SANFL 2016: Woodville-West Torrens coach Michael Godden faces tough calls
WOODVILLE-West Torrens coach Michael Godden faces an agonising decision which could cost one of his players a premiership medal.
WOODVILLE-West Torrens coach Michael Godden faces an agonising decision which could cost one of his players a premiership medal.
Not only is Godden being challenged by the question of who to leave out of the side to front Sturt in the grand final at Adelaide Oval Sunday, but does he keep a player out of the reserves grand final as insurance for the league contest?
The Eagles will take on North Adelaide in the reserves premiership decider and they are seriously considering holding out a player as an emergency should there be a late injury in the league side.
“We have spoken about leaving a player of the reserves game and are still contemplating that,” Eagles football manager Luke Powell said. “But would it be right to stop a guy playing football and an opportunity to win a premiership?”
Teams have been known to lose a player to injury in the warm-up. The Double Blues were almost without Brodie Martin for the second semi-final after he hurt his back in the warm-up.
Henry Carey was summoned to ready himself for the game, only for Martin to recover following treatment.
Godden has already been forced to tell two players from the line-up which conquered the Double Blues two weeks ago to qualify for the season finale they will not be required for the league side.
Rover James Boyd will come back into the side after using a testing training session at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night to prove he had fully recovered from surgery to repair a broken collarbone.
He successfully negotiated the 90-minute workout with the team before having the injury punished with tackling drills. He was required to tackle as well as being tackled.
“He was dumped three or four times and he will get through anything after what he got through on Wednesday night,” Powell said. “Everyone got through the session and it was good to get on Adelaide Oval again.
“We were waiting to see how the boys pulled up (yesterday) before finalising the side.”
The Eagles will have their final workout today as well as attend the player presentation in Rundle Mall at noon.
The Double Blues had their main weekly session at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, although key forward Kory Beard and in-form Tom Harms adopted a restricted program because of soreness.
“Everyone is OK to go and I’d be surprised if we don’t go into the grand final unchanged,” Double Blues football manager Shane Grimm said.
The Double Blues had a light run at Unley Oval last night.