INJURIES to star players are easing Hampden coach Chris McLaren’s selection headaches for Saturday’s country championships clash against the Murray league.
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The Bottle Greens will be missing their three biggest names — Port Fairy’s former Melbourne-listed player Dan Nicholson, Warrnambool’s former Adelaide Crows-listed midfielder Tim McIntyre and Camperdown coach Phil Carse — to injuries.
McLaren yesterday revealed Carse had withdrawn because of a calf complaint aggravated on Saturday, while McIntyre tweaked a hamstring.
Nicholson, who suffered a foot fracture in the pre-season competition, has yet to play with the Seagulls, ruling him out.
“All three have been terrific in coming to training and their promotion of interleague to their teammates,” McLaren said.
“I think Dan Nicholson will be the runner because he really wants to be involved.
“Tim and Phil were really disappointed when I spoke to them over the weekend because they really wanted to play.”
But McLaren said their absences opened opportunities for a bunch of talented players.
“The overflow of on-ballers in the squad was enormous,” he said.
“When you put Carse and McIntyre in, we had Damien McCorkell, Tempy (Isaac Templeton), Jackson Bell, Dylan Gunning, Brendan Moore, Sam McLachlan, Matthew Wines. As much as we would love to have McIntyre and Carse, we are really strong in that area. We have plenty of guys who can go through there, some real class individual players
“I was looking at the board the other night trying to work out how I was going to get this bloke and that bloke into the side and thinking how hard it was going to be to have some conversations.”
Hampden’s original 37-member squad has been trimmed to 28 by injury and unavailability.
McLaren said he was excited about each remaining players’ potential in the final side.
His attacking stocks are also deep, with the league’s leading goalkicker, Warrnambool’s Travis Graham, Terang Mortlake focal point Steve Staunton and Warrnambool’s power forward Sam Cowling on track to form a potent trio. With Cobden’s VFL-listed Brody Mahoney, Portland’s Luke Crane and Koroit’s Ben Dobson also in the squad, the Bottle Greens will have no shortage of goal-scoring options.
Young Portland ruckman Ben Malcolm is set to make his interleague debut after Koroit big man Jeremy Hausler was ruled out because of soreness and work commitments.
Malcolm is expected to be one of several fresh faces donning the green and white jumpers for Saturday’s match at Warrnambool’s Reid Oval.
McLaren will put the squad through its paces tonight at Reid Oval and again on Thursday night before finalising his side.
