North Launceston coach Taylor Whitford is dreaming of an uninterrupted sleep this Saturday night.
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The 26-year-old was woken up to his players pulling out ill in the wee hours before North’s match-up against Glenorchy, but he said all appears to be well leading into this week’s encounter with old foes Clarence at Bellerive Oval.
“I had five or six calls at 3-4am on Saturday morning will blokes pulling out because they were vomiting and stuff – it wasn’t fun,” Whitford said.
“Normally I’m pretty relaxed before a game but not last week. We are still unsure if it was food poisoning or illness.
“We gave the boys Monday and Tuesday off, we trained on Wednesday night and had a pretty heavy session.”
Zach Burt, Mark Walsh, Jay Foon, Arion Richter-Salter, Connor Young and Michael Tang have all recovered in time to front the undefeated Roos with seven youngsters making way.
Whitford said there is not much to read into his side’s 52-point loss to the Magpies.
“We got beat which is not ideal, but in terms of the circumstances and the effort that was given by the 22 that played I was quite happy. “The effort was there but we just didn’t have the polish on the outside,” he said.
“The most rewarding thing is giving them an opportunity to show them what it’s about and they can take that back now to DL footy and state footy if they play under-18s or under-16s.
“They learnt on the weekend a lot of things that they wouldn’t have learnt in half a year in DL footy, so it was a really good experience for that group of players.”
The Northern Bombers lost to Clarence by 17 points the last time they travelled South.
Jeromey Webberley’s men have defeated Lauderdale and North Hobart so far and will blood a couple of club debutants this week.
The first-gamers include former Old Scotch footballer and Mowbray cricket Fletcher Seymour, former Devonport star Billy Sharman and young ruckman Conner Berry. Webberley said North Launceston will be a tough task for his side, which has changed significantly over summer.
“Ryan Edmondson’s got a sore shin… so he will miss probably a month of footy, Jason and Ryan Bailey are both away on the mainland. Trent Standen is still unavailable with injury and so is Keegan Whylie,” he said.
The match starts at 2pm, while Launceston has the bye.