Melbourne has dropped ever so slightly off the pace in the past month.
In four matches across July to date, the Demons have won just once while copping defeats to GWS and the Western Bulldogs and drawing with Hawthorn.
It has seem them fall to third, relinquishing their position at the top of the ladder while raising doubts about their premiership credentials.
One of those doubters is Matt Rendell who has identified an area of the game that he believes is a cause for concern for Simon Goodwin.
“When I look at their team on paper it doesn’t look like a premiership team to me,” he said on SEN Flip.
“There’s just a few holes in it.
“They brought the runner in (Ed) Langdon to play on the wing because he can get up and down. They put (Jayden) Hunt to half-back because they struggled to find what to do with him. He can run, but unfortunately for those two blokes they still butcher up the ball. They’ve been doing it forever.
“So their real runner off half-back is (Christian) Salem. Clubs have worked it out. We’re sitting on Salem, they can’t get the ball out of defence.
“That’s my biggest worry with them. Whether they can fix up that area…
“(Trent) Rivers has been pretty good back there, but not really running out of defence. He’s a great coverer, always in the right place at the right time, but he doesn’t really run it out of there.
“That would be my little issue with them.”
Rendell rates Melbourne’s on-ball and ruck brigade of Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver, Max Gawn and co. but does have some reservations about the unpredictable output of their attacking setup.
“Obviously their midfield is great, rucks are great, (but) their forwards are a little bit inconsistent,” he added.
“They need Kozzy Pickett to be really good and (Charlie) Spargo to put a lot of pressure on.
“I probably think the two top teams (Western Bulldogs and Geelong) have probably got their measure, but boy it can change.”
The Demons will look to return to the winners’ list when they take on the Gold Coast Suns this Saturday.