COACH Paul Roos had indicated the club will consider all options in regards to acquiring more talent over the off-season.
Speaking post-match after Melbourne’s 66-point loss to the West Coast Eagles at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night, Roos said the Demons had to try several options in attack, for example, given the retirement of Mitch Clark earlier in the year and the absence of young-gun Jesse Hogan with a back injury this year. He said the club also needed further midfield talent.
“You go into the season with Mitch, Jesse and Dawesy [Chris Dawes], so it’s a completely different look,” Roos said post-match.
“We tried to go with Fitzy (Jack Fitzpatrick) and I thought he did OK. He competed well and kicked a couple of goals. Certainly you’re trying to work out a way to kick a winning score with what looked to be our strength going into the season.
“Unfortunately Mitch had to give it away and chatting to him – he came to a game a couple of weeks ago – he seemed in pretty good spirits, which is terrific, but it leaves a whole in the footy club and then Jesse’s [injury].
“We just need to get more talent – there’s no question. Not just at the front of the ball, but more mid and we just need some real mid class to add to some of our younger mids and some of the older guys we got last year as well.”
Roos said it was unlikely that Hogan would play in the final round against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium next Saturday night, after his long-awaited return to the VFL last weekend.
“No, I wouldn’t have thought so [that he’d play in round 23],” he said.
“We were happy to play him last week, but I don’t think he’s going to play tomorrow (Sunday). He’s just a tiny bit sore and it’s just one those things that we can’t afford to risk him getting injured.
“He’s had such a tough year. He’s back training and he’s pretty healthy again, so I doubt whether he’ll play tomorrow. It’d be pointless playing him next week.
“For us, it’s like having a new recruit, which is fantastic and his body shape has really changed. As frustrating as it’s been to not have Clark and Hogan going into the season – Mitch has been a huge loss as well for us – that’s been really disappointing.
“Jesse will come back as a new recruit.”
Roos added that he hadn’t discussed the possibility of Clark playing again.
“I think the priority was for him to get healthy and I think everyone handled it really professionally. He seems in a much better state, but I really haven’t discussed it – playing footy – with him,” he said.
Honing in on the loss, Roos said he wanted his players to make it a genuine contest on the back of last round’s disappointing effort against the Giants. Although the Demons had two good quarters against the Eagles, they had two blow outs, which proved costly.
“We wanted to make it a contest and we were really disappointed last week with our effort around the football, so we certainly cracked in, but they got us on the outside,” he said.
Roos was particularly pleased with the form of veteran midfielder Daniel Cross on star Eagle ball-winner Matt Priddis.
“Crossy has been terrific for us this year,” he said.
“We really missed him when he was out for five weeks with that experience and that coincided a little bit with some of our worst games for the year.”
“He’s really professional around the club and we’ve got a lot of young midfielders that we’re trying to protect them and educate them.
“Crossy did a really good job tonight.”
Roos said the Demons decided to tag Priddis because of his ability to win huge possession numbers.
“He’s such an engine room player and he distributes to the outside guys and he’s been in terrific form in the last month. He’s been getting a lot of the footy … I think he’s a really good player – a really important player for them,” he said.
Roos said defender Colin Garland was subbed out in the end, after hurting his knee early in the match.
“We put him forward and he didn’t look too bad forward and then we put him down back and he struggled down back,” he said.
“We just made the decision to take him off and sub him out.”
Meanwhile, Roos said from a competition perspective, the race to make the final eight had been enthralling.
“It seems to be … there was a top four during the year with Geelong, Freo, Hawthorn and the Swans and then you had about eight or nine teams fighting for that spot,” he said.
“Gold Coast lost Gazza (Gary Ablett) and it made it a bit tougher for them. Adelaide and West Coast have been through a similar patch of good form and then struggling.
“When you sit back and watch footy, it’s entertaining, but when you get beaten like [we did], it’s not that entertaining.
“I think it’s been a good season from that point of view.”
