University Blues stay in VAFA finals race despite growing injury list
INJURIES were the last thing University Blues could afford on their return to Premier Division.
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INJURIES were the last thing University Blues could afford on their return to Premier Division.
The 2014 Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier B champion assembled a squad capable of making an impact upon its return to the top tier over the off-season.
But Quinton Gleeson’s side has been decimated by injuries this year after claiming victory in its opening three matches.
Uni Blues were top of the table after three rounds, but sat sixth last week after winning just one of their next six games.
That success came against Old Scotch last week, breaking a run of five consecutive defeats.
“It was a bit of a relief to be honest,” Gleeson said of the win.
Hugh Vickers-Willis, Piers Flanagan, Riley McMahon and Sean Carr were the only Blues’ players to feature in all of the opening nine matches.
“I think we’ve used 38-39 players now,” Gleeson said.
“Only four of them have played the entire year so it’s been an absolute disaster from that point of view.
“It tests your depth out. We had a few guys who were overseas over the summer and we’ve had to play them a lot earlier than what we were anticipating.
“The ripple effect of them not being fit and not having a pre-season is they end up injured as well, so it just keeps spiralling from there.”
It was a sign of things to come when forward Thomas MacKenzie went down with a serious knee injury during pre-season.
Uni Blues have since lost Jack Townley to a severe concussion, Thomas Silvestro and Matthew Hart with broken ankles and had four players sustain broken fingers.
“The positive thing for us is that (when) we get a few guys back, we think we can mix it with everyone,” Gleeson said. “We were pretty undermanned against the top sides the last few weeks.”
Uni Blues’ barnstorming start has enabled it to stay in finals contention despite a barren run in recent weeks.
The club overcame Old Carey by a point on Saturday despite kicking 13.20 (98) to 14.13 (97), while University Blacks beat Old Xaverians by 13 points.
It was the first time the two university clubs won on the same weekend this year.
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