New blood, old hands a plus for Demons

THE RETURN of some key Demons and a quartet of debutants were among the positives to be drawn from Melbourne's first round loss to North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday, according to coach Dean Bailey.

Defender Jared Rivers, midfielder Brent Moloney and the versatile Ricky Petterd, who played up forward against the Roos, all returned after injury-riddled years in 2007/08.

Rivers and Moloney both played their first match since round 11 last year, while Petterd was also back in action, after playing just the bookend rounds last year in rounds one and 22.

Bailey said the return of Rivers was a "big step".

"He's had a good pre-season; he's played 50 per cent game-time in Cairns (against the Brisbane Lions in the NAB Challenge) and then had 75 the following week and 80 the following week, so we had to put him out there to see what he had," Bailey said.

"He got through and he's pulled up really well, so a fit and a consistently playing Jared Rivers is good for us."

On Moloney, Bailey said: "Beamer, on a couple of occasions, showed some really desperate acts in the middle of the ground, even off [Brent] Harvey, and some of his second and third efforts were really good."

"He's really set himself for a good year so it was good to see him work really hard and he got some reward for it."

Bailey said Petterd also showed some good signs up forward, but could have made more of his opportunities.

"I thought Petterd had a couple of opportunities to really even be more effective," Bailey said.

"He's a very good mark, Rick, and a couple of times he was a little bit indecisive, but I thought he looked attacking up forward. He did look dangerous from a marking point of view."

The first-game efforts from Kyle Cheney, Jake Spencer, Neville Jetta and Jamie Bennell also pleased Bailey.

"I thought Kyle Cheney marking the ball looked composed at times," he said.

"I thought some of Spencer's ruck work and his second efforts were really good, but he's 19 so he's got some further development in him. The game time into him is going to be important.

"I thought Jetta showed a few clever things and he's got good agility and he moves well in the forward line, and Bennell is a player who at times showed a bit of speed and a bit of class."

"For a first game, I thought they all did something and I'd like to think that our members and supporters walked away thinking: 'Yeah, I can see those four players being good contributors for us'."