EFNL Premier Division: Rowville ruckman Nik Schoenmakers set for lengthy lay-off

Rowville could be without one of its stars for the rest of the season following a “brutal” injury suffered on Sunday. Latest here.

ROWVILLE could be without its powerhouse ruckman for the rest of the season.

Nik Schoenmakers is set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines following a “brutal” leg injury suffered in Sunday’s 47-point loss to Vermont, in a hammer blow to the Hawks’ campaign.

Rowville senior coach Ben Wise said the extent of Schoenmakers’ injury was yet to be determined, but the star Hawk faced up to six weeks in a brace.

Seven home-and-away games remain in the Eastern league’s Premier Division with Rowville among the finals race, sitting in fifth spot on the ladder on seven wins and four losses.

“He dislocated his fibia at the top end near his knee, which is a really unique injury – not many people do it – and they couldn’t get it back in,” Wise said.

“They had to put him under anaesthetic to get it back in – he’ll be in a brace pretty much for six weeks … and then they’ll do an MRI to see the full extent of the damage.”

Nik Schoenmakers is among the league’s best ruckmen. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Wise feared Schoenmakers’ campaign could be over but backed the big man to defy the odds.

“If anyone’s going to come back early from that, it’ll be him … but it was a pretty shocking, pretty brutal sort of injury,” he said.

“In my eyes he’s probably the best (ruckman in the competition) – there’s not a ruckman in the comp that I’d have in front of him, but that’s probably a little bit biased knowing how much I get out of him.

“It’s a shame for him and it’s a shame for us, but we move on – a soldier in and a soldier out – we’ve got to structure up a bit different in our midfield group.

“Having a dominant ruckman you can be a little bit more proactive and attacking from stoppage, whereas now we’ll change our structure to combat that … we’ll be fine.”

The coach will look to emerging talents Matt Evans and Tate Scrivanos to help fill the void.

“We’ve got Matty Evans who’ll step in like he did on the weekend and I thought he was pretty good when he went full-time ruck,” Wise said.

“We’ve just got to look how we structure up now … we’ve got a couple of young kids in the reserves and under-19s that are good ruckmen so we’ll look to develop them even further, and maybe expose them to senior level – we’ve already exposed one of them (Scrivanos).”

Wise lamented his group had been “hammered this year” with impact injuries, but the Hawks look set for a reprieve with several key names likely to return against Doncaster on Saturday.

Lachie Stapleton suffered a broken nose early in Sunday’s match but played on, with Wise confident he’ll line up this weekend alongside Zac Greeves, who’s set to regain his spot after a best-afield showing in the reserves.

“We obviously get Tyson and Mitch Sruk, Cooper MacDonald (back this week), Zac Greeves will come back in I think, so that young talent that’s floating in the wings, we get that back,” Wise said.

“We’ll probably have a really strong three weeks, I reckon, with people available.”