By Peter Ryan, Marnie Vinall, Marc McGowan and Scott Spits
In today’s AFL Briefing, your daily wrap of footy news
- Collingwood big man Mason Cox will miss Friday night’s clash with Richmond after an injury initially thought to be bruised ribs was discovered to be a hematoma.
- Max Gawn’s knee injury has opened the door for Melbourne to hand “exciting prospect” Jacob van Rooyen his long-awaited AFL debut.
- Hawthorn youngster Jai Serong, the younger brother of Dockers star Caleb, will miss months of footy recovering from a heart condition.
- Essendon will call upon Jake Stringer against St Kilda but coach Brad Scott insists there is no pressure on the dynamic forward to star in his AFL return.
- The first AFLW national draft will take place next week with a whopping 60 per cent of players nominating for the national pool.
Cox to miss Pies’ clash with Tigers
Peter Ryan
Collingwood big man Mason Cox will miss Friday night’s clash with Richmond after an injury initially thought to be bruised ribs was discovered to be a hematoma.
Cox requires further scans before a timeline for his return is set out.
Mason Cox will miss through injury.Credit: AFL Photos
Ash Johnson comes in for the big American, while emergency Reef McInnes is the nominated substitution.
Cox came off second best in round two when he tried to bump Port Adelaide’s Lachlan Jones off the ball as he ran on to the ground. He went down on his haunches when awarded a free kick moments later but continued to play out the game.
“Mason experienced soreness in his rib area after the game last weekend,” Collingwood football manager Graham Wright said.
“His injury was initially believed to be a bruised rib, however, after further investigation scans revealed a hematoma in that region.
“Mason’s health is our priority here – he will now undertake further scans before we determine a timeline for his return.”
The 32-year-old has revitalised his career under Craig McRae and had shown good form in the first two rounds playing forward and in the ruck with Darcy Cameron. His absence will hurt the Magpies, who may also be without Brody Mihocek, who suffered a finger injury against Port Adelaide.
Cox is just four games shy of reaching the 100-game milestone in what has already been a remarkable career with the Magpies after arriving from America to play AFL.
Serong to miss months recovering from heart condition
Marc McGowan
Hawthorn youngster Jai Serong – brother of Dockers star Caleb – will miss at least two months recovering from a heart condition.
A sports cardiologist diagnosed the three-gamer with pericarditis, an inflammation of the tissue that the heart lies within.
Hawks doctor Liam West said Serong would be on a strict exercise restriction while taking medication for the issue, which is believed to have come from a viral infection.
“Jai is no longer experiencing chest pain but is obviously disappointed that he will need a period of time out of training and match play,” West said.
“We will ensure that Jai receives the best in medical and wellbeing support during this period.”
Demon to debut against Swans
Max Gawn’s knee injury has opened the door for Melbourne to hand “exciting prospect” Jacob van Rooyen his long-awaited AFL debut.
Off-season recruit Brodie Grundy will take over lead ruck duties against Sydney on Sunday as the Demons look to bounce back from a tough loss to Brisbane.
Helping their cause, key defender Steven May returns from a calf injury to face Swans champion Lance Franklin, who is back after a one-match suspension.
The Demons could yet make a host of changes with Adam Tomlinson (omitted), James Harmes (personal reason) and Gawn the confirmed outs.
Experienced players May, Michael Hibberd and former Saint Luke Dunstan are in their extended squad, along with Bailey Laurie, van Rooyen and James Jordon.
The flow-on effect of Gawn’s injury means further adjustments are required in attack for Melbourne.
Jacob van Rooyen will debut for the Demons on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
Van Rooyen, a 193-centimetre and 96-kilogram key forward, was the club’s first pick at the 2021 draft – No.19 overall – and has had to bide his time at VFL level.
“He’s worked incredibly hard to develop his game over the last two years, and we’ve been pretty hard on him about getting his game to the right level,” Demons coach Simon Goodwin said.
“He’s continued to execute that through pre-season and the first few weeks, so he’ll debut for us and that’s exciting. He’s a young power forward coming into the game.”
Van Rooyen, 19, will line up in attack alongside leading goal-kicker Ben Brown and fellow tall Tom McDonald in a bid to test the Swans’ key defenders.
“He’s trained with these guys for a few years now, so he’s got pretty good cohesion with this group already, and one thing you’ll see from big ‘Rooey’ is his ability to compete aerially,” Goodwin said.
“He goes at the ball hard, he creates a contest and his follow-up at ground level is exceptional. We won’t be asking him to do too much other than that for us.”
Goodwin backed former Collingwood star Grundy to step up in Gawn’s absence, with the skipper sidelined for at least the next four weeks.
“This isn’t abnormal for Brodie,” Goodwin said. “He’s played as a sole ruckman for a big part of his career and he’s done it incredibly well.
“We’re excited to have Brodie have this opportunity. It’s not what we were planning but it’s certainly an opportunity that we think we can actually try to exploit.”
May missed the opening two rounds of the season with a calf injury and will be welcomed back in defence.
“We’ve been cautious with Steve to make sure he’s 100 per cent ready to go but we need his leadership and his ability to win one-on-one contests,” Goodwin said. “He’s a really important player to us.”
May restricted 1000-goal champion Franklin to just seven disposals – and held him goalless – when the teams met in last year’s qualifying final. But Sydney won the game and Goodwin conceded John Longmire’s side has had the wood on the Demons in recent years.
“They have had some success against us and we’re under no illusions that we need to make some changes to really take the game to them on both sides of the ball,” Goodwin said.
AAP
Stringer return confirmed
Essendon will call upon Jake Stringer against St Kilda but coach Brad Scott insists there is no pressure on the dynamic forward to star in his AFL return.
Stringer missed the first two matches after a pre-season hamstring injury, building fitness in round one before playing VFL in round two.
The Bombers are 2-0 but will welcome Stringer’s explosiveness against Ross Lyon’s unbeaten Saints at the MCG on Saturday.
Stringer is the main inclusion, while the Bombers also have been bolstered up forward by Sam Weideman’s selection. Andrew Phillips (dropped) and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher (injured) are two to make way.
Scott will rotate Stringer between attack and the midfield, depending on how the game plays out.
“He’s just got to come in and play the role that we’re asking him to,” Scott told reporters on Thursday.
Jake Stringer will be back in AFL action on Saturday night.Credit: AFL Photos
“We’ve had a pretty strong mantra of system over personnel and while it’s nice to have a player of Jake’s quality back in the side, we don’t expect him to do any more or any less than anyone else.
“And it still leaves freedom for him to play to his instincts and to his strengths. That’s what we’ve talked about all pre-season, that we want him to play to his absolute strength, which is strength and power.
“So different people have different views on how he should be best played, but he’s just got to fit in with our personnel and the system that we want within our personnel.”
Weideman returns from the toe injury that ruled him out of their win over Gold Coast. Weideman and Jye Caldwell spent time completing run-throughs at Thursday’s training but joined in the main group and appeared ready to go.
Scott stressed Dyson Heppell, subbed out of last week’s win over Gold Coast, was a “lock” for this week’s team.
AAP
More than 300 players nominate for first AFLW national draft
Marnie Vinall
The first AFLW national draft will take place next week with a whopping 60 per cent of players nominating for the national pool.
In the women’s draft system, players have previously nominated for a state pool – such as a Victorian Montana Ham who had a shock NSW nomination last year before being taken by the Sydney Swans at pick No.1. This year, for the first time in league history, there will be a national pool.
A total of 528 players have nominated for all drafts. Of those, 317 have entered the national pool, meaning they could be picked by any club. In the mix are ex-AFLW players Alison Downie, Sophie Abbatangelo and Ailish Considine.
Nicole Livingstone, the AFL’s general manager of women’s football, said the high number of nominees for the national draft reflected the desire for players to expand their opportunities to play professional football.
“There is an increased appetite for AFLW players to chase their football dreams in other states, as more opportunities [18 clubs] are presented to them to play footy,” Livingstone said.
“With the continued progression of the AFLW competition, we will continue to look at how we can have a draft that balances integrity, fairness and support for potential draftees.”
The upcoming draft is a little different this time around. It is a supplementary draft and is restricted to mature-age players who are born in 2004 or earlier.
This is because there were two AFLW seasons last year, as the league moved from a summer competition and extended the number of rounds played in the regular season. Those who were drafted in June played two months later for the August start and combined school and football rather than waiting until a January start date.
To ensure this doesn’t happen again, the supplementary draft is a one-off and will feature many of the same prospects as last year’s draft pool, while those born in 2005 will have to wait for the draft ahead of the 2023 season.
Additionally, the limited pool means clubs aren’t mandated to take any spots to the draft and some won’t participate at all, having already filled their squads.
The draft will be next Tuesday, April 4.
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