JESSE Hogan says Melbourne would’ve gladly accepted five wins from its opening nine rounds – if the scenario it now finds itself in was offered at the start of the season.

Speaking to Melbourne TV after booting five goals in Melbourne’s 63-point win over the Brisbane Lions at the MCG on Sunday, Hogan said it was a genuinely positive start to the 2016 season for the club.

“We’re going about it week by week, but at the start of the year, if we were to take five [wins] and four [losses], we’d probably say that’s a success,” he said.

“We’ve had some games that we weren’t expected to win and then some losses that we weren’t expected to have, so it’s been a bit of an up and down process.

“We go week to week, and we’ve got to prepare and bring our best.”

Although Hogan said it was frustrating to have lost a few matches it could’ve won, he was pleased with the strong win over the Lions.

“We seem to go one week on, one week off at the moment, but it was good to bounce back from last week after we played a strong outfit in the Bulldogs,” he said.

“We knew Brisbane would come out hard after a few big losses and they might’ve looked at this opportunity as a win.

“But we came out really early and put our foot down and that set the tone. It was a bit of a back and forth [contest], but we ended up running away with it.”

Hogan said it was important Melbourne backed up its performance with a strong showing in Alice Springs against Port Adelaide next Saturday.

“It wasn’t quite our best our footy and we were a bit fumbly, and there were times when we were missing that link … going forward [so we need to improve on that],” he said.

“Recovery is important with a six-day turnaround going to Alice [Springs].

“It’s never an easy trip, so that’s the approach at the moment.”