MELBOURNE’S Nathan Jones says while losing star midfielder Brock McLean was a “shattering” blow his side has the depth to cover the rugged onballer.

The buoyant mood at the Junction Oval was knocked down a peg earlier this week when news filtered through that McLean, who injured an ankle in his side’s memorable one-point win over the Brisbane Lions on Sunday, would miss the remainder of 2008.

But Jones, who relishes teaming up with his midfield mate each week, doesn’t believe McLean’s loss will throw any more responsibility onto his 20-year-old shoulders and that the Demons have enough talent to get by for the rest of the season.

“Obviously Jimmy McDonald would come back in and I’d assume he’d play a midfield role and then there’s Brucey [Cameron Bruce] who’s an established midfielder within the competition,” Jones said.

“We’ve got plenty of other options … it’s going to give other blokes the opportunity to come in.”

Jones said younger players such as Shane Valenti and Simon Buckley – both members of Sunday’s winning team – would also be given greater opportunities to cement their spots in the 22.

McLean, seen as a potential future captain by many at the Demons, showed all his grit to come back onto the field against the Lions after injuring his left ankle mid-way through the match.

“It sort of epitomised how we played on the day I suppose,” Jones said in reference to McLean’s gutsy display to retake the field.

Jones said while the Demons would miss his on-field presence, the hard-running youngster would also miss not having his good mate beside him for the rest of the season.

“He’s been consistently good and I reckon he was so close to having a real breakout or standout performance, not that he hasn’t been consistently good for us … but I reckon things were really starting to come good for him,” Jones said.

“And we were feeling like it was starting to come together for us both, where we were starting to complement each other.”

Despite registering a superb, upset win over the Lions there will be no resting for Dean Bailey’s men.

While many sides use the split round to put their feet up for a week, Jones said Melbourne had decided to continue with a fairly normal routine.

“We sort of spoke about it last week and the boys are just keen to get a bit of training in this week and I think we’re going to have the weekend off,” Jones said.

“We’re just going to have Saturday and Sunday off and then come in next week and prepare for the Doggies.

“We always were going to train leading into the split round … we’re going to train Friday morning and then from midday Friday until Monday we’ll have a break.”

The Demons’ other win this season – against Fremantle – also came before the week off leading into the Hall of Fame Tribute match, so Jones hopes history doesn’t repeat and his side doesn’t emerge from its break flat as it did on that occasion.

“We obviously beat Freo last time but had no momentum running into the following week after the week off and we got smacked by Adelaide,” he said.

“So yeah the boys are taking it upon themselves to get a good session in this week.

“Hopefully we can take what we did on Sunday into the next game against the Doggies and we’re in really good form.”