MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has left the door open for Clayton Oliver to make an AFL return for the club's blockbuster matchup with Collingwood in just under a fortnight's time.

Goodwin ruled Oliver out of the weekend's Friday Night clash with Carlton in this morning's press conference, but the extra recovery time afforded by a Monday afternoon Round 13 fixture could be enough to get his star midfielder across the line the following week.

The Demon's head coach also downplayed concerns about his team's forward half, highlighting the club's current record as the highest scoring team in the competition.

Goodwin on the Dockers Defeat

"There was a level of frustration in terms of how we executed, certainly with ball in hand. But there's also a bit of perspective about where we sit and the opportunities that present in front of us, we're in a pretty strong position from where we sit," Goodwin says.

"We produced a lot of stats that would indicate that we'd win a game of footy, in our expected score, we won entry, we won time in half and we had opportunities in front of goal to execute.

"In the end we just didn't take the shots that we needed to take and hit, and that impacted the scoreboard and obviously impacted the result."

Clayton's Hamstring Health

"He's progressing really well," Goodwin says.

"He's working through those stages. He won't play (on Friday) but we're really confident that he'll play the week after. He's too important of player for us to take a really big risk and Friday Night it would be a risk."

No Forward Worries Here 

"If you look at where we sit, I think we're number one for scoring, so scoring certainly hasn't been an issue," Goodwin says.

"In terms of the forward line mix, we're continuing to look at ways where we can maximise both ends of the ground from a personnel perspective. We'll continue to have a look at that but as I said scoring hasn't been our biggest issue.

"The last two weeks we've played a really strong defensive team in Fremantle and Port Adelaide it was a really wet night at Adelaide Oval.

"We need to keep perspective on where we're at. We're the number one scoring team. We'll continue to look at how we get better and the mix of that is one of those things, but it's certainly not something that's really at the forefront of my mind and causing me huge concern. As I said, scoring is not our biggest issue in the game right now."

The Blues Challenge

"We know it's going to be a pretty hot game of footy," Goodwin says.

"It always is against Carlton, they’re the number one contested team in the competition so we know what they're going through. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. My main focus is on our group."

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