Melbourne's five new recruits at Junction Oval

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MELBOURNE welcomed a key part of its future on Thursday with the 2007 draft class introduced to the playing group at Junction Oval.

Dean Bailey was on hand to greet Cale Morton, Jack Grimes, Addam Maric, Kyle Cheney and Tom McNamara on their first day with their new club and was buoyed by the level of enthusiasm and excitement they showed.

"It was a really good day for us, [it’s] really exciting to get the draftees we have," Bailey said.

"They're going to be a very important part of our future, so it was a very good day for the Melbourne footy club on Saturday [NAB AFL Draft day]."

Bailey refused to speculate on how much or how little game time he expected to get from his new recruits next year, but left little doubt that the ball was in their court.

"I'm not going to restrict them,” he said.

“I'm certainly going to say ‘if you train well and do all the right things, you'll give yourself every opportunity to get picked’."

"Form and how they handle the pre-season training will be taken into account, but it would be great for them to play AFL footy and I'm not going to put any limitations on them.

"If they deserve to get picked, if they deserve an opportunity to play for Melbourne, they'll certainly get that."

Melbourne fans will be desperate to see prized No.4 pick Cale Morton in action, and while senior footy is probably on the cards in 2008, he’s taking nothing for granted.

“I know there’s a lot of hard work that has to happen between now and then, but who knows what might happen?” Morton said.

“I’ve heard how tough the AFL is and the pre-season and stuff like that, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and going into it with my eyes open and seeing what could happen.”

No.53 pick Cheney was hopeful of seeing AFL action in his first season, but the Warracknabeal lad knows he has a tough road ahead of him.

“I’m not expecting too much as in games-wise, but I suppose you’d like to play at least one game in your first year,” he said.

“I’ll try and play the majority of games in the VFL [with Sandringham] and take it from there I suppose.”

Grimes, Melbourne’s second pick at No.14, trained with the Demons in January as part of his AIS-AFL Academy and the die-hard Melbourne supporter said it had been a surreal experience.

“It started off a little bit strange because you’re used to watching these guys on television, you’re not used to playing with them, so it was a bit weird,” he said.

“Coming from under-18s where you’re the top age and everyone sort of looks up to you a bit more… then you’re put in this bigger environment and you don’t know what to do.

“It’s a little bit intimidating, but it's good fun, it’s exciting.”

Maric, a small forward rated the most accurate kick going around by Champion Data, was looking forward to working with established goalsneak Aaron Davey.

“I’m hoping he moves up into the midfield and opens it up for me,” he said smiling.

McNamara, who found out he had been picked by the Demons while celebrating the end of year 12 in the South Australian seaside town Victor Harbour, was hopeful of carving a niche for himself in the Melbourne back half.

“I like to run a lot out of the backline,” he said.

“The first thing I’ve got to do is beat my man, but then after that I just like to run and create as much as I can.”

Bailey said the quintet would be started on a modified training program and slowly brought up to speed with the rest of the playing group.