Friday’s early mail has dropped with key updates on Charlie Curnow, Sam Walsh, Connor Rozee, Jordon Sweet and Mattaes Phillipou among others.
Carlton coach Michael Voss has confirmed Charlie Curnow won’t play this weekend due to an ankle injury. Voss said: “I’ll start with the bad news, Charlie is not playing, so that’s the not-so-great news.
“We thought he might be able to pull up pretty well from some of the things he did the other day, but he hasn’t pulled up as well as we expected so we’ll just make that call now: it gives us an opportunity to lock in on what our forward mix is going to be. We’re banking in that they can get the job done a couple of times in a row.
“Adam Saad will play. There are varying degrees of hamstring injuries. He had a very low-grade that if we were really pushed, we probably could have done something last week, but we chose not to do that given the flight over to Perth as a factor. He came pretty close last week which gives us a fair bit of confidence that he’ll be right this week.”
Voss said Mitch McGovern would need to “get through a couple of things today” to prove his fitness while he was “pretty confident” Corey Durdin would play despite his shoulder knock.
The Blues coach also discussed Sam Walsh’s form. He said: “He probably hasn’t been at the high level he’s had, but I liked his game from last week though. I feel like he really got after some things in his game and brought some of that real run that we need. Some of it is patience and persistence to be able to work through his game.
“Sam Walsh is a terrific player and we probably benchmark him off some pretty high standards and that’s what we’ve been used to seeing. You don’t always meet those – which can be for him, not exactly where he wants to be – but he’s a really important player for us.”
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon confirmed Mattaes Phillipou will play after missing 2 games due to illness. He said: “Mattaes Phillipou will come back and play midfield this week. He was up and about. He lost a little bit of momentum.”
Lyon also flagged the impact of Hunter Clark, Zak Jones and Paddy Dow in supporting Jack Steele in their midfield in recent weeks, having enjoyed improved form.
Port coach Ken Hinkley downplayed any concerns over Connor Rozee along with Esava Ratugolea’s availability after missing training earlier this week.
Hinkley said: “We expect they’ll be fine because it was early in the week. They’ve basically had a cold. We expect they’ll be OK.”
He also offered an update on Jordon Sweet who has an elbow concern but has been named. He said: “You shouldn’t (assume). But all things are pointing towards the positive.”
Hinkley said Ryan Burton and Josh Sinn will replace the suspended Dan Houston’s rebounding half-back role.
He said: “We’ve got Ryan Burton who is a very good player, Josh Sinn is very good player – they come in and play. They might not quite be Dan Houston just yet but we’re hoping that they can take a big slice of that.”
GWS coach Adam Kingsley was asked about using Toby Bedford to tag Adam Treloar, or Marcus Bontempelli instead. He said: “Possibly, he (Treloar) was best on ground last time we played them. He’s certainly a really dangerous player.
“Bontempelli, we know is a star of the competition. There’s a few options for us. We’ll chose one to start on but that doesn’t mean we don’t flip during the game and take the guy who’s in the most damaging form.”
On Brent Daniels’ role and form, Kingsley added: “We just encourage him to play to his strengths. Put himself in positions where he can influence the game which he’s done superbly. When the game isn’t going our way, we’ll shuffle the magnets. He’s one of those magnets, whether it’s in the midfield or deeper inside the forward 50. He can usually provide a spark.”
