COACH Mark Neeld says the football fraternity needs to be patient with co-captain Jack Trengove, given he has come back from a serious stress fracture and is being played in a different position.
Speaking on the Coach’s Office on DeeTV, Neeld said Trengove, who had six disposals against Carlton at the MCG lastSunday, wasn’t on his own in terms of a quiet performance.
“Trenners didn’t have a massive day in terms of getting the football in his hands, nor did the rest of the forward line, so he wasn’t the Lone Ranger,” he said.
“He has come back from quite a significant injury, where he missed the vast majority of pre-season.
“What we’ve done with Jack is to get him back into the rigors of playing AFL footy week in, week out.”
Neeld said Trengove was being used in some different positions, and that needed to be accounted for.
“He’s playing a couple of different roles and on the weekend, we trialled, for the most part, a bit of a defensive forward. We certainly view that as part of Jack’s development. He’s still a young player and he’s learning the ropes of that,” he said.
“Along with Grimesy (Jack Grimes), he’s still [part of] the best leaders that we have. We know that there are some other boys showing significant development there – Nathan Jones, for example, as vice-captain.
“So we’re expecting Trenners to play in a number of different roles, as he regains his fitness and his touch.”
Neeld spoke about the performance of Chris Dawes, Aaron Davey and David Rodan in the VFL last week, praising the trio’s efforts.
“Chris Dawes, we know he’s had two strains of a hamstring, which is not ideal and we would’ve hoped to have him in the side prior to round six. We haven’t, so that’s the way it goes. Dawesy has completed all of his rehab and he’s played the last two weeks in the VFL - clearly he’s going to come in calculations to play in the AFL team this week,” he said.
“With Aaron, he was sub a couple of times and we felt that there was certainly a short life span of how many times you can be subbed. He went back to the VFL and acquitted himself particularly well across the whole game.
“We realise why David’s at the football club. He’s experienced and has a bigger body - David has played half of the games this year and he’s played in Jack Viney’s absence and he’s doing a lot of work with Jack and he played well [in the VFL]. That’s exactly what we need the boys to be doing – putting pressure underneath.
"They’ve got different roles at our football club, and the world knows that … it’s worthy to point out that David was acquired with pick 88, which we weren’t going to use. He has delivered in more ways than just on the football field.”
Neeld said there was a glimpse of Melbourne’s future displayed against Carlton last round.
“Certainly, at times, there were snapshots of the way that we’re moving our football club forward – absolutely no question,” he said.
“There was a snapshot there – let’s enjoy the journey and get on board with these young boys.
“The boys who took the field on the weekend, I’ve got a feeling that they’re going to be around for quite a while.”
