STRUGGLING to draw consolation from a first-round 104-point drubbing, Melbourne captain David Neitz promised his side would not be as bad again this year.

After the lashing that was inflicted in front of 40,141 spectators at the MCG yesterday, Neitz also wondered — with hope more than certainty — whether Hawthorn might prove to be tremendously strong and his own side therefore not nearly as bad.

"You think how bad are we and how good are Hawthorn? That is the question we have got to ask ourselves, but we know we played really poorly, the pressure wasn't there and we allowed them to play really well," Neitz said. "But it's round one, too, who knows how good Hawthorn are going to be and how well we are going to bounce back?

"I don't think we are that bad but the proof is in the pudding … But tomorrow, we won't be that bad, and next week, we won't be that bad, and for the rest of the season, we won't be that bad."

Dean Bailey could surely not have imagined a more nightmarish start to his senior coaching career. But rather than lash out afterwards, Bailey — who took every question thrown at him by reporters in his post-match news conference — was measured in his criticism.

"It's very disappointing. There's not a lot of good things to say about it. We let ourselves down in just about every area of the game and we've got to get back on the track and get some confidence back because there was not a lot of good things to come out of today's game.

"The only good thing to come out was how well Hawthorn played and we suffered the consequences. In the game of skill and chasing and pressure, we let ourselves down. We allowed Hawthorn to play a free-running, open, uncontested game and we actually contributed to that."

Asked if he felt humiliated, Bailey said: "I feel very disappointed for our Melbourne members who have come along today, absolutely."

The coach said there had been no indication that such a poor result was likely.

"No indication at all. We had a good week of training and we were going to the game with a belief that if we were competitive for long enough, that we were a chance. But that wasn't the case. We were uncompetitive for too long."

Melbourne had only eight fewer inside-50s than its opponent yesterday, which made the eventual difference of more than 100 points all the more inglorious. Neitz was held goalless even after Hawthorn lost its No. 1 defender Trent Croad to injury in the game's opening minutes.

Bailey said he could not name a player who had won his position, but refused to apportion blame. "We all lost. We all lost," he said. "We'll go through the tape and we'll pick some things out that we can learn from. We're just going to get back on the track and work hard. We've worked reasonably hard the last couple of months … and they know what's coming at training during the week."

Neitz said the side was beaten across every position on the ground.

"The Hawks were very good, but we were pretty poor, were not able to put any pressure on them as they were coming out of their back line and they just ran it out of the back line and through the middle of the ground and our defensive pressure was poor.

"We had two guys play their first game, the coach had his first game for the club and yeah, it's very disappointing as you say. We put in a lot of hard work over the pre-season and all for nought."