‘It takes time’: Petracca speaks after Melbourne’s Anzac Day eve win

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has praised the Demons’ pressure during a dominant third quarter for setting up their second win of the season as he distanced the side from his dominant 2021 premiership outfit.

“I thought the forwards did a great job to be able to provide that [pressure] for us,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“Some of our players inside 50, like Tom Sparrow and a few [others], went to work, and it was really positive.

“Combine that with the midfielders really getting going, you know, I thought [Max] Gawn, [Jack] Viney, [Clayton] Oliver, [Christian] Petracca and [Kysaiah] Pickett all got themselves into the game, which we needed to, and that set the game up for us.”

While Goodwin also commended the return of out-of-sorts premiership forward Bayley Fritsch, he was equally upbeat about his side’s fresh talent.

“I look at this team as completely new [compared to 2021],” he said.

“You know, for the last three years, we’ve been going to the draft and bringing in new players and our recruiters have done a wonderful job at doing that, and sometimes they take some time to grow and develop.

“But for us, it’s about really getting excited about the young players that we’ve got at our footy club, understanding we’ve got some enormous, older top-end talent, and bringing them together to be a cohesive new team that takes our club forward again.

“It’s great to see Judd McVee get back out there tonight and start to build that cohesion, Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay on the wings, Caleb Windsor is getting better week-in, week-out.

“So, we’re just starting to build that cohesion right across the ground. And that’s something we’re working on.”