A MELBOURNE masterstroke, a series of enforced changes, or a bit of both?
Simon Goodwin has been chopping and changing the Demons' forward mix this season, reaping yet more benefits of a fresh new flavour against Sydney on Sunday in a 50-point drubbing of last year's grand finalist.
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Leading the way at the MCG were the debutant and the defender – that being Jacob van Rooyen and Harrison Petty respectively – with Kade Chandler another to have introduced a new element to the Demons' attack recently.
The No.19 pick in the 2021 AFL Draft, van Rooyen had been strongly considered for a senior debut last year. Made to wait until round three for his call-up this season, the teenager produced three goals and a goal assist on his first appearance.
Petty was perhaps an even bigger surprise playing as a deep forward on Sunday, but led the Demons for forward-50 targets with six for the afternoon. It yielded 13 disposals, three marks, four score involvements and a goal.
Together, a new-look van Rooyen and Petty key-position partnership spearheaded an attack missing captain Max Gawn and without marking targets like Luke Jackson and Sam Weideman from last season.
Ben Brown, who had kicked eight goals from his first two matches, was also withdrawn prematurely in the third quarter on Sunday with a back problem. However, Melbourne had already shown its van Rooyen-Petty hand by that stage.
Chandler, meanwhile, had managed only 10 games from his first four seasons on Melbourne's list. But he has now played every match so far this year and ranks top three at the Demons for goals, goal assists, score involvements and tackles inside 50.
So, what has predicated the changes? Gawn's absence has been felt two-fold. Not only did he handle the majority of the ruck work in round one – meaning his absence has forced Brodie Grundy out of the forward line and into the ruck – but he was also the side's leading forward-50 target in the season's opening game.
Obviously, the injury to Gawn – and the knock-on effect that's had on Grundy's ongoing position – as well as the two-match suspension handed down to Kysaiah Pickett stemming from that clash with the Western Bulldogs, has meant an enforced shake-up.
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Jackson's off-season defection to Fremantle, in addition to Toby Bedford moving to Greater Western Sydney and Weideman switching to Essendon, has also played its part. All three spent at least 40 per cent of their time as forwards in 2022, per Champion Data.
But the Demons have also made changes of their own volition. Chandler has been thrown his chance from the outset, Petty was an unexpected positional change last weekend, while a host of other subtle switches have been made.
Champion Data notes that Demons superstar Christian Petracca is spending 34.7 per cent game time up forward this year, up from just 21.6 per cent last season, while Tom McDonald was omitted last weekend to accommodate van Rooyen and Petty.
The versatile James Harmes missed through personal reasons on Sunday, but had also seen his forward rotations shrink from 42 per cent last year to just 26 per cent through the season's first two games.
Then there's veteran Jake Melksham, who cemented himself as a regular in the forward line throughout the final eight games of last year – kicking 11 goals in that run – only to be utilised as the tactical sub in every match so far this season.
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For coach Simon Goodwin, there is a rationale behind the intriguing selection and positional calls. Yes, some have been enforced. But others have come through a desire to take risks throughout the early stages of the campaign. When those risks equate to a 21-goal performance, as it did on Sunday, then all the better.
"It's the collective mindset to be able to do that," Goodwin said over the weekend.
"Against Sydney in previous times – and they've had a really strong record against us – we haven't been able to get score on the board with some dominance we've had in games, so we wanted to make sure that was a bit of a focus for us.
"We also want to be a club that makes some brave decisions at times and be aggressive in the way we think. This week gave us a great opportunity with 'Gawny' being out of the team to say, 'OK, how does this look for us going forward?'
"I thought the coaches were brilliant, they were open-minded about it. It's a big move to move Petty down forward and play a little bit smaller in the back-half, but we were prepared to take that risk.
"We want to find out some things early in the season and I think today we found out that can work."
