The magnets that settled on the whiteboard this time last week got a good reshuffle all the while the wary coaching panel was left to scratch their heads in figuring out how to best replace Daria Bannister.
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The absence of the injured Launceston star was not easy to move one player in to play the role of the small forward, according to an honest North Melbourne-Tasmanian Kangaroos coach Scott Gowans.
"Just the craftiness to be able to score goals on left or right foot, we do lose a lot of that with her injury," Gowans said of Bannister's key role in the Roos' set-up up forward.
"It has actually occupied a lot of our thinking in match committee of how we would replace that type of player.
"We've shuffled the deck a little bit because she's almost one of those permanent fixtures up forward for us when she's fit and going.
"But we just can't seem to get her fit and playing a full season at the minute.
"She will be back and the good news is she will be back in training in 20 to 23 days, I think, and our staff we'll load her back up so she can play in about a round 5 time frame."
What was supposed to be Bannister's homecoming on Saturday has become a lost opportunity that the initial player from Launceston to be drafted into the AFLW could feel robbed of a game that she was entitled to play after already suffering two serious setbacks in just four matches.
Fracturing the shoulder is still a lot better than rupturing an ACL knee joint as she had done so in the 12 months preceding last year's February 15 home fixture at UTAS Stadium against her former side, the Western Bulldogs.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
But the gutsy 20-year-old will still back the Kangaroos to continue their strong start playing in Launceston after pulling off a 31-point victory.
"I think that's the key to a win to get as many people as we can to the ground to come and support all of the players," Gowans said.
"They've been looking forward to getting down there as a group and making an amends for the narrow loss last week straight away.
"It's actually really good for us because myself and also some of the coaches have outside of footy spent a fair bit of time there. I find it's a very comfortable place to go and our Tassie girls are looking forward to the game."
GWS Giants are coming off an astonishing one-point win over rookies Gold Coast - where both sides kicked one goal each - in front of a small crowd at Blacktown.
Gowans will now hope his team can rise from playing at Casey Fields last week to an amphitheatre like the 20,000 capacity UTAS Stadium.
"Part of the experience is play in big stadiums when you can where you have people packed into grandstands and the rest of it," he said.
"Just makes it part of the experience for the girls.
"Because just sometimes when you play at a suburban ground, it has that feel of more of a representative game sort of thing, which has it's own feel and some good things about it as well. I know though the girls are keen to perform on UTAS as well."
- VENUE: UTAS Stadium
- START: 3:10pm
- COST: Free of charge
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