FORWARD Jesse Hogan says the competitiveness and work ethic of Melbourne’s recruits in recent years has been “second-to-none”.
Melbourne had 12 players debut for the club in 2015 and the trend looks set to continue, with recruits Clayton Oliver, Josh Wagner, Ben Kennedy and Tom Bugg all playing significant minutes in this year’s NAB Challenge.
Heading into his second full season of AFL football, Hogan said the collective mindset and ambition of the playing group was exciting.
“The players we’ve brought in, the mindset they’ve had has been second-to-none, they’ve wanted to learn,” he said on Wednesday.
“There’s been no ‘I’m a high draft pick, I’m better than you’, everyone’s on the same level, whether you’re a rookie or you’re pick 2 [like] Christian Petracca.
“Everyone’s got that same hard-working mentality and that want to get better and be a part of a good finals side.”
Melbourne won all three of its NAB Challenge games, in an ideal preparation for next week’s round one clash against GWS Giants.
Hogan said while there was still plenty of improvement to come, racking up consistent wins was important for the young group.
“Having three wins is good for a young team like us that needs a bit of confidence and hopefully we can take some of that momentum into round one and continue our good form,” he said.
“You don’t want to read into it too much… but I think we’ve shown enough that we’re starting to develop and we can compete against good sides.
“We played three pretty good sides and they played three pretty strong teams… so, we’re not extremely happy with where we are but we’ve made steps.”
Hogan played two games of the NAB Challenge – he was rested for the second game against the Western Bulldogs – kicking one goal against Port Adelaide and two against St Kilda.
“[My own form was] not exactly where I wanted it to be,” he said.
“I struggled to find the ball a bit but it wasn’t so much about me – as a team we implemented the structure and the gameplan we wanted to and got the win.
“Obviously I would have liked to have played a bit better but my [NAB Challenge] last year was pretty poor as well – I’ll just try not to dwell on it too much and just move on.”
Melbourne will look to start its season on a high note next Saturday when it faces GWS Giants at the MCG.
While the Giants will be missing spearhead Jeremy Cameron, Hogan said he expected the fast-paced Sydneysiders to be a tough challenge first-up.
“They play a really fast brand of footy… we know we’re coming up against a team that can score five quick goals and we haven’t faced that yet,” he said.
“We’re just going to do what we’ve done every other week and look at what the team does and look at certain players and the way they play.
“We’ll just do what we normally do – don’t overthink it and don’t overplay – we just need to do what we’ve been doing [so far].”
The season opener holds fond memories for Hogan, who kicked two goals on debut in Melbourne’s round one win against the Gold Coast Suns last year.
The forward said he hoped next Saturday’s match would prove a similar experience for another young player.
“Hopefully someone like a Clayton Oliver can have a similar sort of day,” Hogan said.
“Playing your first game at the ’G is obviously a childhood dream and getting a win is a bonus.
“So hopefully we can do what we did last year and have a good start.”