COACH Simon Goodwin says the attitude of the players this pre-season has been “first class”.

Speaking at Melbourne’s annual general meeting on Thursday night, Goodwin said it was clear the players knew exactly what was required to make an impact in 2018.

“They have a great understanding of the game style we are trying to implement. As coaches and as a department, we are focused on our five pillars – culture, game style, development, education and our environment,” he said.

“We’re also really clear on the type of people that we’re trying to develop – hard-working, competitive, resilient and humble. They’re things that we build into our program daily and they’re not done through one camp – it’s a small piece in a much bigger puzzle.

“But we build it through our training, the way we design our drills, the way we do our running, the way we communicate, the way we build our resilience and the way we open up together – in a whole range of different ways.

“The special operations camp was run by senior police officers – it wasn’t a boot camp. It was run by experienced people. Yes, it’s had its challenges, but we listen to our players and we listen to their feedback and we feel that when something’s not right, we don’t go ahead.

“We look for other avenues – we’re adventurous and we will get there and we will work towards building hard-working, competitive, resilient and humble individuals and that’s our mission moving forward.”

Goodwin said his first year of senior coaching was rewarding and challenging and he was excited by what the club could achieve next year.

“There was no doubt, it was a year of significant improvement,” he said.

“We’re building a brand as a team and we’re building the right foundations.

“It’s been built with people of character and competitiveness. It’s also been built with the game style based on the contest. I think our supporters are starting to see that emerge and when I hear the MCC go up, I think they’re starting to like what they see.”