MELBOURNE looks likely to regain Max Gawn, Jake Lever and Michael Hibberd in time to take on the Tigers.

Simon Goodwin addressed the media on Friday morning ahead of Monday night's spectacle, forecasting some midfield time for Angus Brayshaw as well as a tough encounter with Richmond.

Brayshaw in the middle 

"Look the plan’s always to rotate Angus through the middle of the ground and we were able to do that in the first week or so, especially through pre-season and the early rounds," Goodwin says.

"We've probably lacked a little bit of continuity behind the ball with that with our key position guys and at times Angus has had to play a little bit taller.

"Getting obviously Max Gawn back, Jake Lever back,  Stephen May’s now back in the team, and Michael Hibberd gives us the opportunity to continue to roll Angus through the middle of the ground like we planned earlier in the year.

"We'll probably get back to a bit of that and he'll spend some more time through the midfield as the season goes on."

The ANZAC Day Eve occasion

"It's an incredibly important game for us as a footy club and a real privilege and an honour to play in a game with this significance," Goodwin says.

"You saw by the club yesterday, our whole club went out to the Shrine of Remembrance just to get a greater understanding of the sacrifice and the stories behind what the service men and women have done for our country.

"When you hear stories of 100,000 people sacrificing their lives for our freedoms, you think about the MCG and 100,000 people that might be there at the footy this weekend. It's an incredible sacrifice for the freedoms that we have.

"Not only that, we've got past players that have sacrificed their lives and their journeys. It's a great privilege and honour to play in this game."

Max Gawn's return

"He just needs to train fully. He's done a power of work Gawny," Goodwin says.

"We were pretty confident that he's going to be right to go, but we need to see him really finish off his work and train fully and really be clear with us that he is right to go. We certainly won't take a risk with Max.

"We want to make sure that he's fully fit.  He's done all the work that he needs to do and he feels really confident. And today's a big step in that."

Learning from last week

"I never look at things as a mulligan. There's always things to learn," Goodwin says.

"There's always opportunities to get better from. Clearly the team that we want to be in terms of how we defend in our contest, we need to make sure that's there every week and a couple of times this year it hasn't been there.

"We need to make sure we're really clear on what that looks like internally and make sure we know what stands up as we go forward to become the best team we can.

"Clearly, there's elements of our game that are in really good shape, offensively we're tracking in the right direction, but we need to make sure it's on the back of consistency in our defensive actions and our contest.

"We know that's where the best teams really build their brand. And you know, we need to make sure we're one of those teams."

Ben Brown's back

"Browny’s had obviously two and a half weeks out with a back," Goodwin says.

"We haven't seen a lot of him train this week just yet. As I said, it's a bit awkward naming a squad of 26 on a Thursday.

"He’ll train fully today and we'll get a better handle on where Ben's at today, but we'll get him back playing footy if he gets through today's session."

James Harmes on the comeback trail

"Harmesy is just one week back. He had a few weeks away from the club," Goodwin says.

"He's  had a full week of training and a game under his belt. We just think he needs a little bit more work, a little bit more training, a little bit more game time.

"I'm sure after his performance in the VFL last week, he'll be pushing for AFL selection in the not too distant future, that's for sure."

Hibberd's Achillies and Lever's ankle

"Hibbo we’ve been managing an Achilles with him for a few weeks, but we wanted to make sure we got on top of that," Goodwin says.

"He did a fair bit of game load on last Saturday, as did Jake Lever. We've been managing him a little bit and we just wanted to get him back to 100%.

"We don't want to have guys having niggles throughout the whole season, so those guys are right to go and have certainly trained fully already this week."

Richmond's attacking power

"There's no doubt they're a very good offensive team," Goodwin says.

"At their best they transition the ball incredibly well from their back half to their front half.

"Certainly when they're playing dominant footy, they have big momentum swings and their ability to lock the ball in their front half is strong as well.

"They're a really good footy club, they've got great depth in their list and we know what the challenge will be against them and we're up for that battle. We know we've got two teams that have come off losses that are keen to redeem themselves, so that makes for a cracking, cracking game.

"In front of our home supporters on a big occasion. So we're looking forward to it."

The Dusty matchup

"Judd spent a bit of time on him in the pre-season and we like what he did on that stage and I'm sure at some stage on Monday night, Judd will get a chance to have a crack at it."