After falling to St Kilda by six goals on Sunday, Roos said his team was still building experience and resilience, while focusing on education and improvement.

Melbourne had not been able to produce enough telling individual efforts when the game was up for grabs, he said, and therefore play well enough as a unit to beat the Saints.

Melbourne forward Jesse Hogan was reported for striking early in the last quarter, after he flung an elbow into Jarryn Geary.

Hogan also spent some time off the ground being treated for back spasms, while fellow forward Jack Watts had treatment for an injured ankle.

Roos was unperturbed about whether the Demons would be able to make a push for a September spot, with North Melbourne's loss to Port Adelaide leaving the door slightly ajar for the teams just outside the top eight.

"Our goal has always been about reshaping the list, getting a more competitive team and coming up the ladder," Roos said.

"We'll play finals when we're good enough to play finals. At the moment we're not good enough.

"The ladder's there for a reason. It happens when it's ready to happen, so all this talk about mathematics – it's really semantics.

"If we're good enough this year we'll get there. It looks unlikely. And if we're good enough next year we'll get there, that's what we're trying to do.

"We're trying to get an upward trajectory in terms of where we want to head."

Angus Brayshaw came back into the Melbourne side for Sunday's game, having trimmed down by five or six kilograms since the start of the season.

Christian Petracca kicked two first-half goals, while Jack Viney did his best to lift the team as the Saints began to pull away.

"I think the main thing for us is … we've just got to keep educating," Roos said.

"We believe we've got some really good young players, but we've got to keep educating them on what's required.

"Today, to be fair, at key moments our young guys whether it be a fumble or a dropped mark or a bad handball or whatever – that's just part of it.

"So it's probably more about what we can get out of the next six weeks with that young group, because I believe the list is really talented.

"We've been putting out the youngest team in the comp … our seconds team we've been putting on the field I think has more AFL experience than what our senior team does. I know it did two weeks ago.

"So I think it's more about this year and what we can get out of this year, and hopefully [we can] educate as well as we can for the remaining six weeks."