CO-CAPTAIN Jack Trengove says being his harshest critic has had an adverse impact on some of his matches this year.
Trengove, who became the youngest ever VFL/AFL captain this year, said he had since learned perspective when evaluating his game.
“I’ve probably overanalyzed things at times and I’ve gone ahead and put pressure on myself. That’s probably reflected on some of my performances,” he told melbournefc.com.au after Melbourne’s 42-point win over Gold Coast Suns at the MCG on Sunday.
“I’ve had a lot of encouragement from the coaching staff and my teammates. I’m trying to get that free-flowing part of my game back into me.
“At times that’s come out in the past few weeks, but I just have to make it more consistent.”
But coach Mark Neeld couldn’t speak highly enough of Trengove, who it must be remembered is still only in his third AFL season.
“Every now and then we need to take stock and realise that Jack is an under 50-game player,” he said.
“And his output is pretty good.”
Trengove, who was a solid contributor against the Suns with 17 disposals, seven marks and five tackles, was pleased with his efforts in Melbourne’s third win of the season.
“I was a bit better offensively. I’ve still been battling away trying to find that happy medium behind the defensive side of the game,” he said.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things and I don’t take too much out of it - as long as we win I’m happy, and as long as I contributed a bit.
“I feel that I did, so it’s a positive result.”
Overall, Trengove said the win was a relief, given Melbourne’s season has produced just three wins.
“It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve learned a lot and improved a lot as well. But it was just good to get that winning feeling back,” he said.
“It’s more the fact that we can actually do it. We saw in patches of play that we can actually do it and we are more than capable of taking it to teams.
“On paper we were more experienced and have been in the competition longer than Gold Coast, but you’ve still got to go out there and do it. That was the big learning from this game - to have the capabilities of actually doing it.”
Reflecting on Melbourne’s six goal to zip opening quarter, Trengove said his side’s start against the Suns was a “big focus” entering the match.
“In the first quarter, we wanted to play with a sense of urgency and get the jump,” he said.
“Throughout the season, there have been teams that have done that to us. We’re trying to counteract that or at least match them or go above them.
“It doesn’t always show on the scoreboard, but it felt like we did that against the Suns, which was a positive.”
Although Melbourne has just four matches left for the 2012 season, Trengove said his team was desperate to end the year strongly.
“A lot of teams in our position could say ‘there are only four games to go’ and we’ll start again next year, but it’s really important that we try to snap up a few wins,” he said.
“We want to take them into the pre-season and it would be a great confidence booster.
“We want to improve and go into the pre-season raring to go.”
Trengove, who became the youngest ever VFL/AFL captain this year, said he had since learned perspective when evaluating his game.
“I’ve probably overanalyzed things at times and I’ve gone ahead and put pressure on myself. That’s probably reflected on some of my performances,” he told melbournefc.com.au after Melbourne’s 42-point win over Gold Coast Suns at the MCG on Sunday.
“I’ve had a lot of encouragement from the coaching staff and my teammates. I’m trying to get that free-flowing part of my game back into me.
“At times that’s come out in the past few weeks, but I just have to make it more consistent.”
But coach Mark Neeld couldn’t speak highly enough of Trengove, who it must be remembered is still only in his third AFL season.
“Every now and then we need to take stock and realise that Jack is an under 50-game player,” he said.
“And his output is pretty good.”
Trengove, who was a solid contributor against the Suns with 17 disposals, seven marks and five tackles, was pleased with his efforts in Melbourne’s third win of the season.
“I was a bit better offensively. I’ve still been battling away trying to find that happy medium behind the defensive side of the game,” he said.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things and I don’t take too much out of it - as long as we win I’m happy, and as long as I contributed a bit.
“I feel that I did, so it’s a positive result.”
Overall, Trengove said the win was a relief, given Melbourne’s season has produced just three wins.
“It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve learned a lot and improved a lot as well. But it was just good to get that winning feeling back,” he said.
“It’s more the fact that we can actually do it. We saw in patches of play that we can actually do it and we are more than capable of taking it to teams.
“On paper we were more experienced and have been in the competition longer than Gold Coast, but you’ve still got to go out there and do it. That was the big learning from this game - to have the capabilities of actually doing it.”
Reflecting on Melbourne’s six goal to zip opening quarter, Trengove said his side’s start against the Suns was a “big focus” entering the match.
“In the first quarter, we wanted to play with a sense of urgency and get the jump,” he said.
“Throughout the season, there have been teams that have done that to us. We’re trying to counteract that or at least match them or go above them.
“It doesn’t always show on the scoreboard, but it felt like we did that against the Suns, which was a positive.”
Although Melbourne has just four matches left for the 2012 season, Trengove said his team was desperate to end the year strongly.
“A lot of teams in our position could say ‘there are only four games to go’ and we’ll start again next year, but it’s really important that we try to snap up a few wins,” he said.
“We want to take them into the pre-season and it would be a great confidence booster.
“We want to improve and go into the pre-season raring to go.”
