NEW DEMON Shannon Byrnes says he has seen genuine progress in the squad since his arrival at the club last October.

The dual Geelong premiership player was upbeat about the development shown by Melbourne this pre-season, but he said it was difficult to predict how the team would fare in 2013.

“I’ve seen the improvement in three months and, speaking to the coaches, from where we’re at now as opposed to 12 months ago, they think it’s unrecognisable,” he said.

“That can only be a positive sign, but how many wins and losses that translates to remains to be seen.

All you can do is prepare yourself as best as you can, and I think the group has made a strong effort to do that. We’ve got ourselves in a reasonable position to play some good footy early, and hopefully we’ll get some wins early in the season.”

Despite a rigorous pre-season, Byrnes said the influx of new players in the latter part of last year had created an upbeat environment.

“Personally, it’s been great to be able to do a full pre-season. I haven’t had any injury concerns at all, so I’ve felt like I’ve been part of the group, the whole time, which is important for me coming into a new environment,” he said.

“At this stage, I definitely feel part of the group and I feel like a Melbourne player and that’s a credit to the boys who were already here – to make me feel welcome.

“The new boys who have come in and have also contributed to that as well.”

Byrnes, who was elected to Melbourne’s nine man leadership group this year, said it had been a “big change” to be part of the player hierarchy, but one which had “opened my eyes”. 

“Coming from Geelong, I was a bit of a role player and I had my input every now and then, but I was never dependant to give it, so I could sit back if I wanted to and just play my role,” he said.

“Now that I’m in the leadership group, I’m in a lot more meetings for one. But you’re constantly looked to for answers and for guidance, so that’s something you have to train yourself to get used to.

“But it’s something I’m really enjoying at this stage and you start to realise that you know a lot more than you think, when you’re just going along and not having to put your input in all of the time.”

Having played 108 matches with Geelong from 2004-12, Byrnes said he naturally took an interest in his former teammates still, but added that they too were keen to see how he was travelling with his new team.

“I still watch them. I was there for 10 years, so you’re not going to cut ties with guys who you’ve hung around with for that long,” he said.

“They come to Melbourne once a week, so I get chances to visit, and I go down to Geelong every so often.

“You still keep in contact and have interest in the club, but at the same time, they’ve got interest in how I’m going as well. A lot of them will now watch Melbourne games, when they weren’t last year, so it works both ways.”

Byrnes said some of his closest mates at Geelong included “mainly players around my age” like Steve Johnson, James Kelly, Andrew Mackie, Tom Hawkins, Joel Selwood, Mathew Stokes and Jimmy Bartel.

Although Byrnes said there were several similarities in practices between Melbourne and Geelong, he added that one of the biggest differences between the two clubs were the training arrangements.

“It’s been great training with the Storm and Victory and watching how they go about it. When we were in Geelong, we had the training facilities by ourselves and you’d get caught up in what you’re doing, but it’s nice to see how other sports go about it. It’s great to watch the Storm boys smash the weights,” he said.

“It’s different training outside in the public [at Gosch’s Paddock] when you’ve got people running around, whereas you were just celebrating to empty stands at Skilled Stadium.

“I’ve actually enjoyed having people around. Having a change of environment and Melbourne as a city has been awesome – it’s been a great change. I love Geelong, but it’s just been refreshing to come to Melbourne – there is always something to do. I’m just really enjoying the change up until this point.”