LUKE Beveridge says there was "nothing but positives" to come from the Western Bulldogs' fighting seven-point NAB Challenge defeat to Melbourne in Ballarat on Saturday.
The Bulldogs took an inexperienced side – missing the likes of Robert Murphy, Jordan Roughead, Luke Dahlhaus, Liam Picken and Tom Boyd, who was managed with hamstring tightness – to Eureka Stadium and were blown off the park in the opening half.
The Demons booted eight goals to one and dominated possessions 220-109 and the inside 50 count 25-12.
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Ayce Cordy kicked the Dogs' only goal to half-time, but a "few adjustments" at the long break sparked a stunning turnaround.
Led by Marcus Bontempelli in midfield, the Dogs surged from 45 points down and nearly produced a miraculous win in front of a vocal crowd at their new home-away-from-home, Eureka Stadium.
Speaking post-match, Beveridge said he looked at the second-half turnaround as a huge positive.
"Yeah, I definitely do," he said. "We learnt a couple of things today about ourselves and adjustments we made need to make from time-to-time and we had to make some.
"Obviously they dominated on the scoreboard and in possession … so we needed to change a couple of things which, credit to the boys, they did really, really well.
"There was nothing but positives to come out of the game for me.
"With six boys playing their first games of senior footy – who all contributed at different times – and our more experienced guys to see how they picked up in the second half it was just a great blend of everyone contributing."
Beveridge said the seven draftees the Dogs blooded showed encouraging signs in their first hit-outs without a significant amount of senior player support.
"They deserved to play today and we saw some great signs from all of them," Beveridge said.
"I think that will help them and maybe hasten their maturity a little bit."
Melbourne coach Paul Roos said he wasn't too concerned by the change in momentum and didn't blame his side for taking their foot off the pedal.
Roos said the Demons stopped competing as hard at the contest, but he was pleased with the way his side moved the ball in transition early on.
"I think today what we saw in the first half was what we're trying to work on both defensively and offensively," he said.
"Out of the eight quarters we've played so far…we've probably had five really good ones and three not so good or thereabouts.
"So we're certainly starting to get there and we were really pleased with the way we played early in the game."
Roos was particularly pleased with his forward structure, which looked dangerous with Jeff Garlett and Jay Kennedy-Harris swooping at the feet of Jesse Hogan, Chris Dawes, Jack Watts and normal defender Sam Frost.
"It was good early and obviously pretty dangerous," Roos said. "Frost we think adds a lot of speed down there. He's probably a more natural defender.
"Obviously Jeff (Garlett) we know what a quality player he is. Probably one of our few good players in the second half was Jack Watts coming on.
"We think if we can get the ball with a little bit more speed as we did in the first half we've got some dangerous players.
"Jay Kennedy-Harris had a really good first half. There was a few options up that end of the ground, but you've got to win it around the contest."
