In episode sixteen of Inside Melbourne, Christian Salem joins Caty Price and Max Gawn as we break down the loss against St Kilda. We discuss Salem’s passion for the world cup (6:30), talk about how to pronounce Christian’s surname (11:00) and discover his love for Lebanese food (18:00). Special guest Jade Rawlings joins the team, to give us an update on the Casey Demons (19:00), let us know his thoughts on a team in Tasmania (27:00) along with his passion for coaching and his love for people.

MAX Gawn says Melbourne still has plenty of work to do before it plays its best football again, but he is hopeful that wins are not far away.

Speaking on Inside Melbourne, Gawn said he was still optimistic about the season ahead, but realistic enough to say that the team had to bounce back strongly, after losing the past three in a row.

“It’s going to be a long curve getting to our best football. Hopefully we can get some wins when we’re on that curve,” he said.

“We’re still coming from a long way back, from where we’d been two or three years ago. To be in the position we are now, still sitting in the eight [with] eight [wins] and six [losses] … I heard Jordan Lewis say on Fox Footy last night that Richmond was eight [wins] and five [losses, at the same stage] last season,” he said.

“I’m not saying we’re going to do exactly what Richmond did – and they lost to St Kilda by 67 points in round 16 last year. We didn’t lose [to St Kilda] by 70 points, even though it felt like 70 points, but it was only two [points].

“We’ll keep persevering and trying – every player is turning up and trying to play the best they can. No player comes to the ground … and thinks ‘it’s a lesser ranked team, this is going to be easy and let’s try and get a kick’.

“I think there was some stuff that, on the run, St Kilda did a lot better than us and we weren’t able to fix. So, we’re excited to get up to Darwin – we love Darwin – and play the Dockers.”

Meanwhile, Christian Salem said plenty came out from the weekly review after the loss to the Saints.

“We had the Monday off and came in on the Tuesday and reviewed the game pretty heavily and took some good learnings out of the game,” he said.

“We need to get back to our best footy this week.”