CRAIG Jennings says Melbourne’s game plan has come on in leaps and bounds this year.  

The game analyst and education coordinator said the team’s ability to increase scoring and remain equal in defence to last year, given it is a vastly new-look backline, was a strong result for the club.

“We’re four goals up on scoring from last year, so that’s really positive, but we’ve lost nothing defensively,” he told Melbourne TV.

“We’re a point or two out from defence last year and the reality is that the competition is scoring a little bit more powerfully and they’re harder to defend.

“We’ve got a really young defence as well – we’ve got a young team [overall] – and I think we’ve sent out the youngest team 10 times this year and the last two months, the youngest team in the competition.”

Jennings said to keep Fremantle to 55 points last week – Melbourne’s best defensive effort in 2016 – was an encouraging sign.

“To hold Fremantle to under 10 goals [last round] was a really good effort,” he said.

“Adelaide [in round 15] got away from us a little bit and they’re the highest scoring team in the competition.  

“We’re still valuing the contest and still valuing defence, but we’re setting up a structure that will allow us to score a little bit more powerfully – close to 100 points a week, which is a good thing.”