{"id":505407,"date":"2026-02-26T13:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505407\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:31:09","slug":"aami-community-series-dees-confirm-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505407\/","title":{"rendered":"AAMI Community Series | Dees confirm side"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                Team Update\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                Melbourne has named a 26-player squad to face Richmond in tomorrow&#8217;s AAMI Community Series.\n            <\/p>\n<p>MELBOURNE has selected its final team of the pre-season period, naming a 26-player side for Friday\u2019s AAMI Community Series game against Richmond.<\/p>\n<p>The match, which kicks off from 4:10pm (AEDT) at Mars Stadium in Ballarat, will be Melbourne\u2019s last hit-out before its Round 1 game against St Kilda in 17 days\u2019 time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/membership.melbournefc.com.au\/packages\/afl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">AWAKEN YOUR DEMON &gt;&gt;&gt; Become a member<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The AAMI Community Series matches consist of four 20-minute quarters plus time on (as per the regular premiership season), while there will be no interchange cap.<\/p>\n<p>Extended squads of 30 players will take part; 18 on the field, eight interchange and four emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>Dees skipper Max Gawn will feature in the Friday afternoon game, rejoining the team after a week\u2019s rest following the AFL\u2019s Origin match.<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne fans will also get to watch Harrison Petty for the first time this year, with the defender missing last week\u2019s match simulation due to a concussion.<\/p>\n<p>Young Demon Tom Matthews has been named on the interchange, getting his first opportunity at AFL footy, earning a call up following the VFL match simulation last Friday where he kicked two goals.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Jefferson will miss the game with GM of AFL Football Performance Alan Richardson providing an update on the Demon. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMatt has unfortunately sustained a bone stress injury in his foot,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have taken a conservative approach and given him time to de-load.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once he\u2019s had that period of rest, we will then have a clearer picture of his return to play timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jake Melksham, Jed Adams, Max Heath and Ricky Mentha Jnr have been named on the emergency list. <\/p>\n<p>The Friday afternoon game is sold out and Melbourne members without a valid ticket will not be able to scan in at the gate on match day.<\/p>\n<p>Visit Ballarat is providing a range of offers for both attending and non-attending footy fans this weekend which you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitballarat.com.au\/stories\/footys-back-in-ballarat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">explore here. <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fans not in attendance at Mars Stadium can tune into the game live on Fox Footy or Kayo Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Update Melbourne has named a 26-player squad to face Richmond in tomorrow&#8217;s AAMI Community Series. MELBOURNE has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-505407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}