The early mail is in ahead of Thursday’s team news with updates on Max Gawn, Jordan Dawson, Jordan Ridley, Nate Caddy, Zach Reid, Finn Maginness, Scott Pendlebury and Sean Darcy.

Press Conferences

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said Max Gawn pulled up well this week after facing a fitness test prior to the Dees matchup against the Saints last round. He said: “It was a corky that (Max) was dealing with, and it seems to be getting better day by day. Obviously we monitor him closely post game and he’ll train fully today and be available to play. The way he played last week was unbelievable. He’s a great leader of our footy club, he has an enormous presence about him and the way he plays. He drives a big part of our game.”

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said there a no concerns regarding Jordan Dawson, despite the skipper being placed on light duties as the Crows manage a tight portion of their fixture. He said: “Yeah Dawson is great. We’re a six day break and a five day break at the moment, we’re right in the middle of that. We pre-planned to come in and give Dawson a little bit of a recovery week this week, I guess in the aim for him to be right to go across both games.”

Essendon star Jordan Ridley discussed his Dreamtime return last week against the Tigers, citing a conservative approach as the reason of his success. He said: “I probably felt like I was ready for the Giants game, which was two weeks earlier. I sat down with (Brad Scott) and had a discussion about it. He felt that the best way forward was to wait that couple weeks. At the time it was certainly frustrating, after so long out I just wanted to get back out there. Hindsight is always gold, and I think it was a great decision in the end.”

Bombers coach Brad Scott praised the performance of debutant Nate Caddy, though noted a selection squeeze was on the cards with fellow forward Harrison Jones to return. He said: “I thought Caddy was impressive on debut. I said post game that the simplest way I can put it is he looked like an AFL player. He’s probably looked a step above in the VFL last last few weeks and really slotted in at AFL level well. Once we get through our main session, we’ll make a decision on the final makeup of the team.”

Scott added that Zach Reid was also in the selection frame. He said: “Our attitude with Reidy is that his performance and ability to play AFL footy, to our mind, is not in question. It’s just a matter of a really long slow build. He’s played nine games in four or five years of AFL footy. When we bring Reidy back in, we want him to stay in for the long term. Wether it’s this week, next week, week after, we’ll just keep monitoring that.

Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said he will consider utilising Finn Maginness as a tagger to negate the influence of Crows star Jordan Dawson this weekend. He said: “I think Jordan Dawson is as important to Adelaide as any player is to their team in the whole competition. His ability to take the game away from the opposition, you saw it in the first quarter last week. He’s gonna be a massive player for them and we’re gonna need to curtail him. Wether that’s with Finn or with a different matchup, I’m not sure just yet.”

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said there will be the opportunity for some fresh faces to be introduced the the Dogs midfield with week, with Ed Richards joining Tom Liberatore on the sidelines this week. He said: “We’ve got some options there. Ryley Sanders came in onto the ground as the sub, we thought he performed quite well. There’s others, the small forwards that spent time in the middle at the end of the game. There’s one or two other candidates. We’ll have to strike a blend that challenges Collingwood’s inside mid brigade. Obviously they’ve got one or two out of there as well, so it’ll be an interesting part of the game.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said the Pies midfield has copped another injury blow, with veteran Scott Pendlebury ruled out for their matchup against the Bulldogs. He said: “Pendles won’t play. We anticipated he’d get through training and he’d be right, but he didn’t get through training. We’re gonna have to explore what that looks like, at this stage we’re not sure, but he won’t play.”

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir discussed the upcoming ruck battle, with the Dockers duo of Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson preparing to tag-team Dees skipper Max Gawn. He said: “We’ve spoken about Gawn and their stoppage work, he’s an influential player for them. Sean will be better for the hit-out last week, you’re always better after the first run. He’s moving well this week, he said he’s recovered really well. Expect him to take another step forward.”