Minor premier Torquay will welcome back Bellarine great James Darke and hasn’t ruled out including young ruck Ed McCoy for Saturday’s second semi-final against Anglesea.
Darke – a four-time Les Ash medallist – hasn’t played since undergoing surgery on a broken hand in the loss to Modewarre in Round 15.
It was just his sixth game back from over 12 months on the sidelines after undergoing a knee reconstruction that saw him miss out on playing in last year’s grand final win over Drysdale.
“It was never really in doubt (he’d play), to be fair; he wasn’t going to go through what he had to sit through last year,” coach Dom Gleeson said.
“It really pushed him to recover well from his ACL injury and the hand injury.
“The hand injury was significant enough to miss a couple of weeks, but you wouldn’t know, really.
“His preparation’s sound.”
McCoy, the reigning Rookie of the Year, whose early season form earned him an invite to train with VFL club Werribee, has been battling a knee issue since the win over Barwon Heads in Round 9.
“I think he’s a genuine chance,” Gleeson said. “He’s been at up at Werribee, so probably out of sight, out of mind a little bit, having the staff up there looking after him.
“He’s probably surprised us (in) the last two training sessions at how well he’s travelling.
“Anglesea, Drysdale, and Modewarre, with their ruck stocks, you go, ‘Gees. Ed would be really handy with his height’.
“So we’re not certainly counting him out. Our final selection will be tomorrow night; he’ll certainly be in our (squad of) 25.”
Banjo Dyer (foot) and Roy Dixon (calf) are the only players Gleeson won’t be able to consider this weekend.
“I reckon they’ll be back (for the) second final,” he said.
“It’s probably a little bit early without the body of work the likes of Darke and Ed McCoy have been able to do – 13km sessions leading up to this week.
“They’re probably just a week off.”
Torquay, guaranteed at least one game on Leopold’s Memorial Reserve, trained at the venue on Saturday morning before watching Anglesea’s qualifying final win over Drysdale.
Gleeson says several parts of the Roos’ game caught his eye.
“Really good ball users… really well drilled,” he said.
“And led really well by Jordy (Jordan Keras), who we’ve got a lot of respect for. (He’s) just in and under, and he goes to war every time he plays.
“They’ve got a great mix of inside-outside ball use, (and) pretty well structured.
“I think they thoroughly deserve the position they’re in.”
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