DEFENDER Dean Terlich is set to return for Melbourne’s clash against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Terlich has been an emergency for the past two rounds, after playing the opening 11 matches of the season.

But with the Demons forced to make two changes at the selection table, given the suspension of Jordie McKenzie and the broken leg to Daniel Cross, Terlich has emerged as one likely inclusion, according to coach Paul Roos.

“Dean Terlich is probably one who comes very much into the frame, because Dean did go back two weeks ago and played really well. He didn’t play on the weekend and was an emergency,” he said on Dee TV’s Roos’ Views.

“The fact that he’s gone back and done well a couple of weeks ago means that he very much comes to the forefront of selection, so I’d expect him to come in. There is going to be another change and [we’ll wait and see] if we make any other changes.

“I was really disappointed with our seconds last week and it was a bad weekend for us as a club. Our seconds are super important to us. The way we presented ourselves down there – I thought it was a really poor effort and it probably cost some guys who may have been a chance to play [this round] an opportunity.

“We’re trying to set some standards here club wide and we’re trying to get guys who come into the team in good form and doing the things we want them to do. It’ll certainly be interesting at selection as to who comes in.”

Roos said several players were also being closely watched with their workloads in the second half of the season.

“Monitoring players and how they’re feeling – we’ve got some young players and we’ve got some young players coming back from injury, like Aidan Riley. He’s had a significant injury and Christian Salem’s a young player,” he said.

“Even Jack Viney and Dom [Tyson] are still young players – I’m not suggesting they’re going to miss out – but there is a lot of management that goes into our younger players.

“We’ll discuss all of them and we suspect that guys like Jack and Dom – we’ve just got to be careful of their load during the week, because they’re really important players for us on the weekend.

“Christian was really good the week before, so we’re always discussing a lot of different components of our list and make-up, and how our guys are feeling at any one time.”

Roos said the substitute rule, which was introduced in 2011, had also impacted on the management of players.

“I think when the sub came in, we definitely saw teams – even with older players – manage their players through [the season],” he said.

“I think the teams that have won premierships over the last two or three years have been able to do that. The old benchmark was that you wanted everyone to play 22 games – now it’s probably 18 to 20.

“I’m talking more the teams that are actually competing for Grand Finals. We’re at the other end, where we’re managing more on the basis of age, injury, rather than the mid-tier groups, [which] is probably important that they do play 22 games – trying to get as much experience in them as possible. But there’s certainly a lot of management that goes on in AFL clubs.”

Roos said the middle part of the year was a testing time for players, but they needed to be resilient to keep going.

“I think the middle of the year is definitely when teams get tired, including the younger ones. Experienced teams probably just tend to buckle down pretty quickly. That’s where the management comes in as well, but it’s also about mental toughness.

“It’s about those guys at 21, 22 or 23 [years old] saying ‘no, I’m going to really dig in here’ and that’s part of their learning curve. But there’s no question for experienced players and experienced teams that they know how to manage themselves – Sydney, Geelong and Fremantle players – they self manage. They understand their bodies well and they understand their system really well.

“For us, we’ve got to manage players and have a lot more conversations about it.”