BOTH Woorinen and Kerang will enter Saturday’s do-or-die preliminary final with selection headaches following bruising games at the weekend.
With both clubs having lengthy injury lists, their weekend matches have only exacerbated their problems with availability.
Taylor Cameron is a definite non-starter for Woorinen, after the attacking half-back suffered a concussion and broken jaw in the first quarter of the Tigers’ 21-point win over Lake Boga on Sunday.
Cameron left the field after the hit and didn’t return, while a number of other Tigers appeared to be carrying niggles at the end of the win, including star midfielder-forward Patrick Veszpremi.
Cameron will join Robbie Miller (broken leg), Clayton McCartney (injured shoulder), Tom Eltringham (hamstring), Angus Butterfield (shoulder), Lachlan Wright (shoulder) and Dom Gallo on the sidelines, with Wright an outside chance to return against the Blues.
Kerang have their own injury concerns stemming from Saturday’s 21-point loss to the Cohuna Kangas, with Jesse Clark (concussion) and Caleb Nitschke (shoulder) in serious doubt to take their place in the preliminary final. Nitschke left the field in serious discomfort after a collision in the third quarter, while Clark had to be helped from the field after a collision with Cohuna’s Jack Donat. Neither player took any further part in the match.
Like Woorinen, Kerang had a number of players missing from their best 22, with Sam Heavyside (hamstring injury) not being passed fit to play and being a late withdrawal on Saturday morning. It was a similar story with ruckman Troy Davis, who withdrew on the morning of the match.
Davis’s absence left the Blues exposed in the ruck, with back-up ruckman Scott Pay having not played since Kerang’s round 11 win over Koondrook-Barham with a torn Achilles tendon.
They will join the Blues’ best and fairest Bradlee Pay on the sidelines. Pay also injured his Achilles tendon late in the season.
With a grand final spot on the line, it’s expected both Heavyside and Davis will play against Woorinen, with the question being just what level of fitness they will have after both players have spent considerable time on the sidelines already this season.
