North Launceston's Brad Cox-Goodyer is in Rocherlea's selection mix for Saturday's NTFA premier blockbuster between the Tigers and Hillwood on Saturday, The Examiner understands.
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The Bombers have the bye in the State League and Cox-Goodyer's brothers Andrew and Kaiden play for Rocherlea.
His Play HQ profile has Rocherlea listed as well as North Launceston under the 2024 tab.
When asked if Cox-Goodyer was playing this weekend; Rocherlea coach Josh Ponting replied: "No comment".
Meanwhile, Hillwood coach Jake Pearce said the Sharks were sweating on the fitness of star ruck Hamish Leedham for the second versus fourth clash at Hillwood.
"Hamish had a little bit of a scare and we're just going to see what happens with him. He hurt his knee against Deloraine but he's been to the physio and he should be okay ... we're not going to risk him if obviously it's not good."
Pearce said key forward Tom Bennett would return after missing round five.
"If anything this year, I've learned a little bit about how to try and manage my players and obviously he's coming back from not playing last year to having a limited pre-season and then all of a sudden playing three pretty hard games ... we've got a couple of big games coming up so I chose to just rest him," he said.
The Sharks will again be without last year's captain and defensive pillar Zac Oldenhof who hasn't played since round one due to a calf injury.
"If we can try and get him back within the next couple of weeks it would be really good but we're not taking any risks with him this early in the year," Pearce said.
Otherwise, Pearce said everything was going to plan following his own recent back surgery.
However, he said it wasn't guaranteed that he would return this season.
"I'll go back to the surgeon at the end of the 10 weeks and if all is clear I'll be right to play but if he says otherwise, then I'll have to just rest out the year and hopefully come back next year bigger and better," he said.
Pearce explained the background of his injury which troubled him on-and-off last season.
"I managed it through the finals and it was nothing that I thought was considered too bad," he said.
"Then once it (the season) had finished, it really took a toll on me and and I tried to find out how to get it sorted and then finally had an MRI and found out that I had a disc pressing on a nerve which needed surgery."
The Tigers are coming off a nail-biting eight-point win against Bridgenorth while the Sharks beat Deloraine by 111 points.
Ponting said the Tigers were still working towards their best footy but last weekend's win against Bridgenorth was a big step in the right direction.
"That win really galvanised the group and you could tell by the way they sung the song that they really enjoyed that," he said.
"We're really enjoying this type of football where we're getting challenged, there's not many games that are easy, if any are easy.
"We've got a big block coming up with Hillwood and Longford so the boys understand that we need to win these games of footy and set ourselves up to make sure that we're in a good position to challenge at the top of the ladder at the end of the year."
The Tigers won last year's grand final by 10 points after Hillwood led by 30 points at quarter-time.
What has changed since then?
The Sharks have brought in the likes of Bennett (previously North Launceston), Jake Laskey (St Pats) and Jackson Miller (returning) who have had immediate impact while losing dangerous small forward Ben Hyatt to Launceston.
The Tigers have brought in the likes of forwards Brayden Claridge (St Pats), Kaiden Baker (North Launceston) and Dartaynan Bantick (Cygnet) while they are without their long-time spearhead Josh Holton who retired.
"We've added a couple of younger boys that go quite well especially up forward," Ponting said.
"So we're probably a little bit more dynamic and a bit quicker up forward this year than we have been in previous years."