FORWARD line coach Dan McPherson says Melbourne’s forward line has greater flexibility and options this year and has benefitted from the influx of several new players.

Speaking to Dee TV in the lead-up to round two, McPherson said the new-look and rejuvenated forward line, highlighted by debutant Jesse Hogan and Jack Watts’ three goals in round one, was most encouraging.

“[Aaron] vandenBerg was really good too. He came in and is a good size and has good speed. He’s just adds a different mix. Sam Frost did a good job too and provided a bit of back-up for ‘Russian’ (Mark Jamar) in the ruck and he also put a lot of pressure on up forward,” he said.

“Jeffy Garlett puts a lot of pressure up forward and we had Jay [Kennedy-Harris] and Kenty (Dean Kent) slipping through there as well, doing a really good job also.

“Overall, I reckon we’re a bit more mobile than last year and it makes it a lot harder for the opposition defence to get the ball out, which is good.

“We’re getting the ball in [the forward line] a little bit more as well, so we’re getting more scoring opportunities than we were last year, which has been good so far.”

McPherson said the attitude of the players had been level-headed after relishing the first-up win.

“It’s only the first round, so we can’t get too carried away, but we showed a lot of good signs, so we’ll take a lot of confidence into this week and hopefully we can perform similarly,” he said.

“The players came in on Monday and reviewed the game very thoroughly and they were still looking for things they could improve on.

“We’re coming from a long way back from last year and it was a really good start, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

McPherson said this Saturday’s clash against Greater Western Sydney at StarTrack Oval was a great opportunity for Melbourne to back up its first round win.  

“It’s a big ground and the Giants have played there a little bit, so they’ll know the ground pretty well,” he said.

“It comes back to doing the simple things really well, which we did last week, so if we can carry that into this week, it’ll hold us in good stead.”