GFNL club Newtown & Chilwell is facing the prospect of waiting 12 months to see two of its off-season additions pulling on a red and black guernsey.
Vincent Huf (Hamilton Kangaroos) and Nick Jephson (Kyabram) have both suffered long-term injuries in the past week.
Scans have confirmed Huf, a former Victoria underage cricket representative and Australian under-19 squad member, ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament at training last Thursday.
Jephson suffered a serious shoulder injury in the Towners’ practice match win over South Barwon at Jardon Oval on Saturday.
“Vincent joined us late in the pre-season and turned up on our doorstep after getting an apprenticeship in town, and he was going really well,” coach Steve Johnson said.
“We started to form some expectations that he was really going to help our team.
“I was only 20 metres away when he did it, and it was very innocuous.
“He said that he’d heard a bit of a pop, and thought it might have just been a dislocated kneecap.
“But he was in quite a lot of pain, so he went away and got a scan and unfortunately found out that he’d ruptured the ACL and done a bit of damage to his meniscus.”
Johnson says Jephson is likely to go under the knife to fix his damage.
“He was showing some really good signs throughout the pre-season and early on in our practice game against South Barwon.
“It was pretty clear that he’d popped his shoulder out when he was coming back to the bench after injuring it,
“He also got scans and a professional opinion, and it appears that he’s done some pretty severe damage in that shoulder.
“We’ll need to consult a surgeon in the coming days to find out what the best course of action is.
“The fear is that we might lose him for the season, but… we know he’s extremely diligent.”
Despite the injuries, Johnson was pleased with what his young team produced against South after the visitors made a quick start.
“I thought it was really good to play a quality opposition in a first practice game,” he said.
“You never know who’s playing and who’s not for the opposition. I think they might have had three or four of their best players not out there, and we were a little bit the same.
They jumped us early, and I thought, ‘Geez, have we done enough work in the pre-season?’
“But our boys certainly showed they were really fit and ran out the game really well, and we were happy with the way we played.”
The Eagles host VAFA powerhouse Uni Blues at Jardon Oval on Saturday.
Owning the Lara bye in Round 1 of the new season, they’ll travel to Melbourne to play Old Geelong on April 11 before facing Autumn Street rivals St Joseph’s on April 18 to commence their campaign.
Meanwhile, Tanner Owen has become the latest confirmed departure from reigning grand finalists St Joseph’s.
He’s headed to St Arnaud, which has already lured Joe and Nick Maishman and Sam Witherden to the North Central Club.
Owen’s defection makes it 10 members of last year’s grand final team who will play elsewhere in 2026, after the Betson brothers – Keelin and Liam – confirmed earlier this week that they were returning to Goulburn Valley league club Mooroopna.
K rock Football understands key forward Joel Edwards is keen to join Ballarat league club Sebastopol.
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