The early going of season 2022 was looking to be a Melbourne cakewalk. Having won their opening 10 games, the talk was when they would lose a game.
By the end of the home and away season, Melbourne hit a wall losing six of its last ten to finish second on the ladder. Although battling through an inconsistent patch, expectations were that this talented group would be there on the last Saturday of September. This would be diminished within the space of two weeks, losing Sydney and Brisbane leaving a sour taste in their mouths.
Despite not fulfilling the ultimate goal, Melbourne is going to be right into the premiership conversation yet again. Adding former Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy and Western Bulldogs midfielder Lachie Hunter only strengthens an already imposing depth in its playing list.
Here we will go through the five burning questions surrounding how Melbourne will fare in 2023.
2. Will Melbourne revert to the run-and-gun ball movement plan?
During their 2021 premiership run, Melbourne's game plan of fast ball movement would be prevalent in carving opposition teams into ribbons. The preliminary final shellacking of Geelong and the third quarter grand final avalanche against the Western Bulldogs embodied Melbourne's ruthless style.
At times in 2022, Melbourne played at breakneck speed and other times at a conservative tempo, using a kick-mark game to open up the opposition. Since joining the club as an assistant coach, Mark Williams has had the most significant input in propelling an average kicking side into an elite disposal side by foot.
With exceptional ball users in Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Angus Brayshaw, Steven May, Christian Salem, and new Demon Lachie Hunter, Melbourne has the players to be adventurous and creative with their kicking. Its hitout against Richmond showed why the Demons are a seriously damaging outfit when they attack at a constant speed.
On almost every occasion, a Melbourne player would look to attack the corridor, opening up multiple options for its forwards to lead into. In the post-match presser, assistant Coach Adem Yze said the emphasis of ball movement was to readjust areas where the team broke down last season.
โNot corridor as such. Every team is going to try to play a little quicker. We like the way we play and the way we move the ball for the last couple of years, but there were some issues in our game that we wanted to straighten up," he said.
"Our forward line is going to help with that, but we've changed a little bit on some of our entries and we'll look to attack the goals a bit more. It was nice to hit the scoreboard and look potent on offence."
