Melbourne will be aiming to put a week from hell behind them when they take on AFL heavyweights West Coast at Patersons Stadium on Saturday.
The Demons have stumbled from one off-field turmoil to the next in recent days, with the dramas not helped by their insipid 41-point loss to Brisbane in round one.
Coach Mark Neeld was unwillingly and unfairly thrust into the centre of the storm this week when false allegations surfaced about him treating the club’s indigenous players differently to everyone else.
Midfielder Aaron Davey issued a public denial that he was the source of the untrue rumour.
Then, the Demons axed major sponsor EnergyWatch after the company’s co-founder Ben Polis published a series of racist remarks on Facebook, one of which related to troubled Melbourne forward Liam Jurrah.
The sponsorship was worth $1.9 million per season to Melbourne, who only recently wiped out a $5 million debt.
Davey has been dropped for the clash with West Coast after tallying just 11 possessions and one goal against the Lions, while key midfielder Brent Maloney will miss with a groin injury.
Sam Blease and Josh Tynan were axed, with Neeld instead handing games to Lynden Dunn, Ricky Petterd, Jamie Bennell and former Crow James Sellar.
The Eagles have named an unchanged squad and are hot favourites to heap more misery on the Demons.
But West Coast defender Adam Selwood said the Eagles would be wary of a Melbourne outfit who are still riding a wave of emotion following the recent death of former president Jim Stynes.
“They’ll want to do the jumper proud, so we’ll be aware of that,” Selwood said.
“They are coming off a pretty big loss on the weekend, (and there’s) still probably a fair bit of emotion around their footy club.”
West Coast encountered few problems in their 49-point win over the Bulldogs, but Selwood said the team were still a fair way off their peak.
Selwood’s younger brother Scott played a key role in the victory, but surprisingly failed to lay a tackle.
Scott Selwood led the league last year for tackles with 202, but Adam joked his sibling might have confused his role last week with being a ball-winning midfielder rather than a shutdown player.
“He said he’s still going to win the club tackling apparently. He’s just giving a few blokes a head start,” Adam said with a laugh.
“I’m hoping he has a better career than me to be honest.
“He’s lived with a lot of pressure his whole life being the fourth Selwood.
“As long as I win one more premiership with him and I’ve got one up on him, I don’t care who’s better than me. I’d have two premierships, so I’m happy with that.”