HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Clarence will have to adjust quickly to life at a new home as it welcomes Glenorchy to Richmond Oval this weekend after relocating from Blundstone Arena due to lack of goalposts at its traditional base.
LIFE away from Blundstone Arena — albeit temporarily — begins this weekend for Clarence when the Roos host their first State League match at Richmond Oval.
Booted off the turf they’ve called home since 1884 due to the inability to remove cricket sightscreens for goalposts to be erected, Clarence moved to Richmond for the 2020 season.
Now the club is preparing to welcome Glenorchy in what coach Jeromey Webberley is expecting to be a fierce contest with both teams looking to open their winning accounts.
“It’s an interesting one … it is a bit of a different ground, it has a real country feel about it which a lot of the guys aren’t used to,” Webberley said.
“The playing conditions are a little bit different as well, it can get a bit breezy out here and it’s a smaller ground.
“They [Glenorchy] are going to come here and be ready to go, their backs are a little bit against the wall, 0-2 and they probably haven’t been in that situation for a while.
“We are 0-1. They come to
Richmond, it is going to be a fierce contest.”
Clarence has had a week to reset after an opening round loss to Lauderdale, and will be bolstered by the return of boom recruit Josh Green.
The former Brisbane and Essendon goal shark missed Round 1 after suffering a broken nose in an intraclub hitout two weeks before the start of the season.
“Greeny will play this week, back on his home deck, he played his junior footy here so he is pretty excited about that,” Webberley said.
“He will give the group a lift, the boys just weren’t dangerous enough forward of the ball in round one.
“That was a contributing factor to the ball movement up the ground but I just think a couple of times we went inside 50 we missed that guy who can snap a goal or take a one-on-one mark.
“He is going to give us that, and we have other guys in the twos like Chris Nield and James Holmes who played some pretty good footy.
“They are all a chance to come back in.”