MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says his side won't be able to draw much from a late season win over West Coast last year, as it prepares to take on the Eagles at Subiaco Oval this Sunday.
Although the round 20 win over West Coast in 2008 is just one of four wins under Bailey, he was adamant too much had changed since that match to make it relevant.
"The game changes, the personnel changes and all sorts of things change from last year and the year before," Bailey said at the Junction Oval on Tuesday.
"We're playing a different team and they're a different team, so it's going to be a great challenge for us to go over to Perth."
"It's always nice when you travel interstate and win. It's a long trip over and it's a long trip back if you lose, but it's a great trip back if you win."
Melbourne has won just once this year but Bailey said internal measurements suggested the team was making progress.
Although the round 20 win over West Coast in 2008 is just one of four wins under Bailey, he was adamant too much had changed since that match to make it relevant.
"The game changes, the personnel changes and all sorts of things change from last year and the year before," Bailey said at the Junction Oval on Tuesday.
"We're playing a different team and they're a different team, so it's going to be a great challenge for us to go over to Perth."
"It's always nice when you travel interstate and win. It's a long trip over and it's a long trip back if you lose, but it's a great trip back if you win."
Melbourne has won just once this year but Bailey said internal measurements suggested the team was making progress.
"At the moment, we keep it very, very simple. We just look at contested possession and our efficiency with our tackling and our efficiency with our disposal," he said.
"We really hone in on those things and we don't make it any more complicated than that.
"They (the players) understand it and they're working really hard to improve it and they're commitment to improvement has been fantastic. As a coach, you can't ask for more than that."
One player taking strides is big man Stef Martin, who spent time up forward against Geelong last round, despite showing strong signs he could develop into a long-term defender.
"We'll just take it week by week with Stef. We just thought on the weekend, we could get another marking player up there, as we weren't quite marking the footy as often," Bailey said.
"He's quick and he's 198cm, Stef, so we might look at it (playing him up forward) again, but we're trying to groom him as a backman … he showed a little bit Stef and he had a goal assist to 'Robbo', which was great.
"He can ruck as well; he did some ruck work when he was down at 'Sandy' (Sandringham), so he's got some elements that we'd like to expand on for him."
In terms of changes for the trip west, Bailey said forward Austin Wonaeamirri would not return this week, after an injury-interrupted start to the season.
He sustained a hamstring injury in Melbourne's NAB Cup clash against Hawthorn, but has only just returned for Casey Scorpions in the past two matches. However, Casey has the bye this weekend.
Bailey hinted at changes, but did not flag any names, with decisions to be made at Thursday's match committee meeting.
Western Australian Neville Jetta, forward Michael Newton (who booted five goals last weekend in the VFL), defender Kyle Cheney and uncapped Tom McNamara may come into contention.
"We'll probably need to look at match committee on Thursday who we think might need a rest or someone who is not quite fulfilling their roles," Bailey said.
"We're now at round six … [so we need to make sure] the guys on the ground are performing at a level that they can maintain their spot.
"We'll still look at giving as many of our players, who are in good form, a chance to play, regardless of their age. We'll continue to look at that."
