MIDFIELDER Jordie McKenzie concedes the Demons have left themselves wide open for criticism, but he insists the players are doing their utmost to turn their fortunes around.
McKenzie, who was one of Melbourne’s better performers in its poor loss to Fremantle at Patersons Stadium last Sunday, said he understood there was strong pressure placed on the club externally, but he was adamant not to let it get to him.
“Personally, I used to watch all the footy shows and read all the papers, but now I don’t go near them – that’s the opinion [of the media] of where we’re at,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“But as a playing group, we’ve been pretty good not to get too sucked in or too frustrated with where everything is at.
“Of course, there is pressure, when you’re one [win] and eight [losses], and have had some heavy defeats, so we’re just doing everything we can to turn it around.”
McKenzie said it was important to remain focused on the message within the club, “because if you start listening to everyone, you’re going to start wondering who to listen to”. He added that the players were “still coming into the club with a positive mindset and trying to improve each week.
“It’s the opinions of the people internally that matter. Internally, we give and receive a lot of feedback, so any pressure externally is about how each individual person wants to go about it – as far as taking it on or letting that mountain build,” McKenzie said.
Reflecting on the 90-point loss to Freo, McKenzie didn’t shy away from the fact that Melbourne’s first half was “ordinary”, although he added that there were some positives by winning its first third term for the season.
“They beat us in every facet of the game in the first half, especially contested footy. In the second quarter, we got annihilated in hard ball gets, and then the backs were under an influx of pressure, which is hard to defend,” he said.
“All our key performance indicators, we were down by a long way, so we’re going to be a bit of strife on the scoreboard. But credit to the boys, it could’ve got even uglier, but we had to come out competitively in the third quarter.”
The first year member of Melbourne’s leadership group said it had been a testing position, but one where he enjoyed the responsibility.
“It’s a large leadership group, so it’s been good to work alongside eight other blokes and see how they go about it off the field. You see their actions on the field, but it’s good to see how positive they are around the club and they’re trying to help everyone improve,” he said.
“It’s a challenging role, but one I’ve really enjoyed.
“Hopefully, I can continue to develop in that area.”
McKenzie, who had 24 disposals against Fremantle, said he was eager to build on his game.
“I played on a few of their good midfielders and at times, I was able to get off them and get a bit of footy myself and provide a bit offensively, which is something I’m continually working on,” he said.
“From that aspect, there were a few positives, but overall, I think I was part of a midfield that was soundly beaten and played against some opponents who got on top of me.
“I wasn’t overly happy with my performance, so I’m working hard to get some consistency in my game and do it each week and take it into Hawthorn.”
McKenzie said taking on the top of the ladder Hawthorn would be a serious challenge for Melbourne, but one that it wanted to tackle head on.
“Every week is a tough week, the competition is so even, but it’s a big couple of weeks coming up,” he said.
“Hawthorn is coming off a win from Gold Coast, but from watching that game, it showed that if they’re (Gold Coast) putting enough pressure on [Hawthorn], anything’s possible.
“We know we’ve got to be competitive for all four quarters, and if we do that we’ll be right in the contest. We know it’s going to be a tough contest, but we’ve got to keep making inroads and keep improving.”
