REIGNING best and fairest winner Bernie Vince is one of five inclusions in Melbourne’s extended squad for Sunday’s game against Richmond.
Vince, who missed a week through suspension, was named in the starting 18, with Jeff Garlett, Colin Garland, Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Petracca named on an extended interchange.
Garlett is looking to make his return from an ankle injury, with Petracca on standby to make his AFL debut if the small forward is unavailable.
General manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said Garlett would need to complete Friday’s main training session to prove his fitness for the game.
“Jeff’s now completed two running sessions this week and a light training session,” Mahoney told melbournefc.com.au.
“The main training session is tomorrow and if he can get through that, he’ll play on Sunday.”
Mahoney said Petracca had put his name up for selection in the squad after three strong performances for Casey in the VFL.
“We’ve been really happy with the form that Christian has had at VFL level and the amount of game time he’s been able to play over the last three weeks,” he said.
“We now consider him as available for selection and if Jeff is unable to get through tomorrow's main session, Christian will be a chance to debut."
Clayton Oliver has been rested after playing the first four matches of the AFL season, along with Melbourne’s three NAB Challenge games.
Mahoney said Melbourne had used Bernie Vince’s return to the side as an opportunity to replace Oliver with a high quality midfielder.
“We’ve been very happy with the way Clayton has handled his early games of AFL,” Mahoney said.
“We knew through the year that he and our other younger players would be rested and he started to show some signs of tiring last week.
“With the return of Bernie from suspension, we’ve taken the opportunity to rest Clayton with the thinking of maximising his output throughout the year.”
Utility Matt Jones will miss the game through general soreness while Neal-Bullen has been named in the squad of 25 after consistently strong performances at VFL level.
“Matty was involved in a collision incident during the game last week,” Mahoney said.
“He was close to being available but we’re not taking any risks with him.
“Alex has played at a consistently high level at Casey for the last few weeks and comes into the squad.”
The squad will be reduced to a final team on Friday.
Melbourne squad for round five
B: Neville Jetta, Tom McDonald, Tomas Bugg
HB: Lynden Dunn, Heritier Lumumba, Christian Salem
C: Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson, Josh Wagner
HF: Jack Watts, Sam Frost, James Harmes
F: Dean Kent, Jesse Hogan, Angus Brayshaw
Foll: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney
I/C (from): Christian Petracca, Colin Garland, Cameron Pedersen, Jayden Hunt, Alex Neal-Bullen, Ben Kennedy, Jeff Garlett
