Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says the membership’s first prolonged interval with out star Clayton Oliver will make the Demons midfield considerably stronger as he put a spherical 17 return on the agenda.
Oliver will miss a fifth consecutive recreation when Melbourne faces GWS in Alice Springs, with the Demons producing an detached 2-2 file in his absence.
Despite the break-even outcomes, which included a win over Collingwood however a loss to Geelong final week, Goodwin stated his crew’s stoppage recreation had lifted in Oliver’s absence.
He praised the rising affect of Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy within the ruck and was hopeful Oliver would rejoin the star-studded engine room in opposition to St Kilda.
“There’s no doubt it’s tracking in the right direction from a hamstring perspective, but the scan did show that it was pretty much what Clayton was feeling – that he couldn’t get to maximum speed because it still wasn’t fully healed yet,” Goodwin stated.
“We’re working with Clayton around that … he clearly won’t play this week, but he will train today, he’s tracking in the right direction.
“We’ll try and tick off his max speed next week, which he needs to hit to be available to play, and we’re hopeful without any other setback and him continuing to feel better, that he’ll play the following week.”
Goodwin stated Angus Brayshaw and Tom Sparrow had carried out strongly on the within to assist hearth the Demons to their wins over Carlton and Collingwood.
“Our clearance game and our ability to win the ball through the middle of the ground hasn’t been an issue over the last few weeks,” he stated.
“I think it’s only going to serve us well when Clayton comes back – our ability and depth through the middle of the ground is going to get better.
“When you lose a player like Clayton there’s always opportunity, and through that opportunity I think we’ve found a few things … when he comes back it’s going to put us in a pretty good position.”
The Demons haven’t scored greater than 76 factors in a recreation since spherical 9, with Goodwin saying he needed his two rucks to enhance their scoring output as he contemplates bringing Ben Brown again into the facet.
Brown, who has not performed since spherical 3, performed his greatest recreation of the season in Casey’s VFL win over Geelong, booting two objectives from a season-high 18 disposals and 9 marks.
“We couldn’t be happier in terms of the combination, what they’re delivering from a ruck perspective,” Goodwin stated.
“Our stoppage game’s got going and we’re starting to be a really dominant team around the ball.
“Clearly, we’d like to get more out of them forward of centre … that ultimately over the next few weeks is what we want to see, we want to see our big guys hitting the scoreboard as well.”
Originally revealed as Melbourne coach assured Clayton Oliver could solely miss yet another recreation
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
