Willing able to wield the axe

LAUDERDALE axed 200game ruckman Haydn Smith at selection ahead of its round 10 clash with Clarence with coach Dan Willing making a statement following what he labelled as two unacceptable performances by the Bombers.

After losing to the Tigers at the Two Ovals in round eight, the Bombers then failed to fire against North Launceston on the big stage at UTas Stadium on Sunday in a curtain-raiser to the AFL game between Hawthorn and Brisbane.

Willing said he had put the writing on the wall after losing to the Tigers, and then the threat became a reality after losing to North.

“You’ve got to play your role or you can’t be part of it,” Willing said. “We can’t play the type of footy we’ve played for the past two weeks and not make changes.

“There might be a couple of statements made at selection because we are not going to accept the way we’ve played, and we’ve made that clear to the group. If you are not prepared to roll your sleeves up and do the work and play the role you’re asked to play then you’ll be sent back to find your form.”

Lauderdale lost a two-point thriller to North Launceston in round two and dropped a fivepoint heart-stopped to Clarence in its following game.

It went on a three-game winning streak that included a 28-point win over reigning premier Launceston, followed by back-to-back fails.

“We got ahead of ourselves after winning those three games and we’ve had some players completely lose their form and unable to play the way we’ve asked them to play,” Willing said. “We need to be a bit harder around that stuff.

“After the loss to the Tigers I probably needed to be a bit harder on them because our performance was deplorable.

“I wasn’t, and then we got another bad half of footy at the weekend. We reviewed the [Kingborough] game hard but we probably weren’t hard enough with the language we used with the players. We’re not going to bounce back unless we do the hard work.”

Despite also losing to the Tigers last Saturday, Clarence goes into the SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY Cup match unchanged.

“It showed us that if you are off your game you’re going to get punished,” said Roos coach Peter Ryan. “We had a strong review of the game and the areas we thought failed, spoke to the group and we trained accordingly this week.

“It’s about coming into this week with the right mentality and making sure we kick on right from the start.”

The Tigers lost Lochie Griggs (ill) and brought on Noah Clifford for its match against North Hobart, while the Dees brought in Trent Millhouse and Riley Wood.

Gun goal-kicker Dylan Riley (managed) will miss Launceston’s game against North Launceston at UTas Stadium on Friday night.