THE REVAMPED coaching staff played a big factor in Mitch Clark’s decision to join Melbourne, according to general manager of list management Tim Harrington.

After the former Brisbane Lion looked headed for Fremantle by the end of last Friday, the key forward/ruckman chose Melbourne late on Saturday night. Harrington said the 200cm tall was strongly swayed by the new-look Melbourne football set-up.  

“We’ve shown that we’ve been able to attract [senior coach] Mark Neeld, [director of sports performance] Neil Craig and [elite performance manager] Dave Misson,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“You look at our assistant coaches and we’ve got Brian Royal, who is one of the most experienced, highly credentialed and respected assistant coaches going around. We’ve got Jade Rawlings and we’ve brought in Leigh Brown, who is just out of AFL footy himself and we’ve got development coaches underneath them.

“When you consider the amount of personnel we’ve been able to attract in a short period of time … attracting the right staff to the club is a vital step, because that gives players confidence.

“That gives our own playing list confidence and obviously shows someone like Mitch Clark that we have an attractive club to join.”

Harrington said Melbourne was delighted to secure Clark after the Demons “stuck to their plan and persevered” with him.  

“We had targeted specific objectives and we had a course of action where we thought ‘this is how we’ll play it’,” he said.

“It’s no secret that we have a real need for a big-bodied presence in our forward line to compliment a range of players we have in our forward line.

“Mitch Clark is a type of player who’s a great fit. He satisfies a particular need on our playing list, but he also allows for other players to be flexible in what they can offer the team as well. Those examples include Jack Watts and Liam Jurrah.

“He (Clark) can also play multiple positions himself and that gives us the ability to have someone like Stef Martin playing a versatile role. Stef has proven he can play forward, back and in the ruck. It means that we can spread the load in our forward line.”

Harrington said it was exciting for the club to snap up Clark, while still having some recruiting cards up its sleeves.  

“In the future years, we’ve also got some compensatory picks we can use at the Draft and we can continue to get talent through the drafting process. Or we can still look at a trade by having those two compensatory picks,” he said.

“To have those two compensatory picks is a strong position - the way that I see it.

“We know that we’ve got Jack Viney coming in next year, so that’s a consideration in this year’s trading period as well. When you know you’re going to have a tough, hard-working midfielder coming through that informs what we’re going to do now.

“That’s rare that you’ll know who you’ve got coming through in the next 12 months, so that’s a real bonus for us as well.”