THE South Bendigo coaching staff will face a difficult night at the selection table tonight, with four players set to return for the Bloods’ Bendigo Bank Bendigo Football League qualifying final against Eaglehawk this weekend.
Aaron Connaughton (knee tendonitis), Daniel Anderson (knee soreness), assistant coach Leigh Davies (groin soreness) and full-forward Dayne Few (unavailable) all missed South Bendigo’s 150-point win over Castlemaine in last Saturday’s final home and away round.
However, Bloods coach Rick Coburn said yesterday the star quartet would return to take on the Hawks at the Queen Elizabeth Oval this Saturday night.
Making the selection task all the more difficult for the Bloods is that they got through their game against the Magpies unscathed, meaning there are no automatic omissions from the winning side through injury.
“We’ll pretty much have a full list to pick from, so we’re going to have some tough calls to make,’’ Coburn said.
“We haven’t had to make any tough calls like this yet this year because we’ve always seemed to have a couple of injuries.’’
The Bloods don’t expect to regain Bendigo Bombers-listed player Steven Stroobants.
Stroobants, who has kicked 45 goals for South Bendigo this year, has spent the past two games with the Bombers, who this Sunday meet the Box Hill Hawks in a Victorian Football League elimination final.
“We’ve probably got more games out of Steven than we thought we would have, so we’re not jaded about that arrangement.... we’ve done really well out of it,’’ Coburn said.
South Bendigo will carry a 17-game winning streak into Saturday night, with the Bloods not having been beaten since losing to Golden Square by 86 points in the grand final rematch in round one.
In what was a slice of fixturing luck for the Bloods last week, their round 18 game against the Magpies was played under lights at the QEO, giving them a good dress rehearsal for the conditions they will be confronted with this weekend.
“Like the other sides, we hadn’t played at night for some time, so it was nice to get in that bit of preparation for a night final,’’ Coburn said.
Meanwhile at Eaglehawk, full-forward Matt Gretgrix is still no certainty to line up against the Bloods.
Gretgrix has kicked 73 goals for the Hawks this season, but a hamstring injury has kept him out of the past three games.
“I don’t know whether he’s going to be available... we’ll be really cautious with him,’’ Hawks coach Derrick Filo said.
“One of the advantages of getting the double chance is that if you need to rest a player to be on the safe side, you just have to do it.
“If he’s even the slightest bit not confident of getting through then we won’t play him.’’
While there is still doubt over Gretgrix, the Hawks will regain teenager Tom Metherell, who has been a revelation in his first season of senior football.
The winner of the qualifying final will meet top-of-the-ladder Golden Square in the second semi-final.
In this Sunday’s elimination final at the QEO, Sandhurst will take on Maryborough in what will be their first finals clash since the Dragons beat the Magpies by 12 points in the 2003 first semi-final.
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