North Launceston will have six forced changes for its State League clash against the Tigers at UTas Stadium on Saturday.
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The Northern Bombers lose their four Mariners players in Tarryn Thomas, Rhyan Mansell, Tyran Mansell and Tom Donnelly and will be missing Lewis Hollmer with a hamstring and Josh Ponting with a quad injury.
They included Karlton Wadley, Kaleb Thomas, Dylan Clayton, Kacey Curtis, Jack Singline and Hayden Goss.
North Launceston will be aiming to extend its unbeaten run to seven games coming off last week’s win over Glenorchy.
“We obviously have to back it up because there is no point playing one or two good games and then dropping your standards,” coach Tom Couch said.
“I hope we can and that would be a nice result but we have to a bit of a process to take care of first.
“We have six changes to the side this week so we have to be on our game – absolutely.
“We’ve got six guys who get an opportunity who didn’t on the weekend and that keeps the boys on their toes a bit – if they play well then they keep their spots.”
Couch said he expected the Tigers to come out firing after a loss to Launceston and with rain and windy conditions forecast he believed it would be come down to which team was prepared to get their head over the ball and get the footy moving their way. He said it was not hard to keep a lid on emotions following their victory over Glenorchy.
“Not hard at all – they’re a pretty mature group and starts with Taylor Whitford and the leaders,” Couch said.
“I’ve moved from Melbourne and I’m not satisfied with a 6-0 start – we’re on top of the ladder in the middle of May – I’m not here for that.
“They boys have played enought finals now – won and lost to realise that winning a match now doesn’t really mean all that much.”
Couch said the side was focused on continuing to improve and said their ball movement going forward could be more efficient and cleaner after winning the ball inside.
“We’ve focused a lot on that at training and looking after our forwards and last night was all about ball movement.”
Launceston also has changes for its second successive road trip south to play Hobart City.
The Blues lose their Mariners Jake Hinds, Tim Auckland and Ryan Tyrrell with Chayce Jones sidelined for an extended period with a broken ankle. They will be without Casey Brown and James Gillow to independent school football.
Chris Savage, Cam Downie, Brodie Palfreyman and Jack Donnellan come into the side. The Demons made two changes with Nick Baker and Nick Hutchinson going out and Sam Caswell and Charles White coming in.