Coaching great Leigh Matthews believes Melbourne is well set for sustained success in the coming years.
On the back of Simon Goodwin’s side winning the premiership on Saturday night – Melbourne’s first in 57 years – Matthews says the club’s list profile and talent across the park means they are as “well equipped as any premiership team in recent times” to continue their dominance this season for years to come.
“If you’re talking about Melbourne, they have good big defenders and good medium smalls,” he said on Sportsday.
“They have a fantastic one-two ruck combination (with Max Gawn and Luke Jackson) and they have (Clayton) Oliver, (Christian) Petracca, (Jack) Viney,(James) Harmes, (Angus) Brayshaw and (Ed) Langdon, that’s a fantastic midfielder group.
“If you want to be honest, (Ben) Brown and (Tom) McDonald are OK forwards… (Bayley) Fritsch looks to be a pretty solid third tall so he’s very good.
“Between them it’s pretty good, I think it’s reasonable to say that Melbourne is well equipped as any premiership team in recent times to be a good team for a long time.”
The Demons will depart Perth in recent days, following a successful premiership campaign which saw them largely base themselves out west in the lead up to the Grand Final.