SENIOR assistant coach Simon Goodwin says having Brendan McCartney in the coaching ranks has been integral this year and his input will again come to the fore this week against his former team, the Western Bulldogs.

McCartney, who coached the Bulldogs from 2012-14, joined Melbourne as development and strategy coach this year. For the record, the Demons have beaten the Bulldogs twice this year – in a NAB Challenge match and in round eight.

Goodwin said McCartney would prove invaluable with his knowledge against his former team on Sunday, when Melbourne plays the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

“He understands the players, as he’s worked with them for a few years. He understands them individually and how they work,” he told Dee TV.

“They’re playing a little bit differently from how they were, but we feel really comfortable with where our game’s at.

“I know the boys are looking forward to this weekend – they want to redeem themselves for the first quarter they put out there last week [against North Melbourne] and they want to get off to a good start.”

Goodwin said the Bulldogs were “playing some great footy” and it would be a tough assignment this time around.

“They’re in terrific form … they’re in the top four. It’s probably a little bit of a different challenge to when we played them previously. We certainly understand how they want to play and their game style, but it’ll come down to the intensity that we bring to the game,” he said.

“There are some certain aspects in our game that we need to do well, if we’re going to stop the Bulldogs in how they move the ball, and how they generate their scores because they’re doing that quite easily at the moment.

“We’ll certainly go through that pretty closely over the next few days and make sure we’ve got a good plan going into the game.”

Goodwin said the Demons were frustrated with their performance last round, which featured the best and worst of their play.

“There were some aspects of our game that were pretty disappointing, especially the first quarter,” he said.

“We thought our contest and our desire to impact the game with our intensity around the ball was really poor. We addressed that, but there were some other aspects of our game that are really improving.

“Some of the resilience that we showed to fight our way back into the game was something that we haven’t seen from this group too often, so it was a step forward as a footy club.”

But Goodwin said the players were determined to turn their fortunes for the rest of the season.  

“They feel like they can win games of footy, which is a big step forward. They’re out there to win games – it’s not just about being competitive,” he said.

“They were really disappointed with the North Melbourne game because we didn’t win. It was a bit more competitive and we scored a bit better, but ultimately, we didn’t win.

“They want to win and they want to be competitive, and they want to do that right until the end of the year.”