TWELVE Demons and a Kangaroo joined forces last Friday to take on St Kilda in another unusual looking practice match.

The Melbourne boys who didn’t make the trip to South Australia had the chance to perform in a 12 v 12 hit-out on a narrow field.

It wasn’t a typical game of footy, but the Dees’ development coach Matt Egan was impressed with how the players embraced it.

“The attitude’s been unbelievable really,” Egan said on The Talking Points.

“They just want to compete against other teams and give themselves a chance to really get into the AFL team.”

And there were a number of boys who put up their hand for selection, should an opportunity present itself during the back half of the season.

“It was a really good mix,” Egan said.

“Obviously the ground is really open, so if you use the ball really well everyone’s going to get an opportunity to perform well.

“It was Preussy’s (Braydon Preuss') first game back, so it was good to see him in the ruck – he’s a big man and he dominated around the hit-outs.

“The mids were pretty excited about that – they got on the move really well.”

Up forward it was former Don Mitch Brown who did the damage on the scoreboard, booting five of his side’s nine goals.

But the delivery inside 50 was what allowed him to do his best work.

“I thought Jayden Hunt was excellent – he presented at the ball really well,” Egan said.

“[He] played up pretty high and he was providing Mitch Brown with a lot of goals.

“Browny ended up kicking five – I think he had eight shots at goal – but Hunty was the one that was linking up and providing that.

“And I thought Joel Smith was probably the other standout down back. It was wet conditions but his ability just to read the game in the air and impact looked really strong.”

Watch below as Egan provides an update on some of Melbourne’s other young prospects who are taking big steps forward in 2020.