Melbourne coach Steven King says the Demons won\u2019t let the external expectations that are beginning to arise \u201cinfiltrate the group\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Dees brought in untested King for his first senior coaching role and lost premiership players Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca in the off-season.<\/p>\n
But they have started the season 7-3 after another impressive win against the Hawks last Saturday and external expectations have changed. <\/p>\n
However, the Dees coach said it had no effect on his group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s external (the expectations). My expectation when I first came in was for us to compete and challenge every team we play against, that doesn\u2019t change,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s people writing us off at the start of the year, I didn\u2019t want that to infiltrate our group and make us believe we couldn\u2019t compete and play. <\/p>\n
\u201cLikewise now when people are starting to jump on and pat us on the back a bit, it doesn\u2019t really change the challenge we\u2019ve got ahead of us this week and the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added the Dees weren\u2019t playing \u201cperfect footy\u201d and while the compliments were nice, they moved on quickly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI obviously wasn\u2019t sure how long it would take for us to be able to build a brand of footy that\u2019d challenge for longer periods. But the way the players have jumped on board and what they\u2019re delivering now in all phases of the game, we\u2019re a handful and a challenge to play against and that as a coach is all we want,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n