The early mail ahead of the Thursday team news has dropped with updates on Sean Darcy’s role alongside Luke Jackson, plus the injury status of Lachie Neale and Clayton Oliver.

UPDATES

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir discussed the likely ruck set-up should Sean Darcy prove his fitness after a knee injury to play in Round 5 alongside Luke Jackson.

On Darcy’s chances of playing, Longmuir said: “He’s looking great. He’s in good spirits. It’s an important box for him to tick, main training, hopefully he gets through that but we won’t know until after training.”

On his role, Longmuir said: “It will be (restricted minutes). He’ll take a little bit of time to build his fitness and get back to playing large ruck minutes like he did last year. It’ll look a bit different in the early stages. It gives us flexibility to use Luke in different roles.

“We forget Luke was developing into a really good key forward before sea got injured last year. I think he had 18-20 goals on the board by the halfway mark of the season. He can play in a number of different roles and so can Sean for that matter.”

Brisbane lions coach Chris Fagan said Lachie Neale will play on Thursday against Melbourne despite an ankle niggle. Fagan said: “The expectation is that (he’ll play a full game). He trained yesterday. I expect him to play.”

Fagan also indicated Jarryd Lyons will be sub and that Zac Bailey, who rolled his ankle late in Round 4, was fine and had training on Tuesday.

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin played down ongoing concerns about Clayton Oliver’s hand injury. He said: “We’re managing that. It’s slowly improving as well.

“These are just little things that players deal with throughout the season. Obviously after this week we get a slightly longer break. We’ll continue to monitor that and make sure we get him right.”

When asked if he’s not in any doubt for Thursday’s game against Brisbane, he briefly replied: “No.”

Goodwin also noted Lachie Hunter will play VFL footy this weekend, while he hinted that 2023 AFL Draft pick 13 Koltyn Tholstrup could debut against Brisbane to replace the suspended Kysaiah Pickett.

He said: “He’s been impressive in the last few weeks. Obviously there’s Kolts, Bailey Laurie and Woewodin who are pressing hard for selection. We’ll get through training today, obviously the Tribunal was last week, we’ll have a look at that post-training today.”

The Dees have since confirmed Tholstrup will debut on Thursday, noting he’s a “fast-paced forward” in an indication of his role.

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks indicated Will Hamill was the likely replacement for the injured Patrick Parnell.