TROY Chaplin says the club hasn’t placed any pressure on key forward Jesse Hogan since his return to the side in round 16.   

Hogan has endured a tough year, with the passing of his father Tony and then suffering testicular cancer. He also missed a couple of matches early in the year, due to suspension.

But Chaplin, the club’s offensive coordinator, said Hogan, who is set to play his seventh game for the season against Port Adelaide at the MCG on Saturday, was making progress and building each week.

“He’s missed a fair bit of footy, so he’s still trying to find his feet. The expectation has been ‘mate, come back in and find your feet’. He wants to have an impact and we’d love him to, but we haven’t put any real pressure on him,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“You want to try and fast-track him as quickly as possible, so it’s about giving him support, but it’s up to him to take that support and run with it. We’re there to help him as much as possible. He’s been working really hard on the track and the improvement started last weekend.

“We saw him take some marks and clunk them up in Darwin, and he’s worked on his marking the past few weeks. It’s those little things when you miss a lot of footy – you can get frustrated by them, but he’s a guy who has self-awareness and knows where he needs to keep working.”

Chaplin said the players were rapt to have the big target back on the park.

“The boys are just happy to have him back at the footy club. What he’s been through this year has been pretty tough and to his credit – he’s come back in and wanted to play, so that’s a real credit after what he’s been through,” he said.

“Everything will come in the next couple of weeks, because he does work hard at his game, so we’re looking forward to seeing some real improvement from him.”

Chaplin said it had been a challenge for the team to adapt to a rotating forward set-up in recent times, largely due to changing personnel.  

“Losing [Jack] Watts a few weeks ago, although he’s back this week, and then Jeffy [Garlett] missing a game recently and Buggy (Tom Bugg) now out of the side – there has been some hiccups along the way,” he said.

“The reality is whoever comes in the group, we expect them to perform to that level.”

Chaplin said last round’s loss to the Adelaide Crows at TIO Stadium was a frustrating performance, but one where the team still found positives from it.

“It was a disappointing game against a top four team and it was a really good opportunity to see where we’re at,” he said.

“We probably just lost it around the contest, but the beauty of those games is that you learn a lot about yourself.

“The guys had some really good improvements to take away from the game, and that’s one thing we’ve really focused on as a team. As much as it was disappointing, we still took some great learnings from the game.”

Chaplin, who will coach against his former team Port Adelaide for the first time since becoming a full-time coach, said it felt a long time when he was with the Power, where he played 140 of his 215 AFL games from 2004-11. For the record, he finished at the end of 2012, before playing with Richmond from 2013-16.  

“Port Adelaide is playing as good as anyone in the competition at the moment and it’s another challenge our group is looking forward to.”

“Time has moved on [from when I was there], but it’s still good to come up against them. There is no ill feeling or anything like that. It’s been a while – five years since I last played there.

“The club and playing list has changed, and I’ve moved on and I’ve got a job to do. I enjoyed my time and had fun there, but it’s a long time between drinks. I’m focused on what I’m doing with our forwards and the rest of the team.”