Hulk Hogan to get first taste with Dees
Melbourne have promised to take a conservative approach to boom recruit Jesse Hogan's first season despite selecting him in their squad for tomorrow night's NAB Cup matches against North Melbourne and Richmond at Etihad Stadium.
The Demons recruited Hogan, 195cm and 97kg, in last year's mini draft, trading pick three in the national draft to Greater Western Sydney.
The Claremont key forward dominated in the WAFL colts last year.
Some recruiting scouts rate him the best contested marking forward in junior ranks since Nick Riewoldt more than a decade ago.
Hogan turned 18 last week, so he was too young for the national draft, but can play in the NAB Cup.
It is the same path followed by WA's Jaeger O'Meara, who spent last year training with Gold Coast and is now on their senior list.
Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said Hogan, who is expected to play one game tomorrow, was looking forward to testing himself against men in the VFL, but wouldn't play every week.
"We've got a plan to play Jesse in the VFL," Mahoney said.
"We've got a target of games that we'd like him to play, but that's all dependent on what happens through the year.
"We don't want him to get overworked and injuries may change that, but somewhere between 12 to 16 games at VFL would be good.
"The great thing about Jesse being able to train with us for a year before playing AFL is he's able to train with experienced defenders. He was on James Frawley in the intraclub game."
Perth's Dean Kent - last year's Jack Clarke medallist as the best-and-fairest player in the colts competition - has also been picked for tomorrow's games.
The on-baller kicks left-footed and has explosive pace. Mahoney said Kent would play half-forward.
"Dean has been able to jump straight into training and perform really well," Mahoney said. "His form at training has been very good and he started very well in the intraclub last week. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do."
Melbourne also chose experienced recruits Chris Dawes, from Collingwood, David Rodan (Port Adelaide) and Shannon Byrnes (Geelong) among 11 new faces.
Dual premiership player Byrnes kicked five goals in last week's intraclub game in a sign of the value he could bring to the team.
Early draft pick Jimmy Toumpas, father-son selection Jack Viney, VFL recruit Matt Jones, SANFL star Dean Terlich, former Kangaroo Cameron Pederson and former Cats defender Tom Gillies were also chosen.
Richmond bolstered their list with recycled players at the end of last season and named Ricky Petterd (Melbourne), Chris Knights (Adelaide), Aaron Edwards (North Melbourne) and Orren Stephenson (Geelong).
Top-10 selection Nick Vlastuin is also in the squad. Peel defender Kamdyn McIntosh was left out.
North Melbourne named Brent Harvey despite the former captain being suspended for the first six home-and-away games.
Former Port Adelaide player Ben Jacobs and former Demon Jordan Gysberts were also selected.
We don't want him to get overworked. " Josh Mahoney
