No Gunther or Cleary — TSL coach says Pies have lost their “spine”

“We’ve lost our spine” says Glenorchy coach heading into TSL clash with reigning premier

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GLENORCHY coach Paul Kennedy says the Pies have lost their spine and that’s why they feel the need for speed against the TSL’s reigning premier Launceston at Windsor Park today.

With key talls Harrison Gunther, seconded to North Melbourne in the VFL, and backline general Tom Cleary (concussion) out, as well as Cam Goodsell (shoulder) and Chris Howard (back), Glenorchy will try to match the Blues on foot.

The tallest order of the day will be quelling Launceston’s one-man goal-kicking machine Dylan Riley, who bagged 10 against North Hobart last start.

Kennedy knows the right man for the job.

“Dylan’s like the Jaye Bowden of the competition at the moment. He’s outstanding,” Kennedy said.

Round 6 TSL match between Glenorchy v North Hobart from KGV. North Hobart's Jeffrey Fisher is tackled by Glenorchy's Cooper Meredith. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“When we have Zac Webster, Harrison Gunter and Josh Arnold in the side, we feel pretty comfortable they can do a good job on him.

“We don’t have them this week, so we’ve got a couple of young players we rate really highly as defenders.

“One of those is Cooper Meredith, who is an outstanding young player with huge potential.

“When you play on someone like Riley you need guys who are athletic and have a bit of class.

“Cooper will be one of the guys who gets some time on him and we are really looking forward to seeing how he goes.”

A lack of talls might do Glenorchy a favour.

“We have gone from a healthy, athletic, big spine, to a smaller team, so we are going to have to play a bit differently,” Kennedy said.

“They are the best running team in the comp, and it is going to be a high kilometre game so the guys we’ve bought up can cover the ground and are skillful.

“That’s on positive.

“We are not a long-bomb team. We like to move the ball short and use the spare man so in that way our game can stand up. But we are going to have to make some adjustments because we don’t have the tall timber this week.”