From our point-of-view, it's really been another year of rebuilding. It's been another strong year of developing players and certainly exposing players. This year, we elevated and played some of our rookies –Jordie McKenzie, Jake Spencer and Shane Valenti, even though he played a few games last year.
From a maximum list of 46, only five blokes missed playing senior footy this year – James Strauss and Sam Blease from on our [senior] list and three rookies, Rhys Healey, Daniel Hughes and Trent Zomer.
But Neville Jetta and Jamie Bennell were two young blokes who played and it would've been good for one of either or both to get a NAB AFL Rising Star. With the number of games they've played, they've been pretty good. Those two boys were unlucky to miss a nomination I would've thought.
So that was a little bit of a story to tell, in a sense, of where the club is at – we tried to give games to players, were prepared to play rookies and tried to play them in different positions.
The other side of it has been disappointing. We had a few blokes who were injured, like the Strauss and Blease situation – it would've been nice for them to play some games this year if form warranted it.
Which players really pleased you through gaining earlier than expected opportunities?
I thought most players would develop and most would improve, because we had a really good pre-season. Fitness staff Joel Hocking, Valeri Stoimenov, Bohdan Babijczuk, Don Trimboli and Adam Paulo were fantastic in setting up a great pre-season for us, so we expected some improvement anyway.
I think someone like James Frawley, his improvement has been exceptional. For a bloke to play key back, hold his ground and play really well, he was able to compete with some of the elite power forwards in the competition. I think he's been terrific, and he stands out as a player for the future.
From the point-of-view of being able to play, Jared Rivers and Brent Moloney played back-to-back games together – they haven't been able to do that for the last two or three years. Moloney, in particular, improved significantly from where he was in the previous three years – he'd played 25 games in three years. But he put 21 games together – he only missed one game – and he was terrific.
It's not just been the young blokes who have stepped up – there have been other experienced guys who have had great improvement as well.
Now that you are about to enter your third off-season as Melbourne coach, do you feel you will be able to have your biggest imprint on the club's list, considering several players were already tied to contracts in your first two seasons at Melbourne?
I would say that we've still got a number of young players who haven't played a lot of games with some of our senior players. Look at it this way; Jack Watts has played three games, Blease and Strauss haven't played any, Jetta and Bennell have played 15 and 16 games and Cale Morton has had two really good years and played 40 games, which is great.
But a lot of those players haven't played a lot of games with Brock McLean, Colin Sylvia, James McDonald, Cameron Bruce or Jared Rivers. Colin Garland missed all but one game and Aussie Wonaeamirri missed the whole year and wasn't able to play with Bennell and Jetta.
The games that they play and the experience they get with each other is really important. And next year we're going to give young players the opportunities to grow with each other, so hopefully Watts, Strauss and Blease and the young players we draft this year will be able to play games together.
That's the important thing you've got to understand and that's going to take a couple of years. If you average out 16, 17 or 18 games a year of connecting games together, then they've got to play games together to achieve it.
It's the number of games we can put into the right players that is going to see us grow – that's the best and most methodical way we can plan to go forward, rather than put any big statement out there.
Your list was the second youngest in the competition this year behind Hawthorn and it is set to be even younger next year with Russell Robertson, Paul Wheatley and Matthew Whelan departing. How many list changes will be made?
We're still going through the list at the moment.
At the end of the season, we re-evaluate our list, as we do in the middle part of the year. We've had to wait until Casey's season finished and then we'll wait until trade week post-grand final. The list management aspect is still a work in progress and then you start looking at how many picks you can achieve and how you go about achieving it.
Those discussions certainly have taken place and they continue to take place.
The club recently re-signed three youngsters – Morton, Jack Grimes and Stef Martin. How important was it for the club and from a coaching point of view that they, particularly Morton, committed to the club, with new clubs emerging?
It was important. Morton and Grimes are early draft picks and Morton, in particular, for a young player has shown consistency, which for a young player is pretty good. Jack struggled with injury in his first year, but this year he showed the talent is there. For them to commit to Melbourne for two years is fantastic. We see them as exciting players for the future and they're going to be really important.
It's nice to see those guys signing before the year is out and that they see themselves as part of the excitement, which is great for us.
Liam Jurrah has been one of the AFL's stories of the year. In terms of when you first met him and when he arrived at the club, how far has he developed? And has he exceeded all of your expectations up until this point?
When Barry Prendergast spoke about him and we first saw a tape of him, we knew the situation with Liam. It was just a surprise – and we're very happy for the opportunity – that we were able to pre-season draft him.
The talent was there from what Barry had seen during the year, but when he became available, [drafting him] was the only decision we needed to make. It was about, could we provide an environment for him where his talent could be exposed and worked on?
We thought with the indigenous guys that we had, particularly with Whelan and Aaron Davey, who have been outstanding for 'LJ' and are great people, we backed our people. We backed [football administrators] Ian Flack, Craig Notman and Chris Connolly in to enable us to take a bit of a chance with Liam.
His talent wasn't an issue; it was whether we could provide an environment where he would blossom into a really good player for us. When he got to training and we saw his ability, again it was only a matter of making sure that he had played enough games and was fit enough to play before we picked him to play.
Once his running, conditioning and his weights were at a good level – the same scenario as Jack Watts – and the fitness guys said he was ready to go, we gave him his chance. To our pleasure, but certainly to the Melbourne footy club and to the members' pleasure, he's played several games.
He's going to be a management issue for us next year, because this year he had no pre-season and we had to make sure he played enough games to get him ready for AFL footy. He'll now start pre-season on October 12 and we see him as only getting better.
At the end of the scale, first-year skipper James McDonald was among the top 10 oldest players in the competition and is set to play on in 2010. How did you see his season?
James is a highly intelligent captain. His leadership is outstanding. James put on three or four kilos last pre-season and he was able to hold his strength during the year. His last three or four weeks was as good as he's played during my time at the footy club and he shows no signs of not being able to improve again next year. He is mentally incredibly strong and he's got great respect among the players.
He's got a lot more to give in the next 12 months I reckon – no question.
Pre-season is starting on October 12 – a day earlier than last year. Will all players start then?
On October 12, there will be some players coming back and there will be another group starting October 19.
Will this pre-season be structured similar to last year?
We'll do a similar thing to last year. We intend to keep building them and keep improving them in the weights room and ensuring they're in good condition come the start of the year.
We thought last year's program was pretty good and we'd like to think there will be an improvement in it, because the players know what's coming. Last year, the first month back in October, was not about running them into the ground – absolutely not. It was about getting their body ready to train for November and December.
We think we got some good results last year from a lot of our players gaining strength. I would like to think that people could see the bodies were bigger this year than they were last year. We'd like to think we could build a little bit more on them, rather than just racing it and putting a lot of weight on.
We'd rather develop them the right way, and the medical people and fitness guys have been really good. The guys' attitude to pre-season was brilliant last year. They know what to expect and they see a program that can be individualised to get the best results for each of the players.
We think it worked well last year, but we think we can improve on it again too.
Some players have already had operations in preparation for October and heading into 2010. Will there be many others who need post-season surgery?
I think there will be a couple more, but not a lot more I don't think. There will probably two or three at this stage.
So you expect most players will be available to start pre-season training?
Yes, absolutely.
