Dennington set to welcome back key players for remaining rounds of WDFNL season

The eighth-placed Dogs have been hampered by injuries over the past month but will welcome back Sam Curtis, Jack Noonan and Josh Stapleton to strengthen the lines.

Important ruckman Reggie Barling, as well as Marcus Craig will both return from unavailability after the bye, with the latter having missed the past six matches due to work commitments.

Thornton said the bye had come at the right time for his group, who have struggled for continuity in recent weeks.

"There was probably a few that could have been available last week and they were sort of longer term injuries," he said.

"But we looked at it with the bye, weighed up whether to play them, and we opted to give a few guys an extra week to recover and train.

"The boys needed a refresher too, we're coming off the back of a few heavy losses, so it's good to get away from footy for a week I reckon.

"As much as we all love playing the game it's good to break it up a bit.

"The last break we had was Easter at the start of the year so it's massive for us to get it."

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Thornton confirmed 300-game champion Michael Phillips suffered a major setback in his Achilles injury and required surgery.

The former Dogs coach suffered the initial injury late in the club's emotional win against Timboon Demons in round four at home, which also happened to be his milestone 300^th match.

"'Philly' was recovering from the first Achilles which he ended up avoiding surgery, he was going well" Thornton said.

"Just recently he's actually re-done it and had to go in for surgery. It's really unfortunate for him."

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