FORWARD line coach Dan McPherson has pinpointed a handful of reasons for Melbourne’s lack of goals kicked against Collingwood in last Monday’s Queen’s Birthday loss at the MCG.

Although McPherson said it wasn’t all doom and gloom – Melbourne kicked 3.10 to 8.13 – the Demons were unable to capitalise with some of their attributes in attack. 

“It’s a combination of our effort as a forward group and our leading patterns – we probably got in each other’s way a little bit. We went a bit taller on the weekend and in hindsight that probably didn’t work quite as well as we would’ve hoped,” he told Dee TV.

“It wasn’t a disaster, but we didn’t get the advantage we were hoping for. Together with that, we butchered the ball coming forward quite a bit. Often we had guys heading towards the [forward] 50 with not a lot of pressure on them and either made a bad decision or executed badly.

“As a result of that, we turned the ball over and Collingwood was pretty good at getting it up the other end.”

Still, McPherson said there were still several positives, with the return of Chris Dawes and the fact that he, Cam Pedersen and James Frawley have only played limited time together in attack. 

“Overall, it’s been pretty good. He (Dawes) made a massive difference when he first came back in the team. He got suspended against Richmond, which was disappointing and he didn’t get to make the trip to Alice Springs, which could’ve made a bit of a difference for us,” he said.

“He was a bit frustrated the other day, with the ball movement coming in and the [overall] performance. I think him (Dawes) and Cam Pedersen have played really well and Chip Frawley has been really good for us forward as well.

“The three of them together – and they’ve only actually played together once – if we can get a bit of continuity there and get them all out there together, they’re going to be quite dangerous.”

McPherson praised Pedersen for playing every match so far this season and turning his career around to become an integral part of Melbourne’s 22.

“Cam’s worked really hard, both here and away from the footy club,” he said.

“He’s always been a pretty good athlete, but he’s really knuckled down on the things that he had to work on to improve his game.

“He does the simple things really well now, which was letting him down previously and earlier in the season even. He’s just starting to get a bit of reward for that. He’s attacking the ball harder and his defensive side of his game is much better, and the upside of that is that he’s getting on the end of a few and he’s marking the ball really well and we just need him to start kicking a few goals.”

McPherson said there were some frustrating parts to reviewing Melbourne’s 33-point loss to Collingwood on Queen’s Birthday, but some pleasing aspects still came to the fore.

“It was an interesting game [and] going off a lot of commentary in the last couple of days [said it] wasn’t a great spectacle, so it was a bit tricky watching it back [on Tuesday] morning,” he said.

“There were still quite a few positives in it, but overall, we were a bit disappointed with our effort.

“Coming off a good month of footy, the expectation started to build and we felt we let ourselves down in quite a few areas on [Monday].”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s twilight clash against Essendon at the MCG, McPherson said it was going to be another tough challenge for the Demons, but one they could overcome.

“They (Essendon) did what they had to do last week. The positive for them is although they didn’t play a terrific game of footy – they’re still winning and they’ve won four of their last five, so they’re in pretty good form,” he said.

“[Jobe] Watson is a pretty big out for them, but they have got a really big midfield, and with [Dustin] Fletcher, [Courtenay] Dempsey and [Jake] Carlisle now going back – their defence is pretty solid as well.

“Their young fellow, [Joe] Daniher got the [NAB AFL] Rising Star [nomination] the other day and he’s looking like he’s going to be a good player and they’ve got [Paul] Chapman up there. They’re pretty strong all over the park, so we’re going to have to play really well to get over them, but we’re confident we can do it, if we play really well and play to our best – we’re a chance.”