Northern Bombers up and about at long last
RECOVERED from a bout of gastro that rocked the club, North Launceston heads south happy to put last week behind it.
The Northern Bombers were forced to withdraw seven players just before the opening bounce, a couple more were affected during the game and two more after the loss to Glenorchy as the bug decimated the side.
Captain Brad Cox-Goodyer joked that even with all the players back in for today’s clash with Clarence, the Northern Bombers are still half the side as previously seen.
“I reckon we lost a combined 100kg over the weekend,” Cox-Goodyer said.
“There are a few boys that are pretty disappointed that they’ve lost a bit of muscle, they’re not real happy about it.”
Cox-Goodyer was one of the fortunate players not to have a dose of the illness, but has had injury problems of his own to start 2018.
A pre-season hamstring ping saw no practice game action, his game time limited in the opening clash with Launceston, missing the win over the Tigers entirely but playing a full game against the Pies.
The reigning TSL and club best and fairest is expecting a tough day against the Roos, from both a team and personal perspective, with Clarence stopper Matthew Ling his usual opponent.
“[Roos coach] Jeromey Webberley has run a tag on me the last couple of times we have played Clarence, usually it is Matt Ling,” he said. “He’s really good at what he does. “If that happens tomorrow, I’ve got to learn from it because, last time up at UTas, the last time we played them, he definitely beat me on the day.
“He was really disciplined in what he was doing.
“If that happens again, I’ve just got to be really wary of it and make sure I can work through it and not let him get on top of me like he did last time.”