COACH Simon Goodwin has confirmed key forward Jack Watts and midfielder Dom Tyson will return for next Saturday’s clash against Port Adelaide at the MCG.

Speaking after Melbourne’s 46-point loss to Adelaide Crows at TIO Stadium on Saturday night, Goodwin said the pair would play after recent injury.

“Jack Watts (hamstring) and Dom Tyson (knee) will be back next week and they were very close to playing [against Adelaide],” he said. 

“Jack Viney ran today (Saturday) and ran quite strongly, so he’s certainly on track to play next week as well.

“[Nathan] Jones and [Christian] Salem are one to two weeks away, and Angus Brayshaw will be back playing VFL footy next week, so we’ve got a few guys that are coming back into the mix, which is fantastic.

“We’re more concerned with what we can control right now and that’s the level of how we play.”

Goodwin said a frustrating opening term cost Melbourne a win against the Crows. His side kicked 1.3 to 72.

“It was costly. I thought they (Adelaide) were very good around the contest for most of the night. They were fairly desperate, but there were things in our game that we liked,” he said.

“In the first quarter, we had 19 inside 50s to 14, but we only kicked the one goal and they kicked seven. They were a lot more efficient going forward and I thought they executed their fundamentals a lot better than us.

“That’s probably where they’re top of the ladder for that reason.”

Meanwhile, Goodwin praised the efforts of Bernie Vince on key Adelaide playmaker Rory Sloane.

“It was [effective]. He was really good, Bern. I thought his job on Rory [Sloane] was terrific,” he said.

“They had a lot more midfielders that stepped up and replaced Rory and that’s probably the development of the Crows – they have got some really good midfielders and they probably beat us in that area.”