Max Gawn has dismissed the perception that Melbourne are ahead of themselves – either during games or in their misfiring AFL season.

The Demons’ upset two-point loss to St Kilda on Saturday was their third in a row and leaves them in the top eight only on percentage.

Melbourne have not made the finals since 2006 and agonisingly missed last year’s top eight on percentage.

They face a must-win game on Saturday night against Fremantle in Darwin.

“I’m not thinking ‘here we go again’ yet and I hopefully won’t for the rest of the year,” said the Demons’ ruckman.

“It’s still a position I haven’t been in … with this club, with this team.

“We have some pretty good young talent, that’s costing us at times at the moment as well with some of our losses.

“But I’m pretty happy with the team I’m in and the position I’m in as well.”

Melbourne’s losing streak again leads to talk that they have become too happy with themselves.

“It’s a weird brand we get tagged with, every time we lose – we drink our own bath water,” Gawn said.

“I’m not a fan of that stigma that we have, but … it keeps on coming up, so there must be some sort of actions we’re doing on the field that make people think like that.

“I’m still bullish on how we can go this year, obviously we took a step backwards yesterday.”

Melbourne squandered an early lead on Sunday against the Saints, but again Gawn does not think they took their opposition lightly.

“I’m not going to answer that question saying we’re ahead of ourselves, because I don’t think that’s the right way for us to speak,” he said.

“It might be a stigma we have from the media, but it’s a game of flows.

“If we get ahead of ourselves, do we then go on and lose by 70 or something like that.

“We just didn’t have a strong enough mindset to match St Kilda.”

But Gawn definitely agrees the Demons are paying for lapses during games.

“If we’re not there to play for a quarter, it’s game over,” he said.

“That’s a key learning for us – we weren’t there for two quarters yesterday, so that’s why we definitely didn’t win.”

He added that not enough defensive pressure, particularly through the midfield, had cost them in their three losses.

Gawn was a shining light for the Demons in the St Kilda loss, but he is unsure whether he will go up against injured Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands in Darwin.

“That’s not very clear from (coach) Ross Lyon’s press conference – I’m not sure if Sandy’s playing or not,” he said.