Yze to play for Melbourne against Saints - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Yze to play for Melbourne against Saints

By Roger Vaughan 31/05/2008 08:50:22 AM Comments (0)

Adem Yze has made a case that the Melbourne selectors simply couldn't refuse.

The 30-year-old Demons veteran is one of five inclusions for Sunday's AFL match against St Kilda at Telstra Dome, only his second senior game this season.

Yze was dropped after the round-one thrashing from Hawthorn but has impressed over the last few weeks at VFL affiliates Sandringham.

"We've made (him) go back and play really good football, he's done that for the last five weeks," said Demons assistant coach Paul Williams.

"His form, we just couldn't ignore again - he's just forced his way back in, which is great for Adem."

Melbourne also recalled veteran ruckman Jeff White, Paul Wheatley, Colin Sylvia and Lynden Dunn, while the Saints promoted Matthew Ferguson and David Armitage.

Yze's return is all the more impressive because the last-placed Demons are putting a heavy focus on youth as they try to rebuild.

After scoring their first win in round seven, they were ordinary again against Adelaide before pushing unbeaten Hawthorn hard last Sunday.

Williams said there are positive signs and is confident they will keep improving as the season continues.

But he agreed the Demons needed to see some reward for effort by winning more matches.

They will fancy their chances of an upset against the Saints, who were woeful for most of the loss to Brisbane last Sunday.

Coach Ross Lyon was fuming after the game and publicly accused some St Kilda players of being soft.

"You're putting a fair bit of time and effort into something, you do want some reward," Williams said.

"I've got no doubt we'll have a better second half of the year than what we had in the first half, you don't have to be Einstein to work that out.

"I know Ross Lyon really well and I know he'll be picking a side that certainly goes hard at the football.

"That, again, is a great challenge for our guys.

"We can't control how they come out and play but we can control how we actually go about things."

This will be Melbourne's first regular-season game at Telstra Dome since round 19 last year when they beat the Western Bulldogs.

Williams said it was easier to adapt to the enclosed arena than other venues because of the sterile playing conditions.

"They (younger Melbourne players) haven't had a lot of experience at Telstra Dome, but it's like any other oval - there's grass, there's posts up each end," he said.

"The beauty about Telstra Dome is that no matter what the weather is like, you're going to have dry-weather football.

"You don't have to plan for the weather, which is good - you can play tall if you want, you can play with as much pace as you want as well."

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