CLASSY Melbourne midfielder Cameron Bruce remains a 50/50 chance of playing against Hawthorn in the Demons' season opener at the MCG on Sunday.

Bruce has had a limited pre-season due to a knee injury, although he did line up for Sandringham last weekend in a practice hit-out.

Melbourne coach Dean Bailey said further assessments needed to be made before the club could make a final decision on Bruce's availability.  

"He's been training for three or four weeks now - it's not as though he's been doing nothing," Bailey said when addressing the media at the Junction Oval on Tuesday.

"We'll probably see how he pulls up from training. He looks OK and he's done a bit of speed work today and the main session is on Thursday and again on Saturday, so he's probably still a 50/50 [chance to play], but probably a little bit better than 50/50."

At this stage, Matthew Bate (hamstring) and Jack Grimes (shin splints) are definitely out for round one. And doubt remains over Jared Rivers, Paul Wheatley and Matthew Whelan, who have had hindered pre-seasons.  

Still, Bailey is optimistic about several players returning from interrupted preparations.

"There is a big wave of them coming. It's amazing round one, all of a sudden there is a big wave of players starting to come, so they are probably the only two at the moment, who that you would say are not available to play or be picked," Bailey said.

Youngsters Simon Buckley and Colin Garland and potential debutants Isaac Weetra and Cale Morton are in the mix for round one. The match could also see the return of courageous young defender Ricky Petterd, who has not played since he suffered a punctured lung in round 14 last year. Bailey said Petterd's potential return would be a great story.

"It'd be great," he said. "He's a great kid, Ricky. He works really hard. He's super competitive and that'd be half of the story. The other half would be that he played well. He's a good player, Rick, so hopefully he's going to have a long future with us." 

Meanwhile, Bailey said midfielder/forward Colin Sylvia had learned a harsh lesson after being suspended for the opening round, after he missed a recovery session and broke a 1am curfew, enforced by the leadership group.

"It'd be nice for Col to play, but he's obviously broken a very strong rule at the club … so Col's got to cop it on the chin, so that's the way it is," Bailey said.

"Col's made some really good advances in the pre-season - not only with his behaviour off the field - but also his training has been very good.

"He's made a mistake. It was a severe enough mistake for the leadership group to penalise him for one week, so Col's going to be faced with other decisions in his life, next week and the week after and we're helping him to make the better ones, so that he can play for Melbourne and win us some games."

Bailey clarified how the Sylvia penalty was imposed.

"I'm in all of the discussions," he said. "They [the leadership group] actually make the decision and they make the recommendations, but I know what's going on." 

"The decision was made by the leadership group. There were a number of people - not just the leadership group, who discussed it with Col. Col was very emphatic in his disappointment that he's let all of the Melbourne people down and he was very concerned about his actions and what the ramifications were.

"We think he's learned a very strong lesson."