MELBOURNE coach Mick Stinear has labelled the emergence of his young Demons a “healthy changing of the guard”.
In last week’s semi-final win against Adelaide, a number of younger, less experienced Demons stood up in key moments.
First-year player Maggie Mahony kicked two goals, last year’s No.3 Draft pick Molly O’Hehir had important moments, and Ryleigh Wotherspoon took an impressive mark and converted a goal when the game was on the line.
“I think we've had about eight players over the last two weeks who have been exposed to their first finals,” Stinear said after the club's main training on Wednesday.
The Demons last played in a preliminary final in season seven, when the likes of Daisy Pearce, Eliza West, Maddi Gay, Lily Mithen, Casey Sheriff and Libby Birch were still wearing the red and blue. That year they went on to win the premiership.
But since then a number of those key Demons have moved to new clubs, including Pearce who retired and is now the head coach of West Coast's AFLW team.
“We've got a lot of young talent that is now stepping up in the absence of those players that have been very good to us for a number of years. I feel like a healthy changing of the guard," said Stinear.
“It all seemed to come together, particularly in the second half, and should give this group a hell of a lot of confidence going into Saturday.”
The Demons look likely to be buoyed by the return of key forward Eden Zanker for Saturday's preliminary final against North Melbourne.
The key forward trained strongly at Melbourne's main session on Wednesday and looks to have not missed a beat.
“[Eden] hasn't had any setbacks along her rehab,” Stinear said.
“[She] trained really well on Monday, trained really well today. She's excited to get the opportunity to get back out there and play.
“That was obviously our main training session. We'll do a little bit more on Friday, but in terms of contact and match play, that's the main exposure for her for the week and all going well, she recovers well and pulls up well from that.
"She should exit concussion protocols right at the end of the week.”
Another player in question for the weekend is half-back Maeve Chaplin who has missed the past two matches with a hamstring injury.
Chaplin didn’t complete full training, but the club will wait until closer to the game to make a decision regarding her availability.
“She's [Chaplin] been ticking along and ticking the rehab boxes, but Friday we'll probably push her along a little bit more,” said Stinear.
“Just give her an extra couple of days. But she's certainly a chance to play at this stage.”
