The early mail is trickling out with updates ahead of Round 19, headlined by Tristan Xerri, Connor Rozee, Luke Jackson, Hayden Young, Brodie Grundy and more.
North Melbourne’s appeal at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday was unsuccessful, with Tristan Xerri’s three-game ban upheld, meaning he’ll miss their Round 19, 20 and 21 games against Sydney, Geelong and St Kilda respectively.
Port Adelaide won’t make a call on Connor Rozee’s availability until later in the week following a hand injury, according to coach Ken Hinkley. He said: “We’ll give him a chance to see how he is.
“If there’s any risk and he can’t handle the issues that he’s got with his hand, we just wouldn’t play him. It’ll be simple. We won’t make that call til later in the week. Connor, he is the captain, he gets the choice – and I will trust him to make that decision.”
Jason Horne-Francis is on crutches following foot surgery, although Hinkley hasn’t put a line through him for the year yet. He said: “We will let him recover and make some assessments as he goes through his rehab. I’m not sure if it is or it isn’t his last game this year. It may well be.”
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir flagged Hayden Young could return this Sunday from a long-term hamstring injury and didn’t rule out using him as the sub. He said: “He’ll train today, and then this afternoon or tomorrow we’ll decide how we go with the team.
“There’s a few options, so whatever suits him and whatever sets him up best for the back end of the year. You can manage players. We’ve got mids who play lower game time. We can even go lower than what we do with some of the other mids.
“So there is that opportunity. But we’ve got to weigh up if that’s the best thing for him going forward as well. It (sub) is in the mix.”
Luke Jackson’s role was also discussed. Longmuir said: “I’m pretty keen to keep Jacko’s role going. We’ve chopped and changed a fair bit with Jacko, and I want to keep it pretty consistent for him.
“To have another high-quality mid come in, who is big-bodied and physical, might allow us to use Andy (Brayshaw) and Caleb (Serong) a little bit more flexibly, like we did back end of last year and like we did when ‘Youngy’ was in the team earlier in the year. It might take a little bit of the load off them.”
GWS coach Adam Kingsley confirmed Jesse Hogan (foot) and Josh Kelly (hip) won’t play this week with their short turnaround.
Kingsley indicated Stephen Coniglio is set to return after 2 weeks in the VFL, providing a potential forward downgrade option. He said: “I think ‘Cogs’ will be good, he got through main training today, he felt really good, he’s had two games back (in the VFL). We think he’s ready to go so I’d expect to see him.”
Toby Greene didn’t train with the main group on Tuesday. Kingsley said: “He plays a difficult position, gets bashed around a bit. I think he’ll be fine to go, he’s just managing a few little things.”
Kingsley also flagged Toby Bedford potentially tagging Zach Merrett this Thursday. He said: “It’s something we know we can do to. We may very well go to it with Merrett this week. (But) we think our midfield has been performing really well without the tag.”
Sydney coach Dean Cox heaped praise on ruckman Brodie Grundy for his recent form. He said: “A lot of people talk about his month. For five or six weeks before that month, he wasn’t beaten.
“Not only wasn’t beaten, but actually played to his strengths and impacted the way he always has. His ruckwork, scrambling and intensity around the contest has been great, but I think his aerial presence is starting to have more of a say as well.”
Essendon have confirmed 198cm key forward Liam McMahon will make his AFL debut, having been taken with pick 18 in this year’s Mid-Season Draft.
Dons coach Brad Scott said Dylan Shiel, Matt Guelfi, Archie Perkins and Jade Gresham will all return to the senior side out of the VFL, with Nic Martin, Will Setterfield, Ben Hobbs and Nate Caddy confirmed out. Elijah Tsatas will also miss with a hamstring injury.
