HEAD of development Brett Allison says it’s “a step by step process” to help the first year players adjust to life as an AFL player.

Speaking at Melbourne’s pre-season camp at Maroochydore, Allison said it was a big change for the players, given most of them came from junior programs.

“Most of them come out of their teams and they’ve been the best players in their teams for most of their lives. All of a sudden, they arrive at an AFL club and there are 44 players with just as much ability and just as much talent, so they’ve got to start listening and learning to see how things are done and to see how you go about being a professional footballer,” he told Dee TV.

“[They’ve] got to understand that it’s not just about them anymore – it’s an 18-man team defence and an 18-man team offence. Whatever they do, there is a ramification or there is a consequence for whatever action they do out on the field. They start to get their head around that and they start to learn about game plans and they start to learn about roles in teams and positioning in every scenario, so there is a lot for them to learn.

“That’s why we say there is no expectation on them, but there is no limitation either, so [the pre-season camp] has been a really good 10 days in that respect for these blokes to start learning about where they’re trying to get to.”

Allison said it was a genuine learning process for the first-year players when they arrived at an AFL club.

“They come straight out of the TAC Cup and for them – they have a really hard couple of weeks before Christmas, because they arrive late in the pre-Christmas training and then they get a break over Christmas,” he said.

“For this camp to happen straight after Christmas and to get them to come away and spend 10 days with professional footballers who have been in the system for a number of years – [they] live the life and see how it’s done by the pros.

“They all share houses with players that have been here for a number of years, so they get a birds’ eye view of how an AFL professional footballer lives. For them to be able to see that from really early on has been a major bonus for them.”

Allison said player programs were “far more individualised” and a lot more time was spent with the players.

“Even going into this season, we’ve put on two more extra resources to assist myself and Brad Miller from last year. This year, we’ve added Justin Plapp and Shannon Byrnes into the development team as well,” he said.

“They (the first-year players) will have constant attention every step they take and just trying to help them through and fast-track them as quickly as we can.”

But Allison said the best thing the first-year players got out of the camp was getting to know their teammates, coaches and staff.

“No doubt, the main thing [you get out of camps] are relationships and bonding,” he said.

“Really getting to know your teammates as well as you can [is important].

“If you can build those relationships to the point where you’re thinking about your ramifications and the consequences of every action on the footy field – that’s when you start to get results on the ground.”