Melbourne coach Steven King admitted he wasn't unhappy when he found out Fremantle star Hayden Young had been ruled out of this weekend's Round 2 clash between the Demons and Dockers in Perth.
Young experienced hamstring awareness in the Round 1 loss to Geelong and subsequent scans revealed a low-grade strain. The 25-year-old has suffered a series of soft tissue injuries during his seven years with Fremantle.
"Hayden Young's out, which is a big bonus for us, he's a quality player," King said on Thursday.
Despite Young's absence, the Dockers have a midfield that features All-Australians Caleb Serong and Andrew Brayshaw. The former was arguably Fremantle's best player against the Cats, tallying 30 disposals and a goal, while the latter finished with 33 touches and a goal the most recent time Justin Longmuir's men faced the Demons (in Round 6, 2025).
Melbourne youngster Koltyn Tholstrup did a decent job on St Kilda talisman Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera last week and he could again be handed a run-with role.
"It will definitely be a horses-for-courses approach. It's more of a team balance thing that we'll look at," King explained.
"Nas stands out. Watching him in the pre-season and what he did last year, it was obvious that if you could quell his influence somewhat... and while he still impacted the game, because he's a really good player... I think it's good for Koltyn's development, to do that, and it certainly helped us.
"We'll have a think about it [assigning a tag]. They've got a couple of standout mids that are very good players.
"I'm a big believer in us playing our way, as well. It's always a bit of a 'suck it and see' approach around what you lose to gain something.
"We'll have a discussion post-training today."
Melbourne is rolling with a new-look midfield in 2026. Mainstays Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca are no longer at the club, while hardman Jack Viney is missing due to an Achilles injury. That has freed up time for youngsters Caleb Windsor, Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay, new recruit Jack Steele, as well as regulars Trent Rivers, Kysaiah Pickett and Tom Sparrow.
"A weight of numbers approach is going to be us, this year. We probably put 11 or 12 players through there on the weekend," King added.
"We'll probably spin similar numbers in there [this week], especially while the weather's hot and the game's frenetic and fast. I think we've got the capability to explore what that looks like; it's in its infancy right now and we're probably still looking at what our best combinations are. I think you need a mixture in there of size, strength, speed and agility. We'll look at combinations as we get a bit more day in the background.
"I want all of our players being comfortable playing in numerous positions on the ground."
