MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has assured Demons fans that the club is doing everything in its power to correct a wayward month in front of goal.
Goodwin fronted the media at Casey Fields this morning while his troops were put through their paces in front of goal by Hall of Famer Mark Williams in the background.
The form of young forward Jacob van Rooyen was also on the minds of the gathered media, as was Bayley Fritsch after the key cog in the Melbourne forward line underwent surgery on Tuesday.
Demons Putting in the Work
"We've given more minutes to goalkicking than ever before in the history of our footy club," Goodwin says.
"We've had five weeks where we've kicked no more than eight goals, so we don't live under a rock and think it's not an issue.
"If you can look outside right now and this is prior to training, we've got 30 blokes out there having shots at goal, running around poles, Choco is driving in a really big program for us and our high performance team and very supportive of how much goalkicking we do.
"At some stage it's going to turn and we're going to start to get bang for buck on the back of our contest and defence and the scoreboard will start ticking over."
VFL van Rooyen
“We sent him back with some clear things that we wanted him to work on and he started to implement them throughout his training and throughout his performance," Goodwin says.
“He's gone back and he's going to work on some things and when he comes back in, he's going to come back in a better player.
“In his first 12 games he’s kicked 17 goals I'm sure in his next 12 he's going to have even a bigger impact, not only on the scoreboard but in how he plays the game."
Fritch's Foot Timelines
“It's disappointing for Bayley to be out for an extended period of time.”
“He's going to be a big loss and it's going to be something we're going to have to fill internally and get to work and find what the best mix is forward of centre.
“We're really hopeful that he'll be available at that point (finals).
"There's a slight chance it might be a touch earlier but at that point we're looking to make sure we get him back to full fitness and ready to go."
