The early mail is in ahead of Thursday’s team news with key updates on Sean Darcy, Luke Jackson and Elliot Yeo, as well as a couple youngsters pushing for selection.

PRESS CONFERENCES

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir confirmed Sean Darcy will come into the Dockers side for the first time this year after recovering from his knee injury. Longmuir said: “He’ll play. He got through training well last night. He was really close last week but we erred on the side of caution. He’s got another week of work under his belt and is ready to go.”

When asked how he would deploy fellow ruckman Luke Jackson, the Dockers coach indicated Darcy would be the primary ruck, though the pair will likely split ruck duties in the short-term. He said: “We’ll probably try and mix it up a little more than we have in the past while Sean finds his form and fitness. Sean will spend a little bit of time forward, but not a heap of time.”

Heath Chapman was also mentioned by Longmuir as another player edging towards a return, having been on managed minutes in his last two WAFL appearances. The Fremantle coach confirmed he’ll continue to build some continuity before being recalled to the senior side. He said: “He’s getting close, we’ve opted to play him in the WAFL this week as well. This week will be his first opportunity to play a full game.”

Longmuir also spoke on 7NewsPerth earlier in the week about his team potentially sending a tagger to run with in-form midfielder Elliot Yeo for their clash against the Eagles. He said: “It hasn’t been our way this year, we’ve probably gone midfield-for-midfield and head-to-head. We’ll consider it, but you stop Yeo and then Kelly, Reid, or one of those other guys gets off the chain.”

West Coast coach Adam Simpson said midfielder Dom Sheed is in the selection frame, while Liam Ryan will play another game in the WAFL as the Eagles experiment with him in a new role across half back. When asked of Sheed’s selection prospects, Simpson said: “He’s in the mix. We haven’t had the match committee yet to finalise it, but he’ll probably be the sub, maybe plays, but we haven’t confirmed that just yet.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said it’ll be hard to leave out Scott Pendlebury come team selection provided he pulls up well from today’s session. He said: “Pendles got through training, so we’ll assess how he pulls up. He’s a marvel with his ability to recover and get ready to play.”

McRae added that Harvey Harrison will be one of the players considered for selection should Pendlebury miss. He said: “He’s strong, he’s a great runner with the ball, he’s got enormous speed and he’s tackling really well. Harvey is ready to go when he gets the chance.”

GWS coach Adam Kinsley earmarked Leek Aleer as the potential inclusion and replacement for injured key back Sam Taylor. He said: “Leek is a young and up-and-coming player who has been in really good form in the VFL.” 

Kingsley added that Aleer will likely be competing against veteran Nick Haynes for the position. He said: “We’ll sit down as a match committee this afternoon and work through both of those options. There might be another option, I’m not sure, but for me they feel like the two most obvious.”