PLAYER/coach performance manager Brendan McCartney says former coach Paul Roos’ game plan lives on in the way Melbourne plays today.

Although McCartney acknowledged there had been some tinkering to the way Melbourne plays this year, he said coach Simon Goodwin had carried on with what Roos had started in 2014.  

“The essence to Paul’s game plan was similar to Goody and ours,” he told Melbourne TV.

“What may have been fine-tuned is how we’re able to use the ball once we’ve won it in a really difficult situation.”

McCartney said one of the early trends from 2017 was that the game was continuing to get quicker and open up.  

“The physical ferocity of the game hasn’t changed. If anything, there is more people trying to win the same ball now in any one area, which means that there are more bodies crashing in, in different angles,” he said.

“The decisions that players have to make … you don’t get a week to think about those decisions. It’s ok even for the coaching group to take the game home and look at a situation and go ‘we’ve got too many people in there or not enough people there’.

“These boys are having to make [a decision] in half a second under high levels of fatigue, but that’s what makes the game so great to be a part of – and that’s what makes it so enjoyable to play and to coach.”

McCartney said the club was working hard to provide the best possible place to learn and evolve as a team.

“The football department works together to provide the best environment for our players and the best environment for them to feel valued and the best environment to learn and maximise their own talent and strengths,” he said.

“Hopefully, and we’re confident we can do this, is that we can provide them a platform to achieve success together and play in a wonderful footy team and wins games for our club.”