NEW Demon Bernie Vince says a smaller forward set-up could work to Melbourne’s advantage, when it takes on the West Coast Eagles at the MCG on Sunday.

Given Melbourne’s injury toll to its key forwards, Vince said Melbourne needed to make the most of its opportunities with its alternative attack.

“We’ve just got to make do with what’s available at the moment and guys are playing a bit out of position up forward, but that could be one of our strengths as well, having a small, quick forward line,” he said at AAMI Park on Wednesday. 

“You can test some teams that have got big defenders, so it’s certainly not the be all and end all to have those guys [out] – we’d much rather than them playing – but we can’t do much about that at the moment.”

With Mitch Clark, Chris Dawes and Jesse Hogan still sidelined, Vince said he was still hopeful that key forward Jack Fitzpatrick, who suffered concussion last Saturday night at Etihad Stadium, would be right to play.

“They’ll (the medical staff) be taking all of the precautions that they have to take and if that means that he misses, it’s best for him, if he does,” he said.

“We’d certainly like him in there because that’s something we’re certainly lacking – another tall forward. Hopefully, he can get up, because that’ll take another one of those big guys away from [us].”

Vince said he was really excited about coming up against West Coast, which has shown some impressive signs early in 2014.

“We want to test ourselves against these good sides,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to it and certainly not shying away from the fact that we’re going to have to play some good teams this year.

“We’re going to take it right up to them and have a crack. We’ve got some guys who are pretty keen to turn their performances around from last week and some guys who want to back their performances up, so we’re looking forward to it.”

Reflecting on Melbourne’s opening round loss to St Kilda, Vince said the players were disappointed by their performance – a 17-point loss – but added that they would be as “competitive as we can” against the Eagles.

“If we’re competitive for long enough, we’ll be around the mark, but if not, we’ll be well off the mark,” he said.