Paul Roos isn’t going to change his Melbourne game plan despite three losses to start his tenure.
The Demons’ close loss to St Kilda and thrashing by West Coast were followed on Sunday by a five-goal defeat against Greater Western Sydney, one of just two clubs they beat last season.
Melbourne was in the contest for much of a rain-soaked Sydney day before fading out in the fourth term.
Roos said that last quarter would form the basis of his post-match review.
“From a positive point of view, five minutes into the last quarter you’re one point up. From a negative point of view, you lose by thirty something,” he said.
“So a lot of the review is on the last 25, 26 minutes, what happens then.”
Roos said Melbourne would not panic. Instead, he will retrain his side based on two modern-day powerhouses.
“I’m clear in my mind where we’ve got to get to and how we’ve got to get there,” he said.
“It’s a work in progress.
“You look back on teams like Hawthorn and Geelong … clearly we’re a long way off them now but at some stage they were at exactly the same stage we were.”
Key to that is keeping the structure but finding the right players for the job.
“We won’t change the game plan but you change the personnel. That’s what good teams do, it’s what (Alastair Clarkson) did, it’s what Bomber Thompson did.”
One move that Roos described as an “experiment that worked” was moving James Frawley and Lynden Dunn into the forward line.
Roos suggested he’d persist with that move as he seeks to find a winning formula.
While the Demons sit bottom of the table with just 47.4 per cent, it’s still an improvement on their horror start to last year.
This time last season, Mark Neeld’s side had three losses for a combined 321 points margin.
One of Melbourne’s two wins for the season came in round four, against the Giants, but to mirror their 2013 record they’ll need to better the wounded Blues on Saturday.
Both sides are 0-3 but Roos wouldn’t be drawn on whether it was a good or bad timing to catch Carlton at a low ebb.
“Every game we’ve got to look at as an opportunity, that’s how I look at it.”
