The Rebuild of Melbourne's List - Mongrel Punt Article

[Spud 288]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:58 PM, BDA said:

Bernie Vince was our first decent trade for an age. He won a best and fairest. We haven't had a bust since. Superb recruitment over the past few years

I really believe the recruitment of Vince, Cross and Tyson coinciding with Roos and PJ was the beginning of the turn around. In 2012/13 the thought of any player going to Melbourne was "only if I have to" so we got players like Gillies and Rodan who were not going to get a game at any other club as they weren't good enough or were past it.

In 2014 we became competitive again, we weren't great by any stretch, but we would have at least have a crack week in week out and the 2014 win against Carlton is probably in the top 4 wins I have seen for fan excitement post victory (Going berserk after the game) and was the first game in probably 2 years where you could see the players just didn't want to roll over and accept failure  again. From that moment, they were far more competitive.

While the players above all effectively filled the cracks so to speak for the long term plan, they put a resolve back into the club and ensued that it was no longer seen as a basket case on field, allowing for a competitive culture to be built. That was then aided by good recruitment, which then again saw the continuation of improved results and that then allowed for the enticement of good players from other clubs (May, Lever, Langdon etc..) Without the initial slow build its possible that poor results could have continued by playing only young players before they were ready,  which could easily have resulted in a status quo of the previous  under development and potentially an exodus of those young players if poor results continued (per GC and Brisbane prior to Fagan). It's been a stepping stone approach from that moment until now for the club and hopefully the likes of Vince, Cross, Tyson and even Chris Dawes who tried his guts out for the club even if he was a bit cement handed, get some satisfaction out of the improvement in the club and hopefully that feeling gets better tonight and the next few weeks.