Drysdale will get back Ben Fennell, but lose Lauchie Dalgleish for Sunday’s elimination final clash with Anglesea at Portarlington Recreation Reserve
Fennell was a late withdrawal from last week’s loss to Barwon Heads, which cost the Hawks the double chance, after copping a knock to the throat in the previous round’s meeting with Portarlington.
Dalgleish, who has kicked 25 goals from 13 games this year, suffered an ankle injury against the Seagulls.
The former Essendon AFL player will get an indication of its seriousness when he meets with a sports doctor later today (Thursday).
“He had some scans earlier in the week, and it came back a little bit cloudy,” coach Ben Carmichael said this morning.
“He’ll see the sports doc this afternoon to just go through the severity and what it looks like.
“But, he certainly won’t play this week.”
Carmichael says Fennell being sidelined allowed the hard-nosed midfielder a rest before Drysdale’s fourth consecutive finals campaign.
“He’s played every game, and he’s fairly combative, and he gets a lot of attention every week,” Carmichael said.
“It was just a good chance of freshening him up.
“He just had that little throat hit, so he’ll be ready to go.”
Talented youngster James Robbins is also set to return, with Carmichael preparing to make a tough call at selection, which is softened somewhat by the club’s reserves also in finals action.
“It’s been like this all year,” he said. “It’s a week-to-week proposition, depending on who we’re playing and what our best side looks like for that.”
“We’ll choose the best side that we think will be a chance to beat Anglesea.
“But, we might have one or two that might miss and know the lucky thing is that they still get to play footy.”
At Anglesea, all eyes will be on whether coach Jordan Keras rolls the dice with the exciting Noah McGregor-Dawson.
In his third season at Ellimatta Reserve, injury has seen McGregor-Dawson stuck on 49 senior games with the Roos since being injured in the Round 8 win over Modewarre.
Sunday’s match will be broadcast via krockfootball.live and FM 88.5 at the ground.
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