Kemp suffered a minor tear to his hamstring late in the match against the Jets, which is expected to keep him out for at least one week, much to the frustration of Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick.

"We kept saying to Kempy 'let us know', because he was worried about his hamstring, and we kept saying, 'let us know,' but he didn't and he finished up tearing it,'' Merrick said.

''Now it's going to cost the whole team because he wanted to stay on. Last match he was vomiting and he didn't tell us.

"On one hand you want players to be tough and get up and get out there, but if they don't do their job because they're suspended or injured, it just lets you down.''

Merrick said he was disappointed with his side's commitment throughout the match, especially after Melbourne drew level via a penalty in the 34th minute and took a one-man advantage following Ben Kantarovski's dismissal for a second yellow card.

"Credit to Newcastle, after the second goal in particular we just weren't in the contest," Merrick said. "They were first to the ball and took their chances and even though we had the ball in the box and had more scoring chances we didn't even look like finishing.

"The second goal was a very cheap goal to giveaway and that really made a big difference to the way we played the rest of the game."

Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat echoed his coach's disappointment with the team's lacklustre performance.

"We just weren't good enough and it is shattering, disappointing," Muscat said. "When they went down to 10 men we went down to six or seven. Too many players weren't at the races today."

Despite the loss Melbourne holds onto second place on the ladder just ahead of Gold Coast, while top placed Sydney extended their lead to four points after a 0-0 draw with Perth on Sunday evening.