By Phil Edwards - Examiner
Tassie Devils on-ballers Shane Wager and Brett Robinson were both under injury clouds and had to pass fitness tests at training last night ahead of the Devils crunch game against finals rival Box Hill at North Hobart Oval tomorrow.
Robinson is suffering from the effects of osteitis pubis and Wager has been limited by a foot injury he received playing for the Northern Bombers two weeks ago.
"We won't know until the end of the night, but if they get through training they're in, and if they don't then guys like Clinton Brown and the others on the bench will come into the mix," Devils coach Mathew Armstrong said yesterday.
Armstrong made one change to the side that beat reigning VFL premier Sandringham on Sunday, with Leigh Walker omitted suffering from general soreness.
Tough midfielder Ben Setchell returns to the side for Walker after missing last week with the flu.
The Devils have equalled their best-ever VFL winning sequence of five matches to climb from last place to seventh on the VFL ladder. But the team needs to continue winning each of its remaining games to be assured of making the final eight.
The Devils lead tomorrow's opponent, the eighth-placed Hawthorn-aligned Box Hill, by percentage only in a must-win game for the Devils.
"Every game is a big game for us from here up against an AFL-aligned club and it probably doesn't get much bigger than this one," Armstrong said.
The Box Hill Hawks have high-calibre players of the ilk of forwards Clinton Alleway, Tim Harvey, defenders Doug Scott and Josh Thurgood and midfielders Steven Greene and Luke Brennan.
"They've got quality and they're never easy games at this time of the year," Armstrong said.
"But we have to worry about the processes we've put in place to achieve things and that's what we're going to focus on and probably raise the bar if we can."
The Devils have not played Box Hill this season but the Hawks hold a four-one winning record against the Devils with one game drawn.
Teams for Saturday
Tasmania
B: Stephens, Jovanovic, Shackleton. HB: Street, Savage, N Grima. C: B Geappen, M Geappen, Atkin. HF: Lonergan, T Grima, Callinan. F: Hall, Beams, Plapp. R: Ronaldson, Setchell, Robinson. Int: Britton, Brown, Henley, Iles, Wager, Heazlewood, Johnson, Peterson.
Box Hill Hawks
B: Batchelor, Scott, Howat. HB: Miller, Kirkby, Murphy. C: Neville, Eagle, McGlynn. HF: Harvey, D Breese, Greene. F: Height, Brennan, Alleway. R: Rinaldi, Ball, Thurgood. Int: Dawson, Paton, Rudolph, Jansen, Millwood, Jolley.
Last Modified on 29/07/2005 08:58