MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos admits he is excited at the prospect of seeing Jesse Hogan play for Melbourne in the club's NAB Challenge opener against Fremantle on Thursday night.

After all, Roos hasn't seen the 20-year-old key forward play since a brief appearance in last year's pre-season competition.

But he won't be setting him up to fail with unrealistic expectations.

Roos is happy to temper wild thoughts about what the key forward might offer at this stage of his career.

In fact, he says Hogan will have to play his role in the NAB Challenge to the club's satisfaction if he is to make his debut in round one against the Gold Coast.

"Fortunately or unfortunately we've always had early draft picks and they always seem to bring some hype," Roos said.

"When they first start it's hard."

He puts Hogan in the same basket as a bunch of recent key forwards that were early draft picks, such as Tom Boyd and Jonathan Patton.

All going well, the trio will develop at about the same rate as the poster boy for slow developing forwards, Geelong star Tom Hawkins.

All Roos wants is for Hogan to build into the season and improve.

"We're expecting him play his role, be in good form in the NAB Cup and hopefully get a game in round one," Roos said.

With suspension keeping the team's other key forward Chris Dawes out of the home and away season opener, Hogan is certainly in the frame.

The Demons will also unveil recruits Heritier Lumumba, Jeff Garlett, Ben Newton and Sam Frost for the clash against the Dockers at Fremantle Oval.

Roos said the club needed to pick its best team and get the group gelling as quickly as they could.

He said youngsters such as Jack Viney, Jimmy Toumpas and Dom Tyson need as much game time as possible at this stage of the year as part of their development.

Roos said the list was getting better all the time and standards on the track had improved with the acquisition of experience during the trading period.

He said Melbourne expected to improve in 2015, but he suspected the other 17 clubs would say the same thing.

"We just have to keep improving," Roos said.

"Our focus is continued development. It's setting the foundations that Geelong did years and years ago and Hawthorn did years and years ago. It's frustrating for fans, it's frustrating the coaches, but I really sense that the players are up for the fight and that is what you're after."