MELBOURNE will make its second away trip of the season as the club heads west to face the Eagles with a chance to improve its record to 3-1.

Ahead of the club’s main training session of the week on Thursday morning, coach Simon Goodwin spoke on the return of livewire Kozzy Pickett, gave some insight into his players’ availability and the form of the plucky Eagles.

Goodwin on Midfield Kozzy

"He's gone away and worked incredibly hard on his game, he's done a little bit of extra conditioning in and around our program. So we've tried to use it as an opportunity to actually continue to grow his game,' Goodwin said.

"He's got electric speed so we’ll continue to focus on that, but also continue to build his capacity to play some midfield time for us… he adds a different dynamic to our midfield when he's in there.

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"We've got some small forwards going really well at the moment in our forward half of the ground, in Kade Chandler and Charlie Spargo and Alex Neal-Bullen. And so we feel using Kozzy at times through the midfield is going to be really important to us."

Ben Brown’s Back Soreness

"He had a really quiet few days since the game, so we certainly won't take any risk with Browny. He's going to try and train fully today, so we'll see how he pulls up from that," Goodwin said.

"If he pulls up fine, we'll put him on the plane and get him over there. If he's not right to go, he won't play. He has to get through full training today to be available to play."

James Harmes Unavailable for Second Week

"He’ll miss again with some personal reasons," Goodwin said.

"He's got a little bit going on, he's not too far away. He'll be hopefully back at the club next week and back into some training and then back available to play. So he’s just taking some time away from the game at the moment."

Selection Dilemmas 

"It's a really tough selection for us. You know, we haven't set ourselves just yet. We're going to see what happens post-training today, but it's incredibly tight for spots," Goodwin said.

"The guys that played on the weekend were outstanding and especially the guys that came into the team. I thought James Jordon was exceptional.

"We've got a lot of guys forward of centre playing some really strong footy for us. So Kozzy will be coming back, it's just a matter of who then makes way."

Tom McDonald Finding his Feet

"Tom's form prior to last week wasn't to the level that we wanted at AFL footy and he went back to the VFL with an unbelievable mindset, he performed really well," Goodwin said.

"He took five or six really strong contested marks at VFL level and puts himself back as an option for us.

"He's someone that's really valuable to us as a player because of his ability to run and connect and also take contested marks.

"He's back in AFL form I would say, so that gives him a chance to come back into the team, whether it be this week or in the in the future weeks coming. It's good to see him back in good form the big fella."

Gawn Playing the Long Game

"There's no hope for Gawny being back (this week). It will be at least a month," Goodwin said. 

"We will be making sure that Max is fully fit by the time he comes back. He's back running, which is fantastic to see, but he's going to put a bit of work in.

"We're going to be really conservative with Max. He needs to be 100% right to go and get a few weeks of training under his belt so we don't get any recurrence of that injury, we want him to be fully fit for the whole year."

The Resurgent Eagles

"Clearly they're going to be a side that's going to have to make a few changes. But you know, if anyone watched them the last few weeks, they're seeing a different West Coast," Goodwin said.

"I thought they were fantastic against GWS and the way they played around the ball and their offence. Again, on the weekend, you know they were right in that game against Fremantle right until late in the game until they ran out of legs.

"They are different footy club this year. They've been really impressive in the last few weeks and, we're preparing for them at their best."