MELBOURNE ruckman Max Gawn will miss another week with injury after not being named to Melbourne's extended bench to take on Fremantle.

It will be the second successive match missed by the club captain after fracturing his fibula against West Coast during Round 17.

Coach Simon Goodwin expressed the importance of Gawn reaching 100 per cent fitness before his return in this morning's media conference.

“We certainly won't take a risk. This isn't the time of year to take a risk with any of our players,” Goodwin said.

“We need to make sure he's actually 100% ready to go.

“Our responsibility is to make sure he steps through the process the right way. He is 100% clear, and that will give us confidence for him to play.”

Taj Woewodin will also miss the match with a corked thigh. 

"Unfortunately Taj won’t make the trip to Perth this week after he sustained a significant corky," GM of AFL Performance Alan Richardson said.

"Given the flight duration and the injury we have decided it’s best for Taj not to make the trip to Perth.

"We will however continue to monitor his progress in the coming days and he might be a slight chance to play VFL."

Jack Billings, Bailey Laurie, Adam Tomlinson and Tom Fullarton have all been named to the extended bench.

There are plenty of ruck options still on the table for Goodwin despite his missing captain as the Demons ready themselves to face the talented duo of Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy. 

“I said post-game that everything was on the table for a variety of reasons,” Goodwin said.

“We know what we're coming up against though. We've got two high-quality ruckmen that we're dealing with.

"It is one element of the game, and there's many other elements to the game that we need to be good at.”

The ball will bounce in the west at 3:20pm AEST, in an important encounter for Melbourne's finals hopes with the Dockers just two points ahead of the eighth-placed Demons.

INS – Billings, Laurie, Tomlinson, Fullarton
OUTS – Woewodin (Managed)