Thursday’s team selections bring some good news on the injury front, including LDU, Hopper & Yeo returning, many AF/SC relevant names hold their spots, including Will Phillips, meanwhile Sam Walsh is not far away.
TEAM NEWS
Key ins: L.Davies-Uniacke, J.Hopper, B.Humphrey, E.Yeo
Key holds: W.Phillips, L.Cowan, O.Hollands, T.Young, O.Baker, L.Stocker, J.Amartey, W.Setterfield, H.Rowston, J.van Rooyen, J.McVee
Key outs: J.Goater, L.Pedlar (susp), S.Berry, M.Johnson, S.Flanders (inj), D.Sheed (inj)
Named on extended benches (26): A.Davey, J.Menzie, J.Fahey, A.Cadman, E.Hewett, K.Chandler, K.Pickett, M.Duncan, J.Bowes, T.Bruhn, J.Worpel, C.Mackenzie, J.Weddle
Notable omissions: C.Constable, T.McLean not in emergencies
Dom Sheed (AF $613k SC $365k MID) is the latest addition to West Coast’s long injury list. He will miss this week’s clash against Melbourne, with the club update saying: “Dom Sheed was the latest casualty after an elbow struck him in the throat at main training today. He has a fractured larynx and went to hospital to undergo observation. He could not be considered for selection.”
DEBUTANT ALERT
The Gold Coast Suns have selected Bailey Humphrey (AF $290k SC $184k M/F) to debut against St Kilda. Pick 6 in the 2022 AFL Draft, Humphrey averaged 16.5 disposals (60.5 AF pts) in the VFL in the last two games after missing Round 1 with a foot injury.
UPDATES
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick spoke to reporters about Jacob Hopper (AF $722k SC $332k MID) and Dustin Martin (AF $664k SC $480k M/F) returning to the side. He said: “They’ll train today, get through training, hopefully fully, and will put their hand up to play. Two welcome additions, both were touch and go last week. Shorter break, we just couldn’t quite get them to the line. But we look forward to welcoming them back this week which is great.”
Hardwick touched on Samson Ryan (AF $235k SC $123k R/F) and his value to the team. He said: “We’re grooming him more as a key forward. We really like what he brings in that part of the game. The conditions probably conspired against him (last week). We’re really bullish on what Samson can offer, and he’ll play this week.”
The Tigers coach also spoke about Toby Nankervis (AF $839k SC $553k RUC) being managed at training. Hardwick said: “He has got, like all rucks, some issues along the way. He’ll do limited again today, but we’re under the understanding that he will be fine for Saturday.”
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon expects Mason Wood (AF $740k SC $449k MID) to play this week against Gold Coast. He said: “He’ll train and play, he’s fine. Turned out to be lower grade, just didn’t look good I think. He has been really important to us.”
The Saints coach also expects Liam Stocker (AF $541k SC $258k DEF) to be good to go. Lyon said: “We expect Stocker to play. He just had a little tweak to the ankle. Ankle has responded pretty quickly. He’ll be fine, he’ll train and play.” Jack Steele (AF $969k SC $604k MID) is still a few weeks away.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke about the return of Kysaiah Pickett (AF $543k SC $365k FWD) from a two-game suspension. He told reporters: “He’s done a bit of extra conditioning. We’ve tried to it (suspension) as an opportunity to continue to grow his game. Before he left the team he was playing a bit of midfield and a bit more forward, and we’re going to look to do that again with him.”
Goodwin also spoke about the fight for spots in the forward line, which includes the likes of Kade Chandler (AF $393k SC $206k FWD) and Jacob van Rooyen (AF $238k SC $123k FWD). He said: “I think all our forwards are going to continue to fight for positions in the team. We want to continue to pursue Harrison Petty as a forward at times, and there’ll be times when he plays back. Jacob van Rooyen has come into the team and played some strong footy first week, Tom McDonald is back in good form, Ben Brown is kicking goals. It’s competitive for spots, but we want to make sure we’ve got really good options available to us.”
Max Gawn (AF $849k SC $622k RUC) is still a least a month away from a return. Goodwin said: “We will be making sure that Max is fully fit by the time he comes back. He’s back running which is fantastic to see. But we’re going to be really conservative with Max, he needs to be 100% right to go and get a few weeks of training under his belt so we don’t get any reoccurrence with that injury. We want him to be fully fit for the whole year.”
Carlton coach Michael Voss has ruled out Sam Walsh (AF $916k SC $610k MID) from a return to play on Friday, but is likely next week. He said: “He won’t play this week. We’ve been pretty steadfast in our position with him. We’ve taken a pretty steady approach, and he’s had some milestones that he’s had to achieve. We’ve stuck to those milestones, one of those last milestones was being able to train again fully. Yesterday he was able to do that, so barring him not pulling up well from that particular session, he’ll play next week.” Matt Kennedy and Jack Martin have also been ruled out, but are expected to be available for next week.
The Western Bulldogs have signed James O’Donnell as a Category B rookie. O’Donnell is a former cricketer who is listed at 197cm and 88kg. He played junior football for Kew and Xavier College, with his last match being in 2019 before deciding to pursue cricket.
