COACH Todd Viney says captain Brad Green started as a substitute before Melbourne’s loss against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday, due to an interrupted preparation.

Green missed Melbourne’s round 21 loss against West Coast Eagles due to a back spasm. Viney indicated the match committee was unsure if he could play the entire match, hence why Green started as 22nd man.

“We just thought we’d play him as a sub, so we’d get a quarter and a bit out of him,” he said.

“We just didn’t know how he’d go after a full game, particularly after half-time of cooling down.

Green did not know he would be sub until Viney told him upon arrival on game day.   

“He was very good, as you’d expect as captain of the club,” Viney said.

“He understood where we were coming from and we thought he’d impact when he came on.

“I could hear through the cans (headphones) that he was really vocal through the bench and really encouraging and coaching on the bench. So his attitude towards it was fantastic.”

Meanwhile, Viney conceded vice-captain Aaron Davey was battling.

“He’s certainly really struggling for form,” he said.

“In the first half, he only had a handful of touches - if a handful, just one - so we thought we had to try and get him into the game and we put him at half-back.

“He started to get a little bit of the ball, but he’s struggling. He’s been struggling for a fair part of the year.

“He’s one of our best players, but we’re not getting the rewards from him that we should.”

Viney said Davey had been doing everything possible to shake off his indifferent form, but “it just hasn’t transferred into the form on game day”.