Melbourne aren’t partying like it’s 1964.

While coach Paul Roos wants his success-starved players to enjoy Sunday’s breakthrough AFL win over Carlton, he says they have been through too much to become carried away.

The club whose last premiership was 50 years ago has an eight-day break before hosting Gold Coast on Easter Sunday at the MCG.

Roos said the long gap means they can train twice this week and refocus properly for the Suns.

“They have to enjoy it, because it has been a long time,” he said.

“I don’t think the players are going to get carried away by any stretch of the imagination.

“They’ve been down this path before.

“They’re appreciative of the win, how good it was.”

If there is one thing that Roos will drum into his players this week, it is effort.

The word came up repreatedly in Roos’ Monday media conference as he reflected on the win over the Blues last Saturday and looked ahead to the Suns.

It is why he was so pleased with their improved tackle count against the Blues.

Roos has also seized on Melbourne’s much-improved defence for the same reason.

Importantly, after four games they are mid-table for points conceded, rather than being a team that bleeds goals.

He noted that regardless of how badly top sides Geelong and Hawthorn were playing, their effort was always first-rate.

“When you finish 17th … you know every team is very, very difficult,” he said.

“We don’t have any margin for error, so we can’t say ‘we’re going to go out and play at 80 per cent’.

“If we play at 80 per cent against any team, we’ll get beaten.

“I feel if we play at 100 per cent, we’re in the game.

“Hopefully we can stay in the game for as long as we possibly can, like we did on the weekend.”

One of the key factors in Saturday’s win was defender James Frawley, who was outstanding as a key forward.

Fellow backman Lynden Dunn also played in attack and Roos wants to keep at least one of them in the forward line.

“It would be hard to move him (Frawley) back after his game on the weekend … he played exceptionally well,” Roos said.

“Having said that, it’s probably going to be hard to keep Dunn and Frawley forward week in, week out, because they’re really good defenders.”