ROOKIE James Harmes will be elevated to the senior list on Thursday and could be a chance to make his AFL debut against Essendon at the MCG on Saturday.

Speaking from Casey Fields on Thursday, coach Paul Roos said the midfielder had impressed for Casey in recent weeks and was on the cusp of selection.

“We’ll elevate him today, which means he’s closer to playing senior football,” he said.

“We’ve been really pleased with his consistency and he’s in the mix this week, but we haven’t finalised the team.

“The fact that he’s elevated does mean that he’s getting closer.

“He’s listening really well and he’s auctioning the things that we think are really important.”

Roos said he also was pleased with ruckman Mark Jamar, who was one of Casey’s best against Geelong last week.

“My message to Russian (Jamar) last week and this week is that I was rapt with the way he played, so he’s got to keep knocking the door down and keep putting pressure on the other two ruckmen,” he said.

With Max Gawn and Jake Spencer playing the past two matches – the only time Melbourne has fielded two genuine ruckmen this season – Roos said it would be touch and go whether that scenario would happen again against the Bombers. 

“It’s probably more about [having] two [ruckmen playing together]. It worked really well against Geelong, but it probably didn’t work as well last week, but we didn’t use the ball as well,” he said.

“I felt like we didn’t attack West Coast the way we attacked Geelong deep.

“The rucks become a spare cake at a wedding a bit, because they’re just standing there and we’re not kicking it to them.

“It’s more about the mix of what we think, so we’ll assess it there.”