Melbourne will be boosted by the return of Christian Salem, Tom McDonald, James Harmes and Ed Langdon as they look to bounce back from Saturday’s shock defeat against Fremantle.
The Demons are priced at 8/5 to win the 2022 AFL grand final but suffered their first defeat in 17 games when the Dockers rolled them over at the MCG.
Stars to return
Melbourne suffered at the weekend when losing star defender Steven May to concussion and he will sit out again when they face the Sydney Swans.
However the Demons will be boosted by the return of McDonald who will take May’s place, while Salem, Harmes and Langdon are also in the mix.
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Coach Simon Goodwin has also accepted the defeat against Fremantle, saying they were never going to go the entire season unbeaten.
"It's just the reality of footy, you are going to lose," Goodwin told SEN on Monday. "No team has gone through any season undefeated at any stage in the history of the game so it (losing) is going to happen.
"You don't want to lose but you get another set of information, it reaffirms what is important to you, what you need to be good at."
May a big loss
Meanwhile Goodwin admits they struggled to cope with the loss of May at the weekend, especially with no McDonald to call on.
"Normally we would have Tom McDonald, who we lost on the Friday heading into the game, who could go back for us," Goodwin said.
"We had to readjust, we were a little bit light on for talls down back and to Fremantle's credit, their system is very strong and to break down system you have got to win a lot of contests whether it be air or ground. And we weren't able to do that on the weekend."
