MELBOURNE has made two changes for Saturday’s clash against Essendon at the MCG, with midfielder Angus Brayshaw and defender Heritier Lumumba returning for the injured Oscar McDonald and tall Sam Frost, who has been omitted.
Key defender Lynden Dunn, speedster Billy Stretch and Frost, who played in Melbourne’s opening round win over Greater Western Sydney at the MCG, have been named emergencies.
Coach Paul Roos said it wasn’t worth risking the emerging McDonald and that Lumumba had earned his spot after some strong form with Casey, following surgery on both ankles at the end of last season.
“Oscar McDonald rolled his ankle and he [was] touch and go, but as a young player, we ruled him out early in the week, just to give him a chance to recover properly,” he said on Roos’ Views.
“With their (Essendon) forward line, we opted to go for a running defender, rather than a tall with Dunny. They do have a pretty small forward line and that might change next week, because we’re playing North Melbourne and they’ve got some bigs and it’ll depend on form [as well].
“When you’re looking at the team and you’re trying to match up on the opposition, ‘H’ (Lumumba) has played three [practice] games back now and is fit.
“It gives us a chance to bring him in as a running defender, as opposed to Dunny, because there are not a lot of match ups.”
Roos said Brayshaw, who suffered a knee injury in the opening seconds of Melbourne’s first NAB Challenge clash against Port Adelaide in Elizabeth, had forced his way back into the side, after playing in a VFL practice match and intra-club hit-out in the past two weeks.
He added that Frost was an unlucky omission, as Melbourne only has four players on its injury list entering round two.
“Angus comes in now, which is important. He’s a really good player for us and he’s had a couple of games back now,” Roos said.
“The other difficult one was who do we leave out? It came down to Sam Frost and a little bit with match ups. We’ve been happy with the way he’s been going, but in trying to squeeze Angus in, someone has to go out.”
Roos said it had been a “big build-up” to round one, but this weekend’s clash was just as important against the new-look Bombers.
“In some ways it’s harder to plan. [Essendon coach] ’Woosh’ (John Worsfold) has inherited a group that he’s still trying to put together and is still trying to work out his best team,” he said.
“He’s still trying to get some synergy with their game style, so that makes them somewhat more unpredictable. When you go up against other teams, like the Giants last week, you know what they’ve been trying to build over a two or three year period. You can scout them a little bit easier and try and work out their strengths and weaknesses.
“At the moment, we’re unclear with Essendon, exactly the style of play they’re going to play.
“There were some good signs last week in the second half for John and Essendon, so we’ll prepare for their absolute best. They’ve still got some quality players and our main theme this week is to improve on what we did last week.”
Melbourne round two team
B: Neville Jetta, Tom McDonald, Heritier Lumumba
HB: Matt Jones, Colin Garland, Christian Salem
C: Bernie Vince, Jack Viney, Aaron vandenBerg
HF: Jack Watts, Cam Pedersen, James Harmes
F: Dean Kent, Jesse Hogan, Jeff Garlett
Foll: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Dom Tyson
I/C: Angus Brayshaw, Clayton Oliver, Tom Bugg, Ben Kennedy
Emg: Lynden Dunn, Billy Stretch, Sam Frost
In: Lumumba, Brayshaw
Out: Oscar McDonald (ankle), Sam Frost
