DEFENSIVE coach Jade Rawlings acknowledges the club’s 18-man defence remains “a work in progress”.

Rawlings said the new-look defensive set-up was vastly removed from what it had been previously, but was taking shape with a younger line-up. 

“We’re defending in a completely different way to what we have in the past and when you do that, it’s going to be clunky,” he told Melbourne TV.

“As much as we don’t want to have moments where it looks shaky and we get burnt out the back, it’s what happens unfortunately when you teach a new system.

“We’ve got some very inexperienced players in there trying to execute it and we’re trying to fast track as much as possible, which is challenging.

“There have been times where we’ve defended really well this year, which has created opportunities for us and last weekend certainly wasn’t one of those.”

Down back, Rawlings said he had been pleased with the development of youngsters Jayden Hunt, Josh Wagner and Oscar McDonald.

“[They’ve developed] really positively. [Hunt, O.McDonald] and Josh Wagner – to be able to play three players that have played under 10 games in your backline is really positive,” he said.

“They’ve earned their positions as well, and with young players you’re going to get some moments in games - and even games - which aren’t to the standard, but we’d like to see what they can do, rather than what they can’t do.

“There are a lot of positives in what they are doing at the moment and I think the future at the footy club, in relation to the three young players, who have integrated into our backline this year has been really positive for the future.”