MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has been forced to miss the Demons' training session on Friday and his planned press conference after falling ill.
The Demons coach and assistant Adem Yze woke up feeling unwell on Friday morning and did not make the trip to HBF Arena for the club's session.
Assistant coach Troy Chaplin filled in for Goodwin's media duties, saying the club expected Goodwin to be back on deck on Saturday when the Demons will take part in some match practice.
"He's woken up a little bit crook, both him and (Yze). They'll be fine come tomorrow but the club didn't want to take any risks and the docs said just to stay back. It's a pretty light session today so all the other coaches and a few of the staff will help us out," Chaplin said.
The full Melbourne squad took part in the session ahead of next week's Grand Final clash with the Western Bulldogs, with Chaplin saying no players had been ill.
"I think that's always a concern but at the moment it's just those two boys who have woken up a little bit ill but all the players are going to be right to go," Chaplin said.
"Given the stakes at hand it's important to make sure we don't have something sweep through the whole club so the doctors are just playing it really safe."
Geelong was last week beset by a fleet of its players being hit by illness ahead of its preliminary final drubbing to Melbourne, but the Dees said they hadn't looked into the origins of the pair's illness.
"Not really, it's just bobbed up. All the other boys are OK at the moment so we'll just play it by ear and hopefully we've got on top of it pretty early," Chaplin said.
"We're still eight days out from the Grand Final and if it's going to happen, you'd rather it happen now. At the moment it's just those two guys and as of eight o'clock this morning they just went straight back to their room and there was no cross-contamination between coaches or players.
"Because we're out of lockdown and doing our own thing I don't think it's got anything to do with where we're staying. Those boys were out yesterday. It's unfortunate, it's one that's not high risk at the moment, the club is just taking ever precaution possible."
The Dees had a light session on Friday in front of more than 500 fans ahead of a closed match practice training run. Steven May will take part, but the Dees are unsure at this stage whether the key defender will complete the full match simulation after his hamstring issue last week.
