Inthe second of a four-part series with Dean Bailey, the new Melbourne coach shares his expectations for2008. Bailey also talks about key Melbournemen Craig Cameron (recruiting) and Bohdan Babijczuk (fitness) and the importantroles they will play in the club's fortunes.

Whatwere your impressions of Melbourne's list whenyou were at Port Adelaideand how have those thoughts changed since arriving at the club?
DB: The last three years before this year, Melbourne played finals.For whatever the reasons you want to put forward, the facts are we had anunlucky year with injury, but that also means a lot of young blokes gotopportunities to play.

[Nathan] Jones and [Matthew] Bate finishedsecond and third in our best and fairest – two young kids with a great future.That's a real plus.

For everything Aaron Davey went throughthis year, he still came fifth in the best and fairest, so that's great. Consideringhe really had a restricted year with injury – I'm not sure whether people knew that– but he actually played through with injury in the second half of the year, ashe really wanted to represent this club.

So there are three players in the top fiveof the best and fairest who are young blokes and they'll all continue to makebig steps next year and that's exciting.

If we can control our injuries and bettermanage them – that's going to help and be a plus for us. The facts were therefor everyone to see – they're not excuses – but we need to get that area rightoff the field. We're working hard with our medical team to get that right,along with our fitness people with Bohdan, [rehabilitation and sports sciencemanager] Brentan [Parsons] and [player energy and wellness manager] Adam[Paulo], who are all working really hard to have a better prepared year. We'vegot the right people in place, so I expect that to be better than what it waslast year.

The previous three years, they werebuilding towards an opportunity to be a constant finals contender and I thinkthe greatest thing you can't do is put limitations on top of players or clubs.

I'm going to get asked: 'How many games arewe going to win?' We're going to try and win as many as we can. If you put acertain limit on it, then you will fail by it or as soon as you reach it, thenyou've achieved it, so I don't see that as a great way to coach.

We're looking to win as many games as wecan and play as exciting as we can and we'll be more focused on what we'redoing than the opposition. We also need to know that the opposition has gotsome strengths and we need to try and break them where we can, but otherwisewe'll be trying to play our game as well as we can.

Thedraft. Will you leave that area to recruiting manager Craig Cameron or will youget quite involved?
DB: I'll be involved in the drafting andrecruiting, but Craig Cameron is our recruiting manager and at the end of theday, he knows the players better than I will. There is a lot of pressure on himto perform, but he is respected throughout the industry as one of the reallygood recruiting managers and we're very fortunate to have him.

I've been with him for the last month, withthe draft camp and trade week and he's been very impressive, particularly in Canberra in the interviewprocess. Anthony Klarica, our sports psychologist, was also very helpful in thediscussions up in Canberrawith the players and the interviews.

We exposed [assistant coach] Paul Williamsand [opposition analyst] Barry Prendergast for their first draft camp and Ithink that was important that they got a feel for what happens in the interviewprocess.

As coaches, we will have an involvement inthe draft, but at the end of the day, we've got a very, very good recruitingmanager who has got a history of picking pretty good players. The reason to getthe extra pick in the trade period was to help Craig and our list and I'mbacking my people in.

Melbourne brought in BohdanBabijczuk to head up its physical preparation area last year. Do you think thefact he will have a second season to prepare the list will make a significantdifference in 2008?
DB: It's a great challenge for all of us, withBohdan leading the fitness. He's had great experience and we've had somediscussions and meetings about the pre-season. He's really keen because it's areflection of everyone, where we finished last season. So we're all very keento make sure we get a better result next year.

The end of year reports I've seen from themedical staff and 'Baba' has been very, very detailed and I'm really encouragedby that. They've done the review and I've seen the recommendations. The detailthey've gone to is microscopic – they haven't missed anything. They're preparedto go to that nth degree to make sure that this is what we're doing goingforward.

Youspoke earlier about not setting limitations - do you therefore think in today'sfootball environment, with the draft and salary cap, that anything is possiblein any given season, regardless of the previous year's outcome?
DB: If you have a look at last season's preliminaryfinalists – three of the four teams didn't play finals the previous year. Sothat says that if you can get your act together and if you can get the rightpre-season training in place, you give yourself a chance to win games.

The challenge for us is to make sure wehave the best pre-season we can and we just need to focus on that. We mustensure that everything we do is aiming towards a better season next year. Whenyou do that, anything and everything can happen and that's the exciting thing.

We're going to draft three young kids andour young players have got really good experience this year, so straight awaythere is improvement. By having our best pre-season ever, we're going to be a10 or 20 per cent better team and the rest of it should take care of itself, soit's very exciting.

Doyou subscribe to the theory that injuries to key players can ruin or dictateyour season?
DB: The facts are that injuries will affect yourseason, but how much it affects it is up to you. They're just part and parcelof the game, so if we have injuries, we've just got to get on with it and younever use it as an excuse. I'll never use injuries as an excuse for a poor year- they're just the facts of the game. It's a tough game and you've got to beprepared to put your body on the line and some injuries may or may not comeyour way. If you're well prepared, you'll get through them, uninjured.

Coming up in Part III...
Baileytalks about his philosophies and evolution as a coach.