Shane McAdam will make his long-awaited Melbourne debut, nearly halfway through the AFL season.
The livewire small forward, recruited from Adelaide last year in the trade period, will play on Sunday against West Coast in Perth.
McAdam has been out of action because of persistent leg problems.
"Shane McAdam will definitely debut for the club, which is exciting for us," coach Simon Goodwin confirmed before Thursday morning training.
"He's put in a power of work, in terms of his preparation for his body. He had to really go back to base camp in terms of his ability to get his body right.
"He spent the last 10 to 12 weeks doing that. We're really excited with what he can bring to our club ... he's a proven AFL footballer and he came to our footy club to have an impact."
The timing is perfect for McAdam, who will play his first game for the Demons alongside fellow Indigenous player "Kozzy" Pickett in the Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
Melbourne hope McAdam and Pickett can form a lethal double act around the goals.
"He's incredibly excited to be in the team, to play alongside his great mate Kozzy Pickett - to get those guys working well together will be really important for us," Goodwin said.
Melbourne will be without forward Jacob van Rooyen because of concussion, and Goodwin said Ben Brown is "definitely in that conversation" as the Demons ponder selection changes.
They are also working on their starts, with Melbourne conceding a six-goal start to Carlton last week before going down by one point.
"We're going to do some things at training today, but starts in our game, it's something we need to work on," Goodwin said.
"They probably haven't been to the level that we would have liked, especially last week.
"It was not only the intensity of how we started, but our method and our role execution.
"But we also looked at the positives of what we were able to adjust, our ability to stay in the fight and work our way back into the game - we've looked at both sides of the game from last week."