McQualter left questioning his side after brutal Demons loss
'We're not tough enough at all as a football club, as a football team at the moment,' McQualter said.
'That's got nothing to do with age. That's something that we just can't accept.'
The Eagles officially claimed their third wooden spoon in a game where the Demons won contested possession 145-103.
McQualter said he might have to revert to an old-school, physical approach to training with games coming up against top-of-the-table Adelaide, a rampaging Western Bulldogs and Sydney to finish of the season.
'It's a good question. We might have to (go old school), because at the moment, when you get performances like that, you have to improve them by training,' he said.
'That might be what we have to do. It's intent, it's desire. We've got to put the right plans in place and put the people in the right places, but there's too many times where it's not at the level required.'
Melbourne kicked 10 goals in the third term, but McQualter said the loss wasn't just about one quarter.
'Disappointing game, not the way we wanted to play today,' he said.
'I think it was a bit more than that (one quarter) today, clearly at the moment the gap between our best and our worst is far too great and we can't handle it.
'Teams have momentum against us, and the scoreboard just flows too easily. We have to find ways to do it better.'
The Demons had 58 forward entries and McQualter said the back six did not handle the pressure.
'I thought we were beaten in that area of the ground today.
'I thought we gave way too many free kicks and I thought they scored a little bit too easily at times. But that's not just on the backs. That's on the whole team, but I don't think we had many winners on the ground today.
'It was pretty broad today, I think first half clearly ... we couldn't compete in the air, it was a pretty big thing in the game in the first half.
'We adjusted that a bit, took the game away from that space a little bit, but we got beaten by 40-somethig (42) contests, you can't compete in AFL football with that.'
Liam Ryan finished the game with staples in his head, but passed an HIA test during the game, while forward Archer Reid left the ground late with what appearad to be sore ribs.
'Hopefully it's not too serious, but I haven't really got an update on it yet. He's a bit sore at the moment.'
The Eagles coach said the team needed to get something out of the final three rounds.
'We have to be better than we were today, because we've got three tough opponents coming up.
'We have to challenge our team, our coaches, our staff, our club, that we still need to improve clearly, and the next three weeks is more opportunity to do that, so we'll just review this game the same way as we do, we'll get really clear on what we're going after.
'But we need to close the gap on our best and our worst. That's a big thing we're going to focus on the next three weeks.'
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