Melbourne will resist the temptation to call on both Ben Brown and Sam Weideman against Richmond but are set to regain gun defender Steven May for their clash with the reigning AFL premiers.
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Both key forwards have recovered from pre-season injuries and pressed their respective cases for selection in the VFL on Sunday with Weideman booting seven goals and Brown snagging three in Casey's win over Box Hill.
Coach Simon Goodwin confirmed Melbourne, who are 5-0 heading into Saturday night's game, would only pick one of Brown or Weideman at most to avoid upsetting team balance.
Even selecting one could depend on Bayley Fritsch's fitness, with the athletic forward tracking well in his recovery from a hand fracture.
"We're certainly not going to bring them both back," Goodwin said.
"The team's functioning well and we need to be really careful that we don't adjust too much at once and then we keep that chemistry going and then keep the balance within our footy team really strong.
"So for one of those guys it's going to be a little bit longer and we'll just continue to monitor how our team's going at AFL level."
Tom McDonald has excelled this season, while Luke Jackson has worked well as a forward/ruck alongside Max Gawn - with last week's inclusion Mitch Brown appearing the most likely to miss out against Richmond.
Goodwin said the Demons' "fortunate" wealth of attacking options meant they'd continue to evaluate their best forward line "formula" throughout the season.
"We're applying some great forward pressure, we're getting some really good aerial competition and the guys in the team have performed strongly," he said.
"So we've got some decisions to make."
May had been expected to miss several weeks through concussion and eye socket damage suffered in round four but could return after just one game's absence to the duties on his former Gold Coast co-captain Tom Lynch or Jack Riewoldt.
"He's got the clearance from the surgeon around his eye, so he's really confident in that," Goodwin said.
"He's got to get through some concussion protocols in the back end of the week, but he's really confident.
"He's trained really strongly through this little period, the last four or five days.
"We're confident that he's in a good position and will be available to play and we're going to need Steven.
"He's a really good leader for us and they've got some really dominant key forwards in the game."
Australian Associated Press
