SIMON Goodwin is not ruling out a return for Brodie Grundy in Melbourne's clash against Richmond on Sunday.

Two games on from sending his ruckman back to the VFL to work on his forward craft, the Demons coach insists Grundy remains in the club's plans, despite the dominant form of captain Max Gawn.

Grundy was unconvincing for Casey against the VFL's bottom-ranked Coburg last weekend, kicking 1.3 to go with 12 disposals and 12 hitouts.

But Goodwin says the 202-centimetre South Australian remains "in the mix" to face the Tigers on Sunday and reprise his shared ruck role with Gawn.

"There's a fair bit of talk about Brodie but the plan hasn't changed," Goodwin said.

"He's working incredibly hard on his game, we got him some forward exposure last week at VFL level which we're really encouraged about.

"We don't have to pick our team for a couple of days. We'll get to our main training session, assess how things are going and then pick our team accordingly.

"He's in the mix, he's progressing well."

Speculation continues to mount that Grundy will need to find a third club in as many years at the end of the season, but Goodwin insisted he has seen enough to encourage him the split ruck duty could still work.

"We're really open minded ... we love the combination," the coach said.

"What we're trying to do is get a bigger impact when either of the rucks are forward of centre, and Brodie's a big part of that.

"This isn't just a short-term thing, this is about getting better."

Goodwin said the Demons still have no definitive timeline for the return of star midfielder Clayton Oliver from his hamstring injury.

Oliver's absence has allowed Melbourne to experiment with different combinations at centre bounces, with some positive early touches from livewire Kysaiah Pickett in the Dees' four-point win against Adelaide last Sunday.

"We've added a lot of variety to our midfield group and 'Kozzy' (Pickett) is a part of that," Goodwin said.

"We wanted to have some high rotation through the middle of the ground. It's not only 'Kozzy', it's Christian Petracca getting through there at times, we've got Tom Sparrow, James Jordon that have certainly stepped up without Clayton.

"We've got some really good depth through the middle of the ground, and we're going to continue to utilise that."