AFTER a sixth consecutive defeat, Jake Melksham was visibly devastated on Friday night.

“It’s no good,” Melksham told Melbourne Media.

“It’s a different position to this time last year, so, yeah, not great.”

The 27-year-old was hurting after his side’s 43-point loss to Sydney at the MCG, acknowledging yet another disappointing performance.

Melbourne failed to lead at any stage of the Round 22 contest, despite having plenty of chances with 10 more inside 50s than the Swans.

“We felt the pressure [but] I felt like we controlled a fair bit of the game, also,” Melksham said.

“We had more inside 50s, played the game in our half for longer – we just weren’t efficient.”

The Dees’ ball use has been an ongoing issue in 2019, and with slippery conditions under lights, their kicking efficiency proved problematic once again.

“We had opportunities, more so in front of goal, but there is times where we don’t use the footy too well,” Melksham said.

“It’s crept into our game a lot this year, but we can’t hide away from the fact that we were woeful in front of goal – myself included.”

Melksham was one of Melbourne’s better performers on the night with 15 touches and eight shots on goal, but unfortunately, five of his shots went astray.

The Demons had a makeshift forward line against Sydney, lacking tall options with Tom McDonald, Sam Weideman, Tim Smith, Harry Petty, Oscar McDonald and Steven May all sidelined by injury.

As a result, the red and blue managed just five majors.

“It’s bloody hard,” Melksham said.

“They’ve got a fair few good defenders down there and they’re a good defensive unit.

“Our forward line hasn’t played too much footy together. Even Frosty (Sam Frost) coming back into the forward line in that last quarter, so it’s a pretty raw group, but that’s just where we’re at at the minute.

“We’ve all just got to learn and try and get something out of this last week.”

With little to gain in the final games of the season, Simon Goodwin has been experimenting with his side, throwing the magnets around to see if any improvements can be made.

“Nothing’s working at the moment so you’ve got to do something,” Melksham said.

“We’ll just keep trying to change things up a little bit and see if it works.”

With one game left to play, the Demons will be hoping to find some positives when they head to Tasmania and face North Melbourne next weekend.