Suns lose key trio
Coast forced into changes for clash with struggling Blues
GOLD Coast’s bid for back-toback wins has suffered a blow, with the Suns forced to make three changes for tomorrow’s match against lowly Carlton.
Brayden Crossley (cheekbone), Charlie Ballard (knee) and Callum Ah Chee (illness) are all out for the Metricon Stadium contest, a sorry aftermath of what has been a rare highlight week for the club.
Ballard sustained a knee injury in a tackle attempt during the third quarter of the epic upset of Sydney last weekend, but returned to finish the match.
“He hurt his lateral ligament in the game and it was a really good effort actually for him to play it out and be able to finish the game,” Dew told the club’s website.
“But unfortunately for Charlie he’s going to miss a number of weeks which is a shame because he’s really fought his way into the side and then he’s looked right at home.”
It is still unclear how long Ballard will be on the sidelines for but the club will have more information early next week.
Brayden Fiorini, David Swallow and Jack Bowes come back in the side to face the Blues tomorrow. Dew said the injection of midfielders in Fiorini and Swallow would give the side a boost.
“Dave was rested last week, we thought he’d been getting a little bit sore across a number of weeks,” Dew said.
“We thought he’d benefit from missing an away game and just recharging so he’s ready to go.
“Obviously Brayden’s missed a lot of footy but was really impressive last week.
“We’re really keen to get Brayden back into the side and we think he adds a fair bit of flexibility.”
Bowes returns with one NEAFL match under his belt since injuring his quad and will start on the interchange.
He’ll be expected to cover the absence of Ah Chee, who has impressed Dew since he swapped the 20-year-old into defence.
“I thought he (Ah Chee) had a really good game last week,” Dew said.
“We threw him down on the half-back line and he performed really well.
“Unfortunately he’s gotten crook during the week and he’s not going to get better by the weekend so disappointing for Cal but we look forward to getting him back ASAP.”
■ THE AFL’s proposal to trial rule changes in late-season games is dead in the water with Fremantle, Brisbane and Carlton declaring they won’t be used as guinea pigs.
And in another strong intervention, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson warned the league was at risk of making congestion worse after the Saints put rule changes to the test during an AFL-supervised training session.
The AFL’s competition committee has agreed to at least half a dozen rule changes.