Robbo: Demons must play ‘we’ football to thrive in 2021

Success has eluded Melbourne for too long, but it hopes a new mantra will help it turn things around. The proof will be in the pudding, Mark Robinson writes.

With any team, change must come within before it is produced on the ground.

At Melbourne, it has been the summer of changing attitude.

There will be positional and personnel change in 2021, but what’s driven this notoriously underperforming and over individualistic group of players is the buy-in on selfless footy.

The mantra has to be: Park the ego.

Skipper Max Gawn has said as much.

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Neville Jetta and Steven May are all smiles at Melbourne training. Picture: David Crosling

At Geelong’s first pre-season training session in 2008, after demolishing Port Adelaide in the 2007 Grand Final, coach Mark Thompson was asked how his team could improve,

We need to be less selfish, he answered.

That was from a premiership coach under no pressure.

Demons coach Simon Goodwin, however, is a coach under pressure.

To Bomber’s point, it was about every player playing their role for the team and not playing the role for themselves.

The Demons aim to be less selfish, but it’s easier to preach than it is to do.

They also aim to correct a forward area which failed horribly last year and which, with injuries to key big men Ben Brown and boom youngster Sam Weideman, already has its challenges.

The selflessness starts in the middle.

Ben Brown suffered an early-season injury. Picture: Getty Images

For so long its been too predictable with Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney, Christian Petracca and Angus Brashaw the main midfield group, the Demons will rotate up to 10 player through that area of the ground.

James Harmes, the stopper of late 2018, will return to the midfield in his customary run-with role, a role which will be shared with Jack Viney.

Viney — who was employed to do that role occasionally in 2020 — has accepted he can no longer just hunt the ball. Maybe a Trent Cotchin-type defence role is on the cards.

Oliver has accepted his role is not about winning 35 disposals. Give us 25 and better defence.

Brayshaw has accepted he will play wing, in the middle and back pocket if it’s best for the team.

Petracca, well, he will play centre-forward. The Demons will use him like Richmond uses Dustin Martin. His possessions will be 95 per cent attacking. With a weapon such as Petracca, it’s geared that the team works around him rather than him around the team.

Yes, he is that destructive.

The midfield has a new coach, Adem Yze, and a new midfield assistant coach (three days), Jordan Lewis.

Rotation is the new norm.

There are big raps on Demon James Jordon. Picture: AAP

James Jordon, an inside midfielder, is in the midfield mix, and so is Nathan Jones, Tom Sparrow, Kosi Pickett and Charlie Spargo, the latter two having seen minutes in the practice matches.

It’s anticipated Pickett, who has been away for three weeks for his mum’s funeral, will play Round 1. It speaks volumes of the regard he is held in. He will play Monday in the VFL.

It’s a seismic change at the Demons. No matter how wonderfully brave, aggressive and ball-winning the midfield has been, it hasn’t been reflected on the scoreboard.

Change had to be made and accepted. The Demons say it has.

“I think we have four of the best midfielders in the top-20 of the competition potentially involved in our club in (Christian) Petracca, (Clayton) Oliver, (Angus) Brayshaw and (Jack) Viney,” Gawn told the Herald Sun on Thursday.

“But definitely last year we weren’t in the top-eight midfields, so it shows it takes a lot more than talent in the centre bounce.

“You’ve got to actually galvanise as a group and play selfless footy and that takes time to develop as much as your body does and as much as your skills do.’’

Superstar Max Gawn is excited by his side’s 2021 prospects. Picture: Michael Klein

The Demons also prioritised an overhaul of their forward 50.

They recruited Brown when others didn’t want him and, it must be said, they recruited development coach Mark Williams when no other club wanted him.

Noticeable, club insiders say, is the overall improvement in kicking which, of course, is Williams’ one-wood in his teachings.

The Demons want to be known as a forward-half team in 2021.

They will rotate their gun mids through the forward line and have worked on midfield connection, ground balls, pressure, tackling and positional strategy to lock the ball in their forward half.

Like, don’t run to the ball, run to stop the exit.

Maybe it’s a bit Richmondy, but the Demons don’t care if observers say it’s copycatting.

To them, it’s more Any Given Sunday. “Either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.’’

Similar to the majority of teams, they will be aggressive with ball movement. Aggressive but with calmer heads. Think before you deliver.

Monday night they play the Western Bulldogs in the final match of the pre-season.

In their previous practice match, they beat the Tigers and, noted, won the time in forward half stat.

Maximising that advantage when it comes is the key to Melbourne’s success in 2021.

The key talls are already an issue with Brown and Weideman injured they will likely start with a streamlined Tom McDonald and Luke Jackson and February recruit Majak Daw is some way off because he lacks the necessary conditioning.

The team is already strong in the contest and are confident their back six has strength and run (Jayden Hunt, Christian Salem, Trent Rivers and maybe first-round pick Jake Bowey).

That leaves the midfield and forward group.

If they park their egos, then anything is possible in 2021