WHILE Melbourne’s 2019 season suggested it’s a long way behind the AFL’s best sides, General Manager of Football Operations Josh Mahoney says the club doesn’t share that mentality.

Mahoney addressed the Demons faithful at the Members Forum on Tuesday night, ensuring supporters that the club has its sights set on success in the near future.

“The feeling at different times, even coming here today, we feel like everyone thinks we’re 17^th,” Mahoney said.

“The ladder tells us we’re 17^th, but we want you all to know we don’t behave like we’re the 17^th team.

“We don’t make decisions like we’re the 17^th based team, reality is, that’s what the ladder says right now.

“But we wouldn’t have been able to make the changes that we’ve made, and attracted the people we have attracted, if people thought the same thing about us being the 17^th based team.

“So I think it’s important we all leave with that mentality.”

Despite a testing year that saw the Dees claim just five victories, Mahoney said internally, the club is as stable as ever.

“One of the key things that we need to continue to focus on is our environment, and it’s a really important thing,” he said.

“Whilst we’re looking at all the things that went wrong, there were some real positives as well.

“We didn’t get to the end of the year … and have an anarchy situation where all the players wanted to get up and leave.

“Players still wanted to be at the Melbourne Footy Club, people still wanted to come to the Melbourne Footy Club.

“And that’s something we can be really proud of – the environment and the work that Simon’s done on building strong relationships with his players and staff.”

With the foundations set and the talent on the list retained, Melbourne is in a strong position to bounce back in 2020.

“The group that we talked to today that are in the footy department, they’re the group that are going to take us to where we want to get to,” Mahoney said.

“Yes, we’re going to bring in players over time, but it’s not going to be massive changes.

“This list has been built over five to six years of going to the draft and adding players through the trade period and that is going to help us deliver to our ambitions.

“We think we’ve got enough talent to deliver what we want to as a footy club and that’s sustained success.”