Melbourne have opened the door for Brodie Grundy’s attainable return within the vital AFL conflict with Richmond by dropping key ahead Ben Brown.
Speculation has been rife round Grundy’s enjoying future after his demotion to the reserves a fortnight in the past, whereas Max Gawn has been dominant as a solo ruckman in his absence.
But Demons coach Simon Goodwin has been steadfast in declaring former Collingwood ruckman Grundy a part of his plans going ahead.
The 29-year-old has been named on an prolonged bench for Melbourne’s encounter with Richmond on the MCG on Sunday, the place he might reprise his shared ruck position with Gawn.
Fellow talls Harrison Petty and Joel Smith are additionally within the 26-man squad, which will likely be trimmed on Friday.
“There’s a fair bit of talk about Brodie but the plan hasn’t changed,” Goodwin stated.
“He’s working incredibly hard on his game, we got him some forward exposure last week at VFL level which we’re really encouraged about.
“We haven’t got to choose our crew for a few days. We’ll get to our primary coaching session, assess how issues are going after which choose our crew accordingly.
“He’s in the mix, he’s progressing well.”
There is discuss Grundy might want to discover a third membership in as a few years on the finish of the season, however Goodwin insists he has seen sufficient to encourage him the cut up ruck technique with Gawn might nonetheless work.
“We’re really open minded … we love the combination,” the coach stated.
“What we’re trying to do is get a bigger impact when either of the rucks are forward of centre, and Brodie’s a big part of that.
“This is not only a short-term factor, that is about getting higher.”
Goodwin said the Demons still have no definitive timeline for the return of star midfielder Clayton Oliver from his hamstring injury.
Oliver’s absence has allowed Melbourne to experiment with different combinations at centre bounces, with some positive early touches from livewire Kysaiah Pickett in their four-point win against Adelaide last Sunday.
“We’ve added a variety of selection to our midfield group and Kozzy (Pickett) is part of that,” Goodwin stated.
“We needed to have some excessive rotation by way of the center of the bottom. It’s not solely Kozzy, it is Christian Petracca getting by way of there at occasions, we have got Tom Sparrow, James Jordan which have actually stepped up with out Clayton.
“We’ve got some really good depth through the middle of the ground, and we’re going to continue to utilise that.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
