Gisborne sweats on fitness of key trio for preliminary final against Eaglehawk
Gisborne demolished Golden Square to reach its first Bendigo league preliminary final since 2014 but the Bulldogs are facing a mini injury crisis ahead of a return bout against Eaglehawk.
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Gisborne is sweating on the fitness of three key players ahead of its Bendigo league preliminary final showdown with Eaglehawk.
The Bulldogs claimed a bruising 63-point win over Golden Square in Sunday’s cut-throat semi-final, but it may have come at a cost.
Star midfielders Ethan Minns (knee) and Matt Goodyear (broken nose) are in doubt, while defender Liam Rodgers suffered a late concussion.
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“There’s a few questions marks over a few blokes, we’re not sure about Ethan but I’m pretty confident Matt and Liam will be ready,” Gisborne coach Clinton Young said.
The Dogs are already without forward Jaidyn Owen, who will miss the rest of the season after injuring his knee in the qualifying final loss to Eaglehawk.
The 16.10 (106) to 5.13 (43) victory at Queen Elizabeth Oval secured Gisborne’s first preliminary final appearance since 2014.
Young was pleased with his team’s response to earn a second crack at Eaglehawk after going down by 38 points a fortnight ago.
“Obviously, we had a disappointing second half last week … we got off to a really good start, I was really impressed with the boys,” he said.
“It was a hard-fought, tough win and we’ll move on to next week, which we’re really excited about.
“We took plenty of lessons from (the qualifying final), we’ve played them three times now and it feels like an evenly-matched contest.
“They got the better of us in the second half but we feel like we’ve prepared ourselves for this time of year.”
Minns has been Gisborne’s prime-mover in the second half of the season but didn’t feature in the second half after hurting his knee.
Goodyear suffered a broken nose in a marking contest with his Golden Square opponent shown a red card for the clash in the final quarter.
Casey Summerfield produced arguably his best game of the season to claim best on ground honours, while big man Josh Grabham shone in the wet, slippery conditions.
Pat McKenna booted five goals as Gisborne’s offence finally found its range against Golden Square this season.
Young was especially pleased by holding Golden Square to its equal lowest score of the season.
“We converted early and got a good buffer, it was a bit of a slog of a game but our boys were really strong in the contest,” he said.
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