MELBOURNE has declared spearhead Jesse Hogan a certain starter for Saturday's game against Brisbane at the Gabba despite an elbow problem that flared up following Sunday's three-point loss to Geelong.
Hogan was sent for a precautionary scan and trained with a big bandage on his left elbow on Tuesday leading to doubts about his availability.
However, coach Simon Goodwin said the star forward would take his place in the team against the Lions.
"He'll (Hogan) definitely play. He was just a bit swollen in his elbow. It was a really precautionary scan, but he'll be fine. He's 100 per cent and he'll be ready to play," Goodwin said.
After being surprisingly overlooked in round one, Dom Tyson and Angus Brayshaw will also come into the selection equation for this weekend.
Tyson, who was available to play despite a calf strain across the JLT Community Series, and Brayshaw were emergencies for the game against the Cats.
"They were unlucky to miss out last week, it was really tight for selection and no doubt their names will be prominent again in match committee," Goodwin said.
"We'll do that later today. They were certainly guys that performed during the JLT (Series) and will be available for us."
Defender Sam Frost will also be talked about by the coaching staff given the talls Brisbane has in its forward line, with Eric Hipwood and Josh Walker starting in attack last week against the Saints.
Frost's potential inclusion would allow Jake Lever to drop off and intercept opposition kicks on a more regular basis after Geelong did a good job of taking him away from the play and isolating him in one-on-one contests.
"We've got a range of players who will come into consideration. Our back six performed really strongly in the second half – we kept Geelong to 17 points – so that was a real positive for us," Goodwin said.
"We certainly won't be overreacting at selection, we'll be picking a team to go up there and play the way we want to play."
Goodwin said he spoke with vice-captain Jordan Lewis after the veteran gave away a key 50m penalty that resulted in a goal to Geelong's Brandan Parfitt and said the club needed to continue to work on its discipline.
"As a leadership group we spoke to Jordan (and) I spoke to Jordan," Goodwin said.
"He's an adult, he knows he did the wrong thing. He also knows that it's not acceptable in the way that we play and that goes for our whole playing group.
"We'll continue to learn from those experiences but they can become quite costly."
Goodwin confirmed star pair Jack Viney and Tom McDonald would begin running next week after lengthy injury layoffs with toe/foot injuries.
"They're still six weeks away. Clearly we're going to get asked this question a bit, but I think we'll just let them get back and get mending and progressing into their training."
