COACH Paul Roos says Alex Neal-Bullen’s first senior VFL match for Casey last weekend was “really encouraging” after his pre-season was interrupted with two separate knee injuries.  

Neal-Bullen, who played two matches in the AFL Victoria Development League, before playing for Casey against Essendon at Windy Hill last Sunday, notched up 21 disposals. Roos said it was good start by the South Australian midfielder.

“Alex had played a couple of development games and played well on the weekend, so that was really encouraging,” he said on Roos’ Views.

Meanwhile, Roos said second-year Demon Jayden Hunt was set to return from injury this weekend via the Development League.

Hunt has not played this year due to a back injury, which also sidelined him for much of his first AFL-listed season in 2014.

“He had a stress fracture of the back, so he hasn’t played for a long time. He’d done some training in the off-season and it flared up a little bit, so we took a conservative approach,” Roos said.

“It’ll be great to see him play. He hasn’t played a lot of footy, but what he did last year was pretty exciting.”

Roos confirmed Jetta wouldn’t play this week, due to concussion, but Christian Salem, who also suffered a knock last round, had “pulled up well. He is also hopeful key forward Chris Dawes will be OK for the weekend.

“We’re monitoring [Jetta] and being really cautious, as to when we bring him back,” Roos said.

“He’ll probably start doing a little bit of competitive work over the next week to two weeks, so he’s probably two weeks away and then we’ll monitor him.”

Roos said this Saturday night’s clash against the Sydney Swans at the MCG was another genuine test for his side against one of the best in the business.

“Every week’s a challenge for us as a footy club and trying to get better,” he said.

“We’ve just got to respond to the things we didn’t respond to last week and play to the level we have the previous month, apart from the second half against the Giants.

“Our bank of work is getting better, but you can’t have those lapses we had on the weekend.”