The Clayton Oliver mystery has deepened with the Melbourne star failing to finish a training session crucial to proving his fitness for the Demons' clash with St Kilda.
Oliver has been sidelined for six weeks with hamstring issues and a nasty infected blister, and the midfielder maestro had been pushing for a return this weekend.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin had crossed his fingers in hoping the four-time Demons best-and-fairest could finally return after numerous false starts.
"We're really hopeful that he gets through this (training session on Wednesday) and he'll be available to put on the Melbourne jumper on Saturday night," Goodwin said on Wednesday.
But about an hour after Goodwin's press conference, Oliver left the ground early after failing to complete a series of run throughs.
Cameras caught the 25-year-old in a heated and lengthy discussion with a Demons staff member on the Casey Fields oval.
It comes as Melbourne players are practising their goal-kicking more than ever as the Demons attempt to turn around their concerning attacking output.
After winning just two of their last five games to be eight points behind the third-placed Brisbane Lions, Melbourne are clinging on to fourth spot by percentage.
During that poor run, they have averaged just 61.4 points a game.
In Sunday's shock two-point defeat to GWS, the Demons' return was just 5.15 from 73 inside-50 entries in wild and wet conditions in Alice Springs.
The 2021 premiers' forward line has come under intense criticism, something Goodwin accepts is fair.
"We've had five weeks where we've kicked no more than eight goals so we don't live under a rock and think it's not an issue," Goodwin said.
"We want to be a team that scores more on the back of some of the unbelievable work we're doing defensively and in our contest work.
"At some stage, it's going to turn and we're going to start to get bang for buck.
"We've given more minutes to goal-kicking than ever before in the history of our footy club."
Accuracy in modern footy is often a gripe of former star forwards, with sport science and fitness staff known to overrule frequent training in the art of goal-kicking.
But Goodwin said Melbourne's fitness group had allowed the players free reign to work their way out of the form slump.
"If you can look outside right now, and this is prior to training, we've got 30 blokes out there having shots at goal, running around poles," he said.
"Choco (Melbourne's head of development Mark Williams) is driving a really big program for us.
"Our high-performance team are very supportive of how much goal-kicking we do."
With premiership hero Bayley Fritsch out for up to eight weeks with a foot injury, Melbourne's forward set-up will look different for Saturday night's clash with St Kilda at Marvel Stadium.
Fritsch underwent surgery on Tuesday and Goodwin is hoping the 26-year-old can return around finals time.
Young key forward Jacob van Rooyen will almost certainly be back to face the Saints following his surprise axing to the VFL last weekend.
Van Rooyen responded to being dropped in style, booting four goals in Casey's VFL smashing of GWS.
