Battling Roos to recruit

CLARENCE will go in search of a “spine” to help lift the club out of its black hole, says coach Jeromey Webberley, with the Roos needing key position forwards and defenders to help their young brigade.

They haven’t won a game since North Hobart in Round 6 on May 4, and facing reigning premier North Launceston at UTas Stadium tomorrow is another Everest the successstarved Roos must climb.

Webberley needs experienced talls to help his developing players, and he will put out the feelers interstate to find them.

“We obviously need key position players to help us out and stiffen us up,” Webberley said. “We’ve got truckloads of inside midfielders coming through.

“We’ve got some fantastic young talls in Ollie Preshaw, Noah Holmes, Jacob Smith and Sam Green.

“We’ve got enough talls developing, but we need to put some people around them to help them develop more quickly. We haven’t got enough tall defenders or tall forwards, so we need both.”

Clarence’s key defensive tall is forward-turned-full-back Zac Buechner. Webberley said he is still learning his craft.

“Zac is 6ft 2in (188cm) and he’s probably another two years away from reaching his full potential,” Webberley said.

“If he was a second tall, he’d be a fantastic second tall. We need to bring in guys who can take the pressure off.”

Clarence will do its recruiting interstate.

“We’ve got an opportunity with the VFL team coming in, of getting some talent from the mainland to move here and stick at our club for four or five years and have a crack at the VFL.

“We are still going to invest in the players at our club because we believe they are going to be good players.”

As well as the loss of midfielder Josh McGuinness (concussion), Lauderdale may also lose Jake Gillbee (concussion) for its clash with Launceston at Windsor Park, while Nick Dodge will play his first game back at the Bombers after a stint in the VFL.