MELBOURNE has bolstered its team significantly ahead of its ANZAC Day Eve clash at the MCG on Sunday.
Reigning best and fairest winner Bernie Vince returns from suspension while dangerous small forward Jeff Garlett has recovered from an ankle injury.
Defender Colin Garland and second year midfielders Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Petracca have been named as emergencies.
Matt Jones will miss the game with general soreness while Clayton Oliver has been rested.
General manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said Melbourne had used Vince’s return to the side as an opportunity to replace Oliver with a high quality midfielder.
“We’ve been very happy with the way Clayton has handled his early games of AFL,” Mahoney told melbournefc.com.au.
“We knew through the year that he and our other younger players would be rested and he started to show some signs of tiring last week.
“With the return of Bernie from suspension, we’ve taken the opportunity to rest Clayton with the thinking of maximising his output throughout the year.”
Mahoney said Jones was missing the game for precautionary reasons after a collision in the game against Collingwood.
“Matty was involved in a collision incident during the game last week,” Mahoney said.
“He was close to being available but we’re not taking any risks with him.”
Melbourne team for round five
B: Neville Jetta, Tom McDonald, Tomas Bugg
HB: Lynden Dunn, Heritier Lumumba, Christian Salem
C: Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson, Josh Wagner
HF: Jack Watts, Sam Frost, James Harmes
F: Dean Kent, Jesse Hogan, Angus Brayshaw
Foll: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney
I/C: Cameron Pedersen, Jayden Hunt, Ben Kennedy, Jeff Garlett
Emg: Christian Petracca, Colin Garland, Alex Neal-Bullen
