Demons coach says wins beat draft picks - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Demons coach says wins beat draft picks

By Robert Grant 15/08/2008 04:33:29 PM Comments (0)

Melbourne coach Dean Bailey has declared winning this season - not draft picks - remained the club's priority.

The Demons, with two wins to date, could miss out on a priority selection in the unlikely case they win their final three games.

Saturday's opponent, West Coast, are already on four wins - the cut-off for an extra selection - and will sacrifice that if they win another game.

Bailey clearly placed his club's emphasis on success on the field, even if the remaining games are virtually meaningless.

"I hope we win on Saturday," Bailey said.

"We've got Port Adelaide (in round 21), I'd love to be able to beat Port Adelaide over there and we play Richmond last.

"I'm in the game to win and that's what we need to be in.

"If we're not good enough to win then the outcome is you get that pick but there are still three or four games to go.

"I expect us to be competitive and win on Saturday and I expect us to go to AAMI and win next week.

"That makes it four and we have Richmond at the end and I will still be trying to win the game."

Melbourne were embarrassed by Geelong by 116 points last week, but Bailey said the club would be dwelling on replays of Saturday's West Coast game, rather than the Geelong debacle.

"It's a really important game for us on Saturday.

"We really were terrible last week, really poor, and how we bounce back on Saturday is going to tell us a story on how far our young players have come and all the players who have represented the club this year.

"We may not have scrutinised the Geelong game but we will certainly scrutinise this game," he said.

Bailey said supporters could not expect improvement in Melbourne's performance until the club's training facilities, now in the planning stages at Casey Fields and Olympic Park, were in place and their playing list was finalised.

"We are really at a stage where we are strongly reshaping the club," he said.

"We've made changes on our list when I first came in last year.

"There's been a lot of changes through the club for the whole year from an administration point of view.

"At the end of the year again we'll make changes to our list.

"We need to reshape our list and get us into a situation where we've got better resources to train at.

"We have to have a more effective pre-season training schedule.

"I think then, when we start to be able to put in place the way players, where they should train and how they should train, then I think we'll get the best out of the players.

"When that happens then I think you can look at actually setting some parameters."

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