Sydney’s key place damage woes have gone to a brand new stage with versatile defender Robbie Fox getting into the AFL’s concussion protocols following a heavy collision on Saturday evening.
Fox was flattened after contesting a floor ball in opposition to Geelong’s Mitch Duncan however showing to go previous the ball, with Duncan bracing side-on for contact and catching the Swan excessive.
Sydney coach John Longmire mentioned the 30-year-old had failed a head influence evaluation following the horror 93-point loss and had been dominated out of the Swans’ vital spherical 7 conflict in opposition to GWS.
Longmire urged the MRO’s determination to not cost Duncan with tough conduct was inconsistent with the decision to penalise Lance Franklin for his opening spherical bump on Gold Coast defender Sam Collins.
“I’ll probably step back a little bit; you know we lost Franklin after round 1 under circumstances in which we thought he was trying to protect himself and he was suspended … (we’d like) just a little bit of consistency,” Longmire mentioned.
“But I also understand that not every incident in which players get knocked in the head is going to be suspended, either.”
Losing the 185cm-tall Fox’s means to play on tall forwards leaves the Swans bereft of defensive choices forward of the Battle of the Bridge, with duo Tom McCartin (concussion) and Dane Rampe (neck) nonetheless doubtful forward of the conflict, whereas Franklin (knee soreness) can even be assessed throughout the week.
Longmire mentioned Paddy McCartin was “fine” however remained unavailable for choice as he was assessed following his newest concussion.
“We’re not sure with Franklin, Rampe and Tommy McCartin just yet; whether there will be any availability this week from those three or not, we’ll just have to wait and see,” he mentioned.
“We’re hoping that they’ll start to get a bit of training tomorrow and a bit more training than what they had last week, but ultimately they’ll be assessed by the doctors whether they’re available or not … it won’t be influenced by Foxy not being available this week … it will just be influenced on whether they’re ready to go.”
The Swans coach defended the choice to play All-Australian midfielder Callum Mills at fullback, the place he was commonly pitted in opposition to the Cats’ energy ahead Tom Hawkins.
He mentioned membership debutant Aaron Francis had been required as a key ahead goal given the intense hamstring damage to Joel Amartey, and that the Swans had wanted senior heads down again.
“We needed a key forward, we need key backs, but that’s just the situation we’re in,” he mentioned. “We’ve got Will Gould, who only played his second game on the weekend, coming on from sub and playing on Tom Hawkins, and at times you need a few senior players down there just to help with that. We’d rather not play (Mills) there, but we needed to on the weekend.
“We’d love him to be playing in the midfield, but say we threw Francis and Gould back as fullback and centre-half back, who plays forward for us?”
Sydney can also be set to lose midfielder Matt Roberts for the medium time period after he injured his medial ligament in opposition to the Cats, with the 19-year-old resulting from bear scans afterward Monday.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
