The early mail is trickling out with updates ahead of Round 24, headlined by Luke Jackson, Hayden Young, Zach Merrett, Izak Rankine and a Nick Daicos tag flag.
Fremantle ruckman Luke Jackson will spend the week in Melbourne training away from his side due to the death of his partner’s mother but isn’t in doubt to play on Sunday against the Bulldogs.
However, it isn’t the ideal preparation but coach Justin Longmuir was bullish it wouldn’t impact his performance.
“He’s been in contact with coaches, he’s watched our reviews, and sometimes personal circumstances override team preference,” Longmuir said on Wednesday.
“We’ll work our way through that and come Sunday, it won’t be an issue at all… I’m confident that we’ll be able to work our way around it and confident he can still perform and still prepare really well.
Longmuir added that no decision had yet been made on Hayden Young returning from a groin injury. He said: “We’ll see. We’ll have that discussion around training. See how he feels. I’ve got my opinions. He’s got a say in that.”
Longmuir also flagged they’ll make a change in their backline with Cooper Simpson among the options to include, which might come in handy as cover for some coaches expecting to lose Izak Rankine.
He said: “We’ll probably need to make a bit of change from Friday night, but I like backing guys in that have performed well over a long period of time as well, so we’ll just we’ll find that balance.
“There’s a few guys at Peel that will come into consideration. He (Simpson) is one. Brandon Walker has been in good form for a while and he’s another. So we’ll weigh that up.”
Melbourne interim coach Troy Chaplin discussed the possibility of the Dees tagging Nick Daicos after Ed Langdon blanketed him totally last time the two sides met.
Chaplin said: “We’ll have a talk about it at match committee. Obviously, he did a really good job earlier in the year. Part of it, we want to go after our game as well, it’s something we’ll discuss. We’re not wedded to it.
“We know what sort of form Nick is in and if you give him free reign, what he can do. It’s something we’ll talk about as coaches but we haven’t settled on that at the moment. We’ll certainly look at that.”
Essendon coach Brad Scott confirmed Zach Merrett will definitely play on Thursday night, having been named up on Wednesday after missing last game with a broken hand.
Scott said: “Nothing will stop him playing tomorrow night. I asked him if he wanted to do a test, and he said, ‘no, it’s not required’, so he’ll just be out there.”
Gold Coast revealed Academy graduate Lachie Gulbin will debut. He’s a versatile forward who was a pre-selection in last year’s AFL Rookie draft.
Finally back to Izak Rankine, the AFL confirmed that a decision will be announced on Thursday after allowing Adelaide more time to respond to their determination in his alleged homophobic slur case.
