A SLOW start at Cazaly’s Stadium was Melbourne’s biggest downfall on Thursday afternoon says Simon Goodwin.

Kicking with a handy breeze, the Demons scored just two goals in the opening term, before failing to convert a major in the second.

And it was these efforts from first bounce that saw Sydney run out eventual 21-point victors.

“It was an incredibly frustrating first half – I thought our start was really poor,” Simon Goodwin said in his post-match press conference.

“Sydney were really good – they came, they hunted, they had good pressure, but our ability to win critical contests in the first half [didn’t match up].

“We got outworked and our execution wasn’t to AFL standard and we paid the price.”

As the game went on, it was this execution that proved just as costly for the red and blue.

Sending the ball inside 50 on 45 occasions, the Dees only managed the six majors in Cairns – a scoreboard the coach was far from happy with.

“That was really frustrating,” Goodwin said.

“I thought in the second half, we were a hell of a lot better… all over the ground, but we just didn’t maximise in front of goal.

“We had some good opportunities.”

While this one will sting, the Dees have to quickly shift their focus to Round 16, where they’ll do battle with Fremantle on Monday night.

And if they want to keep their chances of playing finals alive, they know exactly what they need to do.

“We’re still right in the mix, but we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to perform better,” Goodwin said.

“We can’t have games or halves where it’s non-existent and that’s what we had today.

“There’s still plenty to play for in this season, but we need to be better.

“That was far from the quality of footy that we need to play and far from a team that’s going to really challenge, so we’ve got some work to do.”