THE DEES clutched on to a thrilling win on Saturday night against the Bombers, even despite Essendon’s quick four goals in the final ten minutes of the match.

Simon Goodwin spoke with the media following the win to commend his team’s efforts and the successful combination of youth and experience.

05:12

RD 18 | Post-match Media Conference | Simon Goodwin

The media spoke with Simon Goodwin after Melbourne's 17 point win over Essendon.

“I loved how we defended for obviously a large part of the game, and our contest game was strong all the way up until the last ten minutes,” Goodwin said.

“You combine that with the younger players continuing to evolve in our footy club, and some of the leaders really stepping up as well.”

Saturday night at the G’ saw a massive downpour throughout the match, creating a potential condition concern for the Dees who have struggled in the wet in recent times.

Acknowledging it as an area of improvement, Goodwin was impressed by Melbourne’s execution.

“We’ve spent a bit of time on wet weather footy, it hadn’t been a forte for us last year, so we spent some time working on that, and I thought that we adapted to the conditions really well,” Goodwin said.

I thought our contest and clearance work was strong. Obviously not winning a lot of hitouts was challenging, but I thought the midfield group did a great job enabling us to get some territory from that part of the game.”

Goodwin praised youngster Jacob van Rooyen and veteran Jake Melksham on their roles during the game, and at the club.

“Jacob’s done a fair bit of ruck work before, so obviously we wanted to get him in the forward line as much as we could, but the night demanded that we needed him up and around the ball a little bit more than what we had planned,” Goodwin said.

“He did a fantastic job in that second quarter to help us get the game on an even keel for us and let our mids get to work."

“[Melksham is] a leader of our footy club and he just hasn’t missed a beat since he’s come back."

“He’s good in the air, he’s good on the ground, and he just provides a stability for us with a lot of younger players in our front half of the ground to just lead them and give them an opportunity, and he’s doing a fantastic job for us.”

Despite being down 16 in hitouts, the Dees were dominant in the midfield game, leading the clearances by 12.

On the midfield, Goodwin spoke on being dynamic with the absence of Max Gawn.

“It’s unpredictable for us, but it’s also unpredictable for the opposition when you don’t have a dominant ruckman like Max. You sort of plan a little bit differently for the opposition, so that gave us an opportunity to do that,” Goodwin said.

“As long as Max is out of the team, we’ll continue to keep every option available to us every week. Obviously, Tom Fullarton is there, Will Verrall is there, and obviously we’ve got the boys tonight, so we’ll look at all those guys again this week.”

01:55

RD 18 | Post-match Interview | Ed Langdon

We spoke to Ed Langdon after Melbourne's 17 point win over Essendon.

Melbourne wingman Ed Langdon was among the best from the Saturday night game, registering 31 disposals, eight marks and four clearances.

Following the match, Langdon said he was pleased to see the team adapt to the conditions, highlighting the work of Melbourne’s youth.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, conditions obviously weren’t ideal, but we made it a really hard contest game, and they’re the sort of games we love, and it really looked like a Melbourne game tonight,” Langdon said.

“The young players at the moment, they’re the ones leading the club and really driving our performance each week. It’s amazing to see, and as long as they can keep doing it, I think we’ll be going pretty well.”