Demons eye AFL ruck advantage against Cats

Melbourne will be looking to exploit Geelong's makeshift ruck division when they restart their stuttering AFL campaign on Sunday.

Back-up Cats big man Darcy Fort has been called up for his first game of the year, replacing first-choice ruckman Rhys Stanley (knee) after managing just four senior matches in the previous two seasons.

The 26-year-old will have support from key forward Esava Ratugolea and, potentially, defender Mark Blicavs in opposition to Demons star Max Gawn.

But quelling the three-time All-Australian's influence at the MCG shapes as a tough ask.

"We certainly enjoy having Max in our team, he's one of the best ruckmen in the competition," Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said.

"One thing about Max is he doesn't take his opponents lightly, whether it's Darcy Fort or Blicavs to ruck against Max, we'll have to wait and see.

"But it's certainly an area of our game that we think is a strength and one we like to get an advantage in every week."

Despite Stanley being ruled out, Goodwin was wary of the Cats' array of options.

"One can run incredibly well and one's a real power athlete, so Max will do his preparation and we'll prepare as a team for all those different scenarios," Goodwin said.

"We spoke about that as a coaching group, about how the game might look under different scenarios.

"We'll be prepared for all those things."

Stanley has been Geelong's first-choice ruckman for the past two seasons and Cats coach Chris Scott was hopeful the sprained medial ligament would only keep him sidelined for one week.

"I'm still hopeful that it's not going to be too serious, but the likely outcome is that it will be weeks," Scott said.

"Maybe on the really optimistic end, it is just this week ... but after that we're not so sure.

"At the other end of the spectrum, we're very, very confident it's not a long-term thing.

"But where that fits in the middle, we're not exactly sure."

Melbourne will be back in action for the second time in the space of three months after last week's meeting with Essendon was postponed because of Conor McKenna's positive COVID-19 test.