MELBOURNE has restructured its football department for next season, as the club builds towards Simon Goodwin succeeding Paul Roos as senior coach at the end of the 2016 season.

General manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said the club started to look at a new set-up for football department in the “last six to eight weeks” of the 2015 season.

Mahoney said that “a fair bit” of thought had gone into revamping the football department, as it was “all about improving us as a footy club”. He added that having a combination of coaches come from different clubs had created a “melting pot” of ideas to take Melbourne forward.

“We started to talk about next year and some of the planning that we had. It’s a really interesting year for us, during the transitioning year between Simon Goodwin and Paul Roos,” Mahoney told Dee TV.

“We want to make sure that it ends up being as smooth as possible.”

Mahoney said Melbourne’s game style was now one of its crucial focal areas.  

“We’ve improved in a lot of areas, but we have to continually work on our game styles, so our coaches, with the senior coaching team, are going to be aligned to three phases of the game: ball movement, stoppage and defensive work.”

“We think by having that extra focus, it’s going to really improve that area.

“We’ve also made the appointment of Craig Jennings, who has come from the Western Bulldogs and previous to that Essendon. His experience is in teaching, learning and game style as well.

“We think that being an added resource is certainly going to help us in that area.”

Development is the other key area that Melbourne has addressed, according to Mahoney.

“Brendan McCartney is going to take on some more responsibilities in heading up our development area, working alongside Brett Allison and Daniel McPherson,” he said.

“There is going to be a real individual focus on every player and trying to get the best out of them – not just footy wise, but physically as well.

“That’s the big change that we’re making and we think that’s going to show some improvement.”

Mahoney said the alignment with Casey Scorpions would also go to another level next year.

“It was really pleasing that they made finals this year after a couple of lean years,” he said.

“We did a lot of work with them and on our relationship over last season and we think that can even go further again.”

Mahoney said with Melbourne’s young squad, it was important to instill game style education and behaviours into the group.

He added that the Demons made some changes during 2015 and had some consultants look at the club, which suggested ways of improvement.

On top of that, the club looked at how to best utilise the layout of the football department, how to maximise its weekly schedule, and when and how to hold meetings and coaching techniques.

“We’re working with the coaches on their teaching styles and how they can get a message across. We started to do it in the second half of the year, with some good results and the players really took to them, so we’re further improving that as well,” Mahoney said.

With Daniel Cross accepting a new off-field role and Brad Miller moving to New South Wales for family reasons, the football department has a relatively stable look.

“With Brad Miller leaving – and it’s really pleasing that he got an opportunity with GWS a couple of weeks ago – we’ve brought in Daniel Cross, who’s in a bit of a different role to what Brad Miller was, but it’s more suited to his skill set,” Mahoney said.

“He’ll be working in the development area, but also he’s got a sports science degree and he’ll also work in our rehabilitation area with players as well. That was really exciting to get Daniel to join the club again as a staff member.

“What he was able to do as a player was good for our club over two years and we’re fortunate that he’s staying and we really think it’s a great role for him. We’re committed to developing in that area as well.”

Mahoney said further changes will happen at the end of the 2016 season once Goodwin becomes the senior coach.

“I think there will be changes again. Every year on year, you’re making some changes and you’re looking at areas you haven’t done well and what are the areas you’re really good at,” he said.

“We’ll be looking at it throughout the year and in discussions with Simon and Paul and how the structure’s going and whether there are tweaks we might have to make later in the year.

“We’re certainly looking towards what the next year [in 2017] is looking like as well, so it’s probably going to go in a few different stages.”

Mahoney said there hadn’t been any further discussions on what Roos’ position with the club after he passes the senior coaching baton to Goodwin.

“We haven’t had any formal chats yet on what that role would look like. Roosy sees this as his last year as being a senior coach of an AFL club and he’s putting all of his efforts into getting the best out of that,” he said.

“So his role will slightly change again next year [in 2016], and he’s going to really spend a lot more time with the staff and the players … building our culture. He’s going to make sure that everyone is clear on their roles and he’s already really looking forward to that.

“We see the succession plan being a competitive advantage for us and all of the things that we’ve set up over the time with Paul – and this will be his third year – is going to hopefully flow into Simon’s first few years into the job.”

Meanwhile, Mahoney said the club had been “reasonably fortunate” with only a handful of its players undergoing off-season surgery.

“Heritier Lumumba was the main guy. He’s had both of his ankles operated on – they were both slightly different operations on those ankles, so he’s going to have a fair bit of rehabilitation and won’t do a lot before Christmas,” he said.

“The other operations are relatively minor – they are finger operations to Jesse Hogan and Dean Terlich, who are the main guys in there, so they’ll be limited to ball handling pre-Christmas.

“Apart from that, it’s really Christian Petracca and Jack Trengove, who missed the whole of last year and those guys are both progressing really well. Jack’s slowly, slowly with his running and he’s increasing his running all the time.”

Mahoney praised Trengove and Petracca on their rehab efforts, after missing the 2015 season through injury.

“Jack’s been terrific all year from what he’s been able to get out of his year, with the frustrations of not playing, but he’s been getting involved as much as he can in the club,” he said.

“Christian Petracca is just buzzing around and he wants his teammates to come back and he’s ready to go and ready to train.

“We sent him over to America at the end of the season for a week of intensive rehab. We’re expecting him to do the full training at the start of pre-season – but if not, then he won’t be too far away.”