A RELIEVED Simon Goodwin has heralded the performance of Melbourne's senior players, after the Demons started the second half of their season with a victory over Fremantle.
The result follows the club's round 13 bye and a disappointing 3-9 start to the year that all but buried its finals chances.
After a review of "everything" during the mid-season break that demanded the club "make some change", Goodwin restructured his coaching team in an unusual move in response to the problems that have plagued Melbourne this season.
"We've had a pretty torrid first half of the season and the bye came at a good time and enabled us to reset a few things internally at the footy club but also the players," Goodwin said.
"(We were able to) look at the opportunities that we can create and how we can get back to playing our best footy.
"To the players' credit, it wasn't perfect today, but they hung in there and in the end I thought we just wore them down, especially around the footy, and we had a lot of supply but it was just a good team effort."
The Demons fell 17 points behind the Dockers midway through the second quarter at the MCG on Saturday, but rallied from there before some of their biggest names stepped up in crunch time.
Tom McDonald was back to his 2018 self with 28 disposals and three goals, Clayton Oliver won 11 of his 28 possessions in the last term and finished with 11 clearances, and ruckman Max Gawn was dominant again.
Co-captain Jack Viney also earned Goodwin's praise for a rousing display, complete with 28 disposals (15 contested) and eight clearances.
Another key contributor was maligned defender Sam Frost, who recovered from some early errors to amass 18 disposals, 12 intercept possessions, five intercept marks and four spoils.
"His form's been pretty solid and today I thought his game was exceptional. That was a new level for Sam Frost, there's no question about that," Goodwin said.
"(Frost) certainly held our back half together, and I thought Steven May was strong as well.
"We call it (that) he turns our ball movement into 'Frost-ball' and no one knows what's happening – but neither does the opposition.
"I think he's getting a good balance to the way he plays and he's doing some incredible things for us in the back half."
There was a costly moment on the tick of three-quarter time, when co-captain Nathan Jones caused a free kick to be reversed after remonstrating with Michael Walters for his headbutt on Jay Lockhart.
Walters was reported for his action.
Fremantle quickly sent the ball downfield and Brandon Matera kicked a goal instead of Melbourne having a shot at goal from close range.
Goodwin spoke to Jones at the last break and said "about 20 of his teammates" did as well, which he said was "a really healthy sign for our footy club".
"He knows that's not how we play and the importance of those things in a game," the coach said.
"He made a mistake but what I did love about Nathan was his ability to respond in the last quarter…
"It doesn't matter who you are in your team. You need guys who keep each other accountable – and whether you're the skipper or you're a younger player of the footy club, the expectations are the same."
