COACH Paul Roos says there won’t be a “kneejerk” reaction at the selection table for Saturday’s clash against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, after Melbourne’s first loss of the season came in dramatic circumstances against Greater Western Sydney in Canberra last Saturday.

Melbourne gave up a 33-point lead late in the second term and eventually lost by 45 points after GWS booted a whopping 14 goals straight.

But Roos said it was important not to get caught up in the hype, after Melbourne’s opening round of the season produced a fine 26-point win over the Gold Coast Suns at the MCG.

“I would imagine the players are aware that there are a few on edge now, having played poorly on the weekend,” he said on Roos’ Views.

“You’d like to think they would get another chance, but that mightn’t be the case.

“The good thing is that they can’t afford to put in another bad performance, because they know there are guys playing really good footy in the seconds, who are breathing down their necks. I think as a club that’s a great position to be in.”

Roos nominated a handful of players pushing for a round three call-up.

“The guys that immediately jump into mind are [Jack] Grimes, [Viv] Michie, who has been good for a while, and Matty Jones, who played well [last Saturday for Casey],” he said.

“[Jimmy] Toumpas went back and probably played his best game for the last 12 months, which was really good.

“So the pleasing thing is that there are a number of players playing well down there [at Casey] and not many of them are playing poorly, which is good.”

Roos said the encouraging early season form by Casey in its practice match series – the VFL home and away season starts this weekend – was largely due to the beefed up development coaching department.  

Justin Plapp is now Casey’s full-time coach and Shannon Byrnes is playing and coaching with the Scorpions. Former Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney had also been a key addition in the club’s development area, joining Brett Allison and Brad Miller, who are now in their second year with the club as coaches.

“We’ve seen a significant change in game style and a significant change in overall performance – and they (Casey) were fantastic on the weekend,” Roos said.