Injury-hit Demons plunged into ruck crisis

Melbourne have been plunged into a ruck crisis after Jake Spencer suffered a shoulder injury in the Demons’ heartbreaking loss to Richmond.

Spencer spent the second half at the MCG on the bench with his right arm in a sling and will have an AC joint injury assessed in the coming days.

The 27-year-old was playing just his second game of the season after first-choice ruckman Max Gawn suffered a long-term hamstring injury in round three that required surgery.

Key forward Jack Watts pinch hit in the ruck after Gawn and Spencer were injured, but is undersized at 196cm.

The only ruckmen left on Melbourne’s list are untried pair Mitch King, who played his first VFL game back from a knee reconstruction last weekend, and long-term development prospect Lachlan Filipovic, who is a rookie.

“We’ll just have to assess that once the dust settles and get through the next couple of days,” Goodwin said of Spencer’s injury.

“(But) I think as a coaching group we’ve always said that we want to be adventurous and we might just have to be that now.

“We’ve lost a few soldiers with Max and Jake, potentially, so we’ll have to think a bit laterally and come up with a plan that’s going to work.

“That’s something we’ll discuss as a match committee … there are some options that are there.”

Melbourne were also without key forward Tim Smith in the second half after he suffered a heavy knock to the ribs and was sent to hospital.

Christian Petracca also battled through after suffering a knock to a knee early on, but the brave Demons still led by 20 points at three-quarter time.

The Tigers kicked five-goals-to-none in the final term to snatch the 12.16 (88) to 11.9 (75) win and Goodwin was loathe to blame the loss entirely on the injuries.

“It’s a tough balance as a coach,” he said.

“(I’m) so proud of the way they played, the way they fought … the way they gave everything they had for a large part of that game.

“But I reckon when you become a really good team you actually find a way to get the result you need and we’re not at that point yet.

“We still need to have more composure at the end of quarters and stop the opposition scoring better.”

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