MELBOURNE’S Elite Performance Manager David Misson has declared Nathan Jones, Jack Viney and Jake Melksham fit to play in the Demons Round 1 clash with Port Adelaide.
The star trio all played in the Casey Demons VFL practice match two weeks ago and completed a main training session last Friday.
“We had a big session down at Casey on Friday morning and Jones, Viney and Melksham did the whole session,” Misson told Melbourne Media.
“They got through really well, it was a game-like sort of session – match intensity – and we’re pretty pleased with where they’re at so they’ll be available for selection this week.”
James Harmes, Braydon Preuss and Kade Kolodjashnij are all nearing full fitness and should put their hands up for a run this week, but the news isn’t as positive for Aaron vandenBerg who was ruled out of this Saturday’s match.
Joel Smith will also be sidelined for a short period of time as he looks to overcome a groin injury.
Misson reviews the injury list below.
Injury List
James Harmes
Finger – Test
“It’s coming along really well. He saw the surgeon on Friday who gave him the all clear to do some running and sweat and stuff like that. The wound looks very good – he did a good rehab session on Friday and another [on Monday] and he’ll train on Wednesday with the group.”
Braydon Preuss
Adductor – Test
“It was just a minor adductor strain. Again, similar to Harmes, he did a rehab session back here on Friday, did another rehab [on Monday], and will look to train and then play this weekend.”
Kade Kolodjashnij
Adductor – Test
“Kade’s likely to play this week. He did the full session at Casey on Friday and trained really well so he’s likely to play VFL this weekend.”
Tim Smith
Calf – 2 weeks
“He had a reasonably significant calf injury, but it’s recovered really well. He’s back to running 90 percent. He’ll do a pretty solid one-on-one skills week this week and then look to train normally and play next week.”
Jeff Garlett
Shoulder – 2-3 weeks
“Jeffy’s probably a bit ahead of where we thought he was going to be. It’s really just about when we introduce contact. His strength is good, his range is good, and it may be next week that we introduce contact with a view to him possibly playing Round 3, but if not, probably definitely Round 4.”
Joel Smith
Groin – TBA
“Joel pulled up pretty sore from the Brisbane game in his groin. So he’ll probably need to unload that for a couple of weeks, so if we unload it for two or three weeks it’s probably a similar amount of time to reload him and get him ready to play again.
“We’re not putting a time frame on it, he’s feeling a lot better now so he could potentially start loading again at the end of this week, but it’s a little bit open ended.”
Aaron vandenBerg
Foot – TBA
“Vanders foot pulled up pretty sore from the Brisbane game in that ankle that he’s had some issues with previously. We’ve done a bit of investigation from a scan point of view and we’re going to consult his surgeon in Sydney, not with the view to have a surgical intervention but just as a bit of a fresh set of eyes to have a look at Vanders’ ankle.
“It’s likely to need a couple of weeks of unloading. We don’t think it’s too serious at this stage, but if you unload it for a couple of weeks you then need a couple of weeks to re-load it, but we’ll find out a bit more later in the week.”
Mitch Hannan
Knee – 6-10 weeks
Jake Lever
Knee – 6-10 weeks
Jay Kennedy Harris
Knee – 10-12 weeks
Guy Walker
Shoulder – indefinite
Aaron Nietschke
Knee – season
