,” May said.

“I’ve never played on him before. He took a couple of marks on the wing which I was pretty impressed with, but I tried to get my job done.”

Although the Demons hung in the game and came close to pinching the four points at the death, the Bulldogs were in control for the majority of the second half.

“They had us hemmed in in the third quarter,” May said.

“We spent a lot of our tickets defending that whole third quarter – they had about 18 inside 50s – so it was a good effort for the boys to hold up, but we just had to be a bit more daring on offence.”

The Dogs used their pace to push the ball forward and hurt the red and blue on the attack – an area May said his side was unable to replicate.

“They did run well when they got it to the outside, but I just think we were a bit too predictable with our ball movement,” he said.

“I think that was on the back of us defending for a long period of time. Guys were a bit gassed – didn’t have the energy to go forward.”

With fatigue came turnovers for the Melbourne outfit, handing the ball back too often to mount a serious comeback.

“I think some of the errors are easily fixed – particularly with some of the defensive stuff, but I think we just need calm minds when the game is still there to be won,” May said.

“For four or five minutes we were playing like there was 20 seconds left, so that’s where those little errors come into play.”

Melbourne will be looking to get back on the winners list against West Coast when it heads to Alice Springs next weekend.