EFL 2019: Templestowe battling injury crisis in the Eastern Football League

Templestowe was quick to emerge as a team to beat in Division 2 this year, but its premiership claims have been dented by a mounting injury toll.

Templestowe coach Craig De Corsey. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Templestowe is battling a crippling injury crisis but expects to get as many as 10 players back in the second half of the season.

The Dockers emerged as one of the teams to beat in Division 2 this year after wins over last season’s grand finalists Ringwood and Boronia in the first three rounds.

But their finals chances have been dented by a long injury list.

Senior players Jason Davenport, Tim Stewart, Sascha Oerhli, Bailey Griffiths, Adrian Fancellu, David Di Stefano and Billy Lodge are all on the sidelines.

Vice-captain Alex Brown, Daniel Cripps and Matt Neagle will also miss the rest of the year.

And recruit Liam McKenna has been on VFL duties with Essendon, where he has played the last six games.

“We’ve got 18 on the injury list from our senior squad at the moment — that’s out of seniors and reserves — and out of those 18, we should get 10 back after the bye,” Templestowe coach Craig De Corsey said.

“We’ve played 38 players in eight rounds, which is a huge number.

“I think most clubs wouldn’t be able to call upon 38 players at senior level to be honest, so it’s great from that end that we’ve been able to play some really great footy.”

Templestowe entered the Queen’s Birthday bye with a 5-3 record and De Corsey noted “we have been in a winnable position” in every game.

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Its only defeats have been to Ringwood (22 points), Heathmont (28 points) and The Basin (17 points).

De Corsey said team chemistry would be the key to holding its place inside the top four.

“We just can’t get a balance at the moment because as soon as we’re pretty strong in one area, another one or two guys go down,” he said.

“We haven’t had 18 players that have been solid for three or four weeks in a row.

“I don’t think it matters who the personnel is, it’s just can we get a consistent team on the park?

“It might be 15, 16 players that just play every week. I think that is going to be the key and I think if we can get that, we can be competitive against anybody and we’ve shown that.”

Templestowe meets Scoresby on June 15.

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