Glenorchy coach remains confident he has players to step up after season-ending knee injury to Daniel Joseph

Glenorchy coach Paul Kennedy will turn to a youngster who caught the eye of AFL scouts last year to help fill the void of the season ending injury to Daniel Joseph

Glenorchy's Harrison Gunther in action against Launceston last year. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

GLENORCHY coach Paul Kennedy will turn to a youngster who caught the eye of AFL scouts last year to help fill the void of the season ending injury to Daniel Joseph.

The Pies were dealt a huge blow earlier this week when scans confirmed one the State League’s most lethal left boots had torn his anterior cruciate ligament against North Hobart last Saturday night.

While conceding it was impossible to replace someone of the calibre of Joseph — who was a joint winner of the media player of the year award in 2018 — Kennedy is confident he has the cattle to cover the loss.

Youngster Harrison Gunther, a former forward who was recast into a similar role as Joseph last year, will be one asked to take on more responsibility, with Kennedy backing last year’s best and fairest runner-up to shine as the potential No. 1 rebounding backman.

Glenorchy clashes with Clarence at Blundstone Arena tomorrow.

“Harrison Gunther is a player who is coming into his own and we have been challenging him to play a bit more of that style of game,” Kennedy said.

Glenorchy’s Daniel Joseph tore his ACL last week against North Hobart. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

MORE: PIE GROUNDED FOR YEAR

“His self belief in his skills have gone through the roof in the last year, when I came down he struck me as a guy who had a bit of doubt about that.

“It was great to see him grow last season with his ball use and I think Harrison is now up the pointy end of the competition with his ability to move the ball out of defence.

“He gets that opportunity to step up and he is ready for that.”

Kennedy denied the loss of Joseph would cause a major reshuffle of the back six, especially given he missed the opening round the season with a shoulder injury.

Livewire forward Clint French will also be sidelined for at least the next month after breaking his hand at training.

“I am still very confident in the group we have got, obviously we would love to have ‘DJ’ out there, ‘Frenchy’ will be back this season, so that’s not a concern, but at the moment I think we have six or seven premiership players on the sidelines,” Kennedy said.

“There is a bit of experience there but the good thing about last season is we were forced to play a whole heap of youngsters, we averaged 13 blokes a week who were 21 and under last year and that has held us in good stead now.”