COMPETITION for spots is starting to heat up at South Warrnambool with coach Mat Battistello expecting a number of players to return in the coming weeks.
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The Roosters scored their first points of the 2021 Hampden league season with a gritty 5.16 (46) to 3.3 (21) victory over Warrnambool at a wet and windy Friendly Societies Park on Saturday.
Battistello expected a host of players to push for selection to play North Warrnambool Eagles next weekend.
"We have five to six back next week that might find it a little hard to push in there," he said after the win.
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"We have had some unavailabilities and injuries. We will slowly get them back in the next couple of weeks before we have a two-week bye.
"We wont rush them. We have always been pretty conservative but we look forward to seeing some of those players back."
Former AFL player Ricky Henderson and James Hussey highlight the possible inclusions for the Roosters. Sam and Nick Thompson, Liam Youl and Joe Dalton are also on the brink of returning.
"All those guys we feel like they will push and we also have our four (Greater Western Victoria) Rebels kids, as they become available in a couple of weeks when they have their three-week bye," Battistello said.
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"That was why it was so pleasing when we were scrapping for numbers given our unavailabilities for the 12 o'clock (reserves) game we were able to come out and win and bound together. That's where collectively as a club it's a good sign for our culture."
Warrnambool coach Ben Parkinson, who led his first game for the club after he was appointed as Matt O'Brien's replacement during the week, said his side was outplayed by the Roosters.
"It was a tight tussle but they were able to manufacture scoring opportunities a bit better than us," he said.
"We play a similar style of game but they just executed it a lot better then us.
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"There was a couple of disappointing things where we didn't turn the ball over enough and they were able to go the length of the ground into the wind, which is little bit concerning but it's something we can work on.
"We need to work on the execution of our ball use. We blazed away a bit and they were able to manufacture a man or two men behind the ball and we kicked to them a lot.
"It's all areas we can improve on. It's not the end of the world or anything like that but we definitely have got some areas of improvement."
Warrnambool will assess the fitness of Aiden Grant this week after he went down in the third quarter with a shoulder injury.
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