JACK Fitzpatrick is set to play his first game for Melbourne this year when it takes on Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday.
Melbourne coach Mark Neeld confirmed Fitzpatrick would play this round, after some strong performances in the VFL, including five goals last weekend.
“He’s in really good form in the VFL, he’s been doing it for about a month,” Neeld said at a media conference at AAMI Park on Thursday.
Fitzpatrick stands at 200cm, giving the Demons the option of playing the big man up forward and through the ruck.
“He’s going to play up forward and he’ll pinch hit in the ruck,” Neeld said.
The game with be Fitzpatrick’s fourth since being drafted by Melbourne with pick 50 in the 2009 draft.
Fitzpatrick had been in contention early in the season, but concussion sidelined him for two weeks.
After some recent poor results, Neeld said there would be some changes to the side, but he was adamant that players had to earn their spot.
“I’m not a massive fan of simply giving games away, I don’t think there is a lot of learning in that,” Neeld said.
“We’ve got four or five guys that have been consistently good in the VFL and they deserve an opportunity to come in.”
Neeld also earmarked defender Tom McDonald as a possible inclusion for Sunday’s game at the MCG.
McDonald has missed the past three rounds with a shoulder injury.
“Tom completed the majority of the main session today (Thursday), and at the end of training he did some one-on-one marking work,” Neeld said
“The reality is we just need to see how he pulls up from that and if he gets through we will consider putting Tom in.”
Neeld said he was not looking for short term measures and was determined to develop his youngsters for the long term success of the club .
Neeld said he choose not to flood the backline last week, when Melbourne was being dominated by Fremantle, because it wouldn’t help his team’s development.
“It would have been an easy thing to go and put all these numbers behind the ball, but we aren’t going to learn anything from that ... we are coaching to develop these players,” he said.
“The job of a coach of a developing team is to make decisions that are based on the medium to long term.”
