Melbourne AFL co-captain Jack Viney is backing star forward Jesse Hogan to put a tumultuous fortnight behind him on Monday night when the Demons take on Richmond.
Hogan recently returned home to Perth to deal with personal issues, while he served a two-match suspension for striking, and was rebuked after he was pictured smoking a cigarette.
Melbourne lost both games in Hogan's absence, which was exacerbated by the loss of veteran Jordan Lewis to a three-game ban.
But Viney said Hogan wouldn't need to do anything extraordinary on his return.
"We're looking forward to getting him back in the team - he's a big part of it," Viney said.
"He's just got to come in and perform the way he was performing before.
"He's probably building trust more in the off-field side of things ... we've got no issues with how he performs on the field.
"He's a real soldier for us and we're looking forward to having him back."
The loss of the star pair to suspension came a week after important onballer Bernie Vince served a one-game ban for a similarly undisciplined act.
"All three of those players play unsociable football and play on the edge, but their decisions weren't team-first actions and they hurt the club," Viney said.
"So we certainly don't condone the actions but we still want to see them play on the edge and bring a certain amount of physicality.
"We want to be a physical football team, no doubt, but they were more silly errors."
Former Essendon defender Michael Hibberd is in line to make his debut for the Demons against Richmond after overcoming an achilles injury to play last week in the VFL.
Share
