JACK Watts is no certainty to take his place in Melbourne's season opener against the Brisbane Lions after an indifferent NAB Cup campaign.

Watts was rested for last week's match against Port Adelaide after suffering hamstring tightness.

The young Demon forward had been publicly criticised by several commentators for his underwhelming form in the preceding three weeks.

Despite Watts appearing Melbourne's last 37 consecutive home and away games, Demons assistant coach Leigh Brown said he was no certainty for the first match of the season.

"It's still two weeks away, it's hard to tell who's in the 22 let alone if Jack Watts is in there. We'll have match committee next week and we'll work through that," Brown told AFL.com.au.

"He had a rest last week, he was a bit tight in the hamstring so we'll see how that goes this week."

A premiership player with Collingwood, Brown has joined the Demons as the club's forwards coach, working particularly closely with Watts.

He said his young protégé had not shown any signs of being affected by criticism of his performance.

"Jack's fine. A lot of us forget he's only 20. It feels like he's been around for a long time but he's still very young. He's got a lot of areas to develop and as a coach I'm helping to develop," Brown said.

"Jack's a really jovial, confident young kid and hopefully that can translate into his footy."

It's a new-look Melbourne forward line this year after the off-season acquisition of Mitch Clark from the Brisbane Lions.

But Brown said the game plan would not revolve around Clark as the team's focal point up forward.

"We'd hope for an even contribution. I think we've seen teams that have one dominant forward can get somewhat reliant on them," he said.

"We want to base our whole team, not just our forward line but our whole team,  on structure and guys playing roles."
 
Luke Holmesby is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on twitter - @AFL_Luke