Dean Cox has confirmed Isaac Heeney has been ruled out of Sydney’s clash with Hawthorn on Thursday night.
Cox spoke to the media in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon, revealing Heeney hadn’t made the trip after experiencing hamstring tightness last game.
Cox said: “He came close. The five-day break didn’t help, but having said that, it’s really important with the player he is to manage him first.”
North coach Alastair Clarkson offered a sobering update on Colby McKercher who had lower time on ground last round after a pre-season finger injury.
Clarkson said: “That’s another situation where we used that very advantage of the interchange bench to allow him to just have reduced game time because he’s missed four weeks with that finger injury.
“I’d imagine that just bit by bit his game time starts to come up a little bit.”
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge spoke about the status of Adam Treloar who has had some injury troubles in pre-season.
He said: “He’s building up his game time. He got through about three quarters of game time last week, so hopefully we can continue to build that and we can consider him for selection at AFL level.”
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks confirmed Toby Murray will play again, acting as their second ruck, meaning Lachlan McAndrew won’t have Reilly O’Brien as a back-up.
Nicks said: “Toby deserved his opportunity. He’ll get another opportunity. He did everything we asked of him on the weekend. We’re not bringing in another ruckman. He’s going to play.”
