FOOTBALL clubs would love to go about their business quietly, but that’s not the nature of the industry.

The Demons have learned that in recent weeks with plenty of media attention, both good and bad.

But the club’s assistant coach, Troy Chaplin, says the group is well equipped to deal with it.

“There’s always noise outside of football clubs,” Chaplin said on SEN SA radio.

“Internally you say you try and ignore it, but for us it’s been on the front page/back page of the paper.

“Some of it’s been our own doing, and others you can’t control.

“For us as coaches, we’ve just got to really try to align our players to what’s important: when we hit the track and play game day.”

With heightened attention on the reining premiers, it was important for Melbourne to narrow its focuses, and that’s exactly what it’s done.

“It’s easy to say we’re not listening to it, but the reality is it’s there, you acknowledge that it’s there, but it’s more about: OK, what can we control now,” Chaplin said.

“I think Goody (Simon Goodwin) had a bit of a quote the other day in his presser, that praise and blame are all the same.

“If you get too much praise, we get ahead of ourselves, and if we get too much, blame we’ve got to try to realign our players to focus on what is really important.

“That noise is there, it is tough, but at the same time, that’s our role as coaches.”