Fremantle Dockers great Michael Walters set to face Melbourne Demons with Tom Emmett likely to be dropped

Fremantle small forward Tom Emmett has been dropped meaning club great Michael Walters will play this weekend after being put on notice by his coach. Emmett has been named in Peel Thunder’s extended squad to face Claremont on Saturday and will miss his first AFL game for the season after he was not on the flight to Alice Springs. Neil Erasmus has also been named on-field for the Thunder after being listed as an emergency for the Dockers last night and was also not on the plane. Sam Sturt and last week’s substitute Corey Wagner both travelled to Alice Springs today ahead of Sunday’s clash with Melbourne at Traeger Park. Sturt has been named in the side, while Michael Frederick will return from concussion in place of Emmett and Matt Johnson, who has been rested, but made the trip to the Northern Territory on Friday. Walters has survived the axe amid a lean run of form in recent weeks. Coach Justin Longmuir on Thursday called for more from the veteran and said Walters himself would expect better. “We need a little bit more out of Sonny, he knows that. And he’d like a little bit more out of his own game as well, so we’re on the same page there,” he said. “A lot of the things he’s doing pretty well and there’s going to be more than one of two changes this week, so we’ll see how it falls for Sonny. But we want him up and going. “We probably lack a bit of finish in our front half and he definitely brings that, we’ve got to work out how to get him more of the ball and getting more involved in the game. We’re working closely with him.” West Australian Jacob van Rooyen will miss the clash for Melbourne with an injury, while Jack Billings, Bailey Laurie, Daniel Turner and Ben Brown have all been added to their squad as options.