JADE Rawlings says it’s been a great opportunity to coach the club’s ’18-man defence’ – a new and expanded coaching position this season.

The respected, experienced assistant coach said it was a good evolution of his role, which consisted of coaching the Melbourne backline for the previous four seasons.   

“It’s a really good opportunity to deal with all of the players, rather than just a select group in the backline,” he told Melbourne TV.

“There is a weighting towards the backs still, but I really enjoy the opportunity to work with all of the players on the list, in relation to how they defend and how they work in our system.

“So it’s been a really good change up to my role.”

Reflecting on Melbourne’s start to 2016, Rawlings said the coaching group was pleased with how the team was performing early in the season. But he added that there was still plenty to work on. 

“It’s just ongoing education about how we want our players to play consistently, week in, week out,” he said.

“We’ve been able to see really good signs of that over most of the five weeks, with the exception of round two.

“It’s a constant work in progress and we’re never overly satisfied as coaches, but certainly the playing group is trying to put together what we want as often as possible.”

Looking ahead to Melbourne’s clash against the Saints at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, Rawlings said Melbourne had “a lot of respect” for St Kilda and was preparing for a tough contest.

“We had a good hit-out with them in NAB [Challenge] three, but it doesn’t count for anything,” he said.

“They’ve got a really good record against us over a long period of time, so we feel as though they’re on a similar development path to us as a club, and they’ve got a lot of good individual players, and we also admire how they go about their footy.

“We’re very much looking forward to the contest.”