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Things are beginning to look up for the Demons after a long time being on the bottom. To put it in perspective, Melbourne have not taken part in a finals series since 2006.
Melbourne went through the normal route for a club in a rebuild and took to the draft, bringing in a lot of high end talent. From 2007 to 2011, these have been their draft hauls inside the top 20 or so picks.
2007: Cale Morton (#4), Jack Grimes (#14), Addam Maric (#21)
2008: Jack Watts (#1), Sam Blease (#17), James Strauss (#19)
2009: Tom Scully (#1), Jack Trengove (#2), Jordan Gysberts (#11), Luke Tapscott (#18)
2010: Lucas Cook (#12)
2011: Pick 12 traded for Mitch Clark.
Despite getting their hands on so many top picks, very few remain at the club today. Undoubtedly their were problems regarding recruitment and development.
But I don’t want to remind Melbourne fans of this too much, I want to focus more on what has happened in the last couple of seasons.
The Dees have taken a new approach in recent times and this begins mainly at the end of 2013. The year prior they managed to bring in premiership player Chris Dawes, Jimmy Toumpas, Jack Viney and draft an under-aged Jesse Hogan in the mini-draft.
In the 2013 off season, Melbourne bought in some more experience in Daniel Cross and Bernie Vince, while also attracting former no. 3 draft pick Dom Tyson from the Giants. The club drafted exciting prospects Christian Salem and Jay Kennedy-Harris. And most importantly they bought in Paul Roos as head coach.
Despite losing James Frawley via free agency after the 2014 season, the Demons received a draft pick after their first pick, giving them picks #2 and #3 in the draft. Melbourne signed Ben Newton via free agency from Port Adelaide and managed to turn pick 23 into Sam Frost, pick 40 (Alex Neal-Bullen) and 53 (Oscar McDonald).
On top of this they traded in Jeff Garlett for peanuts and replace Mitch Clark with Heritier Lumumba in a three-way trade.
On top of that, with the aforementioned picks 2 and 3, they drafted big-bodied midfielders in Angus Brayshaw and Christian Petracca. Let’s not forget Billy Stretch was a F/S pick at 42.
Melbourne came away with a fantastic haul mixed with experience and young guns.
To really evaluate, let’s compare their team of Round 23, 2013 to their Round 1 team which did so well against the Suns.
Round 23, 2012
B: Lynden Dunn, James Frawley, Dean Terlich
HB: Jack Grimes, Tom McDonald, Colin Garland
C: Jack Viney, Jack Trengove, Jimmy Toumpas
HF: Matt Jones, Jack Watts, Colin Sylvia
F: Dean Kent, Max Gawn, Aaron Davey
Foll: Jake Spencer, Jordie McKenzie, Nathan Jones
I/C: James Sellar, Jeremy Howe, Neville Jetta, Luke Tapscott
Round 1, 2015
B: Colin Garland, Lynden Dunn, Neville Jetta
HB: Christian Salem, Tom McDonald, Jeremy Howe
C: Heritier Lumumba, Daniel Cross, Ben Newton
HF: Dent Kent, Jesse Hogan, Jimmy Toumpas
F: Jeff Garlett, Sam Frost, Jack Watts
R: Mark Jamar, Nathan Jones, Dom Tyson
I/C: Angus Brayshaw, Jack Viney, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Aaron Vandenberg
Overall, the outs and ins are as follows.
Out: Frawley, Terlich, Grimes, Trengove, Jones, Sylvia, Gawn, Davey, Spencer, McKenzie, Sellar, Tapscott.
In: Salem, Lumumba, Cross, Newton, Hogan, Garlett, Frost, Jamar, Tyson, Brayshaw, Vandenberg, Kennedy-Harris
A few that are different were still on the 2013 list such as Jamar, and Dawes wasn’t playing in the final round of 2013 but you get the picture, the side that beat the Suns was also missing Dawes and Vince.
It goes to show that more then 50 per cent of the starting 22 is different, with a whole bunch of new players and so much more depth.
I also want to focus in particular on the seven players who played their first game for the MFC against Gold Coast. Those players were Heritier Lumumba, Jeff Garlett, Ben Newton, Sam Frost, Jesse Hogan, Angus Brayshaw, Aaron Vandenberg.
These new Dees took up a third of the side and they all played well. Between the seven they racked up 100 disposals and kicked eight goals, nine behinds, contributing to 57 points of Melbourne’s 115 total. Just under half, they did more than just pull their weight.
The team played exciting football, with a better mix of experience and youngsters (contrary to a few years ago), they’re a more even team on the park and they went coast to coast on multiple occasions. I certainly hope we see more of this refreshing Melbourne outfit, and with Dawes and Vince to return things should get even better.
The last two to three years have been a major success, they’ve traded hard, drafted well and for the first time in a while Melbourne fans have something to smile about, and they have a chance to beat the second of the expansion sides in GWS this week on Saturday afternoon.
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