COACH Paul Roos has praised defenders turned forwards James Frawley and Lynden Dunn to provide a genuine option in attack, after Melbourne’s initial forward plans were unable to come fruition.
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With Mitch Clark now retired, Jesse Hogan sidelined until at least next month and Chris Dawes back for his first match of the season against Carlton at the MCG on Saturday, Melbourne’s much-hyped forward line won’t come together.
But the shift of All-Australian defender Frawley to attack and Dunn, who was originally drafted as a key forward, back in front of goal, has proved be a genuine positive in the past two matches, including Melbourne’s first win of the season over the Blues by 32 points.
“The move of Dunn and Frawley has been a winner for us,” coach Paul Roos said post-match.
“It didn’t work as much in the wet [last round], but I thought they were competitive.
Roos said Frawley’s game was “outstanding”.
“He worked his way into the game and had 14 marks. His speed as a forward – it was a bit of an advantage,” he said.
“I think he’ll even learn some more contested marks with a couple of one on ones and I think in two or three weeks’ time, he’ll grab them or even next week, because he’s still learning the craft.
“We were tempted to put him back today with Dawesy coming in, but we wanted to hold our nerve and I think we’ll continue to do that, if we can.”
Roos also praised co-captain Jack Grimes and young tall Tom McDonald for their effort down back, and fellow skipper Nathan Jones, who he added was “clearly best on ground for me”.
“It does help when your better players play well and they tend to drag the others along. I thought it was hard to find someone who didn’t give effort today, so that was a positive,” he said.
The return of Dawes, who booted two goals and played a key hand in a Rohan Bail goal, when a deft tap, helped the dashing Demon boot a fine major was also pivotal, according to Roos.
“His (Dawes) ability to kick a couple of goals from outside 50 and a big body competing – we were able to go forward with a bit more certainty with three talls up there, so certainly structurally, it makes it for a big difference and we knew that a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
“It was tough going forward, but still, the midfield was a lot better today than last week, so today we gave our forwards a chance a bit.”
In fact, Roos couldn’t speak highly enough of Dawes, who was “knocking his door down all week, desperate to play”.
“Before training on Thursday, I would’ve said he was playing at Casey,” he said.
“But he rang me up and said ‘I really want to play’. He trained fantastically, so I can’t speak highly enough of him to want to come in and give of himself, when we knew he was underdone.
“We knew he wasn’t going to play super well, but gee, he was important with a couple of goals and some really strong contests. He really did straighten us up – there’s no question about that.”
Roos said Jones’ tagging role on opposite captain, Carlton star Marc Murphy, was also telling in the win. And with the likes of Bernie Vince, Daniel Cross and Dom Tyson now in Melbourne’s midfield, Roos said Jones could have more run-with roles in the future.
“If he keeps doing what he did today, he will,” he said.
“It’s something we’ve been thinking about a little bit, with Nathan’s development and in past years, he hasn’t had much help in the midfield, so he’s had to be there at the stoppage.
“It was a really, really important role. He was on a super player in [Marc] Murphy and I thought Nathan Jones took a huge step forward today. He’s been a terrific player Nathan – I thought he was absolutely outstanding.”
Roos said ruckman Jake Spencer also battled manfully.
“We saw with [Shane] Mumford last week that a dominant ruckman is super important and to get a contest out of Spence the whole game makes it a lot easier to win,” he said.
Overall, Roos said Melbourne’s first win of the season was “super important” for its confidence.
