Melbourne spearhead Ben Brown isn't certain to earn an automatic recall for Saturday's AFL match against Essendon in Adelaide as competition for spots in the forward line heats up.
Brown missed Sunday's 63-point mauling of West Coast due to a minor back injury.
Tom McDonald earned a recall in Brown's place and made the most of the opportunity with four goals, three contested marks and three score assists.
Young gun Jacob van Rooyen showed glimpses of his potential on the way to two goals - a week after kicking three on debut.
Defender Harrison Petty was again used up forward, going goalless from his 10 disposals but providing valuable back-up in the ruck.
Brown kicked nine goals across the opening three rounds before going down with injury, and Goodwin now faces a juggling act to fit him back in the side.
"We'll have to assess him through the week to see how he's pulled up," Demons coach Simon Goodwin said of Brown.
"But it's competitive. We sort of take a bit of a squad mentality with some of this stuff as well.
"We've got really competitive spots in our team and one of those is our key forward position.
"So we'll have to have a good think about how that looks for next week."
Defender Michael Hibberd is in doubt after being subbed out with an achilles tendon issue, but fellow backman Jake Lever (ankle) is expected to be fit.
Goodwin heaped praise on ruckman Brodie Grundy, who tallied 22 disposals, 33 hit outs, seven clearances and six tackles in arguably his best game since crossing from Collingwood.
"I thought he was pretty special for us," Goodwin said.
"He's added a lot. He's not just a great person on the field, he's a great teammate off the field as well.
"He loves the game, he thinks about it differently, and since Max (Gawn) has been out of the team, he's just grown in his ability to own that lead ruck and really start to play the game a little bit differently for us.
"We're proud of how he's developing."
