COACH Dean Bailey says the red and blue faithful must hold its nerve as the club continues to rebuild.
Melbourne has the second youngest list in the competition and Bailey pointed to the recent success of Collingwood, Geelong and St Kilda as teams that went through tough periods before playing in recent grand finals.
“When you look at the successful clubs and where they started - even with Collingwood from ‘02 and ‘03, and then how long it’s taken for them and the Geelong scenario and St Kilda situation - it does take a bit of time, when you’re rebuilding a club and rebuilding a list,” he said.
“Every game we’re getting experience and every game our guys are getting challenged.
“We’ve drafted a lot of players and we’ve got to start playing them to get the continuity in the games. That doesn’t guarantee them a game, because they’ve got to earn the right to play the game.”
Despite this, Bailey remains eager to develop his squad as quickly as possible to achieve success sooner rather than later.
“Teams look at 60 to 80 games of being a real benchmark for consistency and performance. We don’t want to wait for that. We want to instill that right from the start in their first 25 to 30 games … but certain standards need to be met. And at the moment, we’re not meeting them.”
But Bailey said his team can’t rely on a poor performance for motivation the following round.
“That’s where we’re at and that’s the reality. I could put a different spin on it if you like, but next week we have to perform, because we were really poor yesterday,” he said.
“That’s the situation we find ourselves in.
“Our players need to make a really big statement next week and it has to be a consistent thing.”
Melbourne has the second youngest list in the competition and Bailey pointed to the recent success of Collingwood, Geelong and St Kilda as teams that went through tough periods before playing in recent grand finals.
“When you look at the successful clubs and where they started - even with Collingwood from ‘02 and ‘03, and then how long it’s taken for them and the Geelong scenario and St Kilda situation - it does take a bit of time, when you’re rebuilding a club and rebuilding a list,” he said.
“Every game we’re getting experience and every game our guys are getting challenged.
“We’ve drafted a lot of players and we’ve got to start playing them to get the continuity in the games. That doesn’t guarantee them a game, because they’ve got to earn the right to play the game.”
Despite this, Bailey remains eager to develop his squad as quickly as possible to achieve success sooner rather than later.
“Teams look at 60 to 80 games of being a real benchmark for consistency and performance. We don’t want to wait for that. We want to instill that right from the start in their first 25 to 30 games … but certain standards need to be met. And at the moment, we’re not meeting them.”
But Bailey said his team can’t rely on a poor performance for motivation the following round.
“That’s where we’re at and that’s the reality. I could put a different spin on it if you like, but next week we have to perform, because we were really poor yesterday,” he said.
“That’s the situation we find ourselves in.
“Our players need to make a really big statement next week and it has to be a consistent thing.”
