The struggling Demons have a tough task against the all-conquering Cats but Bailey said the team stood a chance of victory if it was competitive.
“It’s a great challenge for the club and a great challenge for our players. Geelong at Skilled Stadium is a tough assignment but we’ll find out whether the players have got their heads switched on this week,” he said.
“You’ve got to go out there with the belief that you can win the game.
“If we are competitive for long enough, we give ourselves a chance to win. If you think otherwise then you’ve already accepted fate.”
The Cats are unbackable favourites to win and win big this week but the Demons coach said he would not use the bookies’ predictions as motivation for his charges.
“The odds are what they are. If we’re trying to lean on some crutch about the odds, I don’t think that’s why we play AFL footy.”
Bailey scoffed at suggestions that Melbourne could only hope to keep its losing margin as low as possible and said the players understood his game plan.
“We’re not going to shut down and minimise a loss because [then] you’ve already accepted defeat,” he said.
“We’ve made it very simple about what we expect our players to do. They’ve just got to have the confidence to take it out. They can do it at training no problems, but it’s the transfer into the game and the competitive edge in the game that’s lacking.
“The game plan is built around getting the ball into our forward line as quick as we can to our forwards who we think, one-on-one with a slight advantage, can mark the ball.”
The Demons have been heavily criticised after two massive defeats to open the season but Bailey said his initiation as an AFL coach had been a learning experience.
“I think the thing that you continue to develop is how better you can coach the players. We spent a long time on Monday on the review, really going through the situations we didn’t handle too well during the game.”
