DOM Tyson says he will probably line-up for Casey, a week before the season proper starts, along with Nev Jetta and Jeff Garlett, to ensure they are “cherry ripe” for round one against Geelong Cats at the MCG on March 25.

Speaking after Melbourne’s 26-point JLT Community Series win over St Kilda at Casey Fields, Tyson said they all got through unscathed, after the trio missed the first JLT win over North Melbourne in Hobart.

“I really enjoyed being back out there and Nev Jetta was out there as well, and Jeffy Garlett was dangerous,” he said.

“We all got through and hopefully we’ll welcome back a few more for round one.

“There is a Casey game in two days’ time, and then another Casey game the following week, so there might be a few of us boys out there and then we’ll be really cherry ripe for round one.”

Tyson said he would chat with coach Simon Goodwin and elite performance manager Dave Misson to see where he was at for round one.

“Myself, Nev and Jeffy – we’ve done the majority of training throughout pre-season, so we backed off with a bit of a niggle, but now we’re back playing and we’ll see how confident they are in our bodies,” he said.

“It’ll probably be a sports science decision and maybe a little bit [from us and then we’ll take it from] there.”

Tyson said Melbourne’s start against St Kilda ultimately set-up the win – the Demons booted eight goals to four – even though the Saints fought back to hit the front during the third quarter.  

“It was a good first half, particularly the first quarter, where we brought some good intensity and played a pretty good brand of footy. They were always going to come back at us, because they’re a good side, and they did that in the third quarter,” he said.

“We’ll learn a bit from that, because we panicked a bit with the ball and we went away from a couple of things that worked for us, particularly in the first quarter. Goody was pretty keen to get us back playing that brand of footy that set us up well.

“We responded pretty well, and it was still JLT [footy], so we weren’t going to play the perfect game for four quarters. We’re still building and we feel like we’re in a good spot.

“We’re going to have to be on our game the whole time and eradicate that lapse that we had 15 or 20 minutes into the third quarter. Apart from that, the coach was relatively happy and it felt like a hot game of footy – it wasn’t much different to a regular season game, I don’t reckon. It was a really good tune up for us.”