COACH Paul Roos expects defender Neville Jetta to spend most of his time on Hawthorn superstar Cyril Rioli when the two teams meet at the MCG this Saturday.

But with Melbourne reshaping its defensive strategies this season, Roos said Jetta was just as likely to stand small-mid Luke Breust or even the taller Jack Gunston.

“Nev’s the one that takes the most dangerous small forward most of the time,” he said.

“Having said that, the forward line of Hawthorn is very talented and they’ve got a lot of the small/medium types like [Paul] Puopolo, [who is out injured], Breust and Cyril, so they’re all hard to match-up on.

“If you get one, the other couple will get you.”

Roos said Melbourne’s tall defenders such as Tom McDonald, Oscar McDonald and Sam Frost were also capable of playing on Hawthorn’s smaller types, but the trio was also likely to spend time on the dangerous Gunston.

“You’ve got Gunston, who has [moved] up the field a bit and then [come] back, so he’s probably more suited a Tommy McDonald-type,” he said.

“Sam Frost has been playing deeper and Oscar moves around a bit like Gunston.

“He’s (Gunston) very agile and very fit and a little bit like Jack Watts … so we’ll probably get a number of different match-ups, as will Cyril.”