AFL round 23: All the latest injury and selection news
Carlton has called on two debutants and a second-gamer to try and salvage its finals chances when it heads west without a host of stars to take on West Coast. FULL ROUND 23 TEAMS
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Carlton will unveil two fresh faces when it heads west with its season on the line.
Forward Ashton Moir and mid-season draftee Cooper Lord will debut for the Blues, who lost six players to injury in last round’s heavy defeat to Hawthorn.
Lewis Young, Corey Durdin and Jack Carroll have been re-called, while Jaxon Binns will play his second match after appearing as sub earlier this year.
The Eagles have made two changes, including Harry Edwards and Jack Petruccelle.
North Melbourne has dropped Will Phillips for its clash against Western Bulldogs as one of four changes.
George Wardlaw returns after missing the past two weeks with concussion, while Zac Fisher is back from injury.
Kallan Dawson and Dylan Stephens have also been included.
Jack Ross, Matt Coulthard and Jacob Blight come into Richmond’s side to face a red-hot Hawthorn, which is unchanged from its demolition of the Blues.
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OLIVER’S SEASON OVER AS GOODWIN ADDRESSES STAR’S DEMONS FUTURE
Simon Goodwin is adamant Clayton Oliver will remain at the club next season after the Demons brought his difficult campaign to an early end after surgery on his hand.
It comes as the Melbourne coach confirmed he’d had “open conversations” about the club’s direction with disgruntled star Christian Petracca.
Oliver underwent further surgery on the hand he injured earlier in the season and also suffered cracked ribs in Saturday night’s loss to Port Adelaide, with the Demons ruling him out of the final two rounds.
It was another blow to the Demons who will miss the finals for the first time since 2020, coming after revelations premiership winner Alex Neal-Bullen wants a trade back to South Australia for family reasons and reports Petracca was disillusioned with the direction of the team.
With the club in free fall, Goodwin for the first time addressed the Petracca issue — declaring the pair had not fallen out.
He repeated that Petracca had a “traumatic experience” with his horror season-ending injuries in the King’s Birthday game but said the discussions with his superstar on-baller were a positive for the club going forward
“I’ve had open conversations with Christian regularly … people seem to parcel frustrations and tension up as a negative,” Goodwin said.
“It’s actually a positive – you’d be surprised if you walk into an environment of a footy club, these conversations happen weekly.
“It’s about getting better, and those conversations have been going on many a day at this footy club.
“I’m sure there are frustrations because players want to play finals footy, I want to play finals footy, our supporters want to play finals footy … we’re going to leave no stone unturned in trying to find the best path forward in doing that.”
Goodwin said senior player frustration was to be expected and a natural part of missing finals as he firmly denied Petracca wanted to leave the club.
“When you’ve won a lot of games over a period of three years, and then you miss out on finals, I think everyone sits here uncomfortable with where you sit as a footy team,” he said.
“What we have shown over a period of time is we’ve got some wonderful people at this footy club who are all aligned in something very similar … it’s about building a really strong, competitive footy team.
“We’ll engage all those people like we do every year, but even more importantly this year we’ll engage whether it’s Christian, whether it’s Max (Gawn), whether it’s Jack Viney.”
Goodwin said Oliver was content with the decision to focus on a big pre-season ahead of 2025 to get the All-Australian “physically well again” after a tumultuous lead in to the season and struggles throughout.
“Clayton’s had some surgery on his hand to remove a plate from his hand. He’s also got a PCL he’s dealing with, and post-game he woke up with some sore ribs – and he’s got a crack in a few of those ribs,” Goodwin said.
“We’ve got to get him physically well again, and he’s walking around this morning with a smile on his face and more determined than ever to get his football back to the highest level.
“He’s had some challenges physically this year. He’s obviously had a plate in his hand for a big part of the year … that’s now been removed, we’ll get that right, we’ll get him physically ready to go, and he’s going to have an enormous pre-season.”
Goodwin said Oliver was in a “wonderful position as a person” and would have no issues dealing with being sidelined over the final fortnight of the campaign.
“I’ve never seen someone more eager to attack his off-season and get himself physically ready for the demands of the game again than what he’s talking about right now,” Goodwin said.
“He’s in a wonderful position as a person, now the challenge is to get him physically healthy and get him ready to perform as a footballer.”
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