Even a man as measured as Melbourne coach Dean Bailey was entitled to wonder out loud "what if ..:"

The Demons had just lost to Richmond by 22 points in an AFL match where Tigers star Matthew Richardson dominated and Melbourne twice reduced the margin during the final term to only eight points.

Asked what was lacking when they nearly caught Richmond, Bailey mused: "David Neitz or Russell Robertson out of the goalsquare might just have taken a mark and kicked a goal.

"It's easy for me to say it, but the answer is we've got to have other players doing it.

"We've got to take our chances - we had too many shots probably from 45-55m, hence the Richmond guys are marking them in the goalsquare."

Neitz, of course, has retired because of a neck injury and Robertson is out for the rest of the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon.

While Richmond had Richardson, Melbourne lacked that sort of key forward who could grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Aaron Davey took a towering mark over Richardson and kicked two goals, while Brad Miller put through three, but there was no-one in attack with anywhere near the presence of Richardson, Neitz or Robertson.

Still, the Demons rallied from a woeful second quarter, where the Tigers slammed through eight goals to nearly bury them.

"There's always a positive sign when you can generate enough goals to get back into the game and enough ball movement," Bailey said.

"That's good, but at the end of the day you want to prevent having to do that and we really let ourselves down in the second quarter."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP