By Phil Edwards - Examiner
Tassie Devils coach Mathew Armstrong said his players needed to guard against complacency ahead of Sunday's crucial VFL clash against the third-placed Bendigo Bombers in Bendigo.
Despite a record breaking six wins in a row which has lifted the Devils into sixth place on the ladder, Armstrong said that he spoke to his players at training on Tuesday after seeing things at training he did not like.
"We have to win games of football and I don't want to change our processes but a couple of players were a bit lazy during the week with a bit too much humour instead of getting on with the job," Armstrong said.
Despite those concerns Armstrong named an unchanged line-up to the one which defeated Box Hill by 56 points last Saturday.
"We're not far away from our best side and the boys are playing well at the moment so we have to go with them," he said.
"We haven't made any changes to the side and unless I lose someone at training we won't be bringing anyone else into the team."
Armstrong said he expected Justin Plapp and on-baller Ben Setchell to play despite niggling injury concerns.
Armstrong rated the trip to Bendigo as the toughest in the competition.
"We're playing on Sunday and then only have a four-day turn around before we have to play at Aurora Stadium, another big ground, on Friday night," he said.
"It's a tough couple of weeks coming up for us."
Armstrong said the third-placed Bombers would prove tough opposition on their home ground.
"I watched the tape of their game with Sandringham and they looked pretty good to me and there's plenty of talent there," Armstrong said.
Bendigo's line-up could be depleted with its AFL-aligned club Essendon drawing on players to cover its heavy senior injury list, which includes Jason Laycock, Dean Solomon, Andrew Lee, Matthew Allen, Adam Ramanauskas all sidelined for the rest of the season.
Courtney Johns (hamstring), Ben Hayes (back) and Mark McVeigh (suspension) will also be unavailable this weekend with Mark Bolton (ankle), Adam McPhee (abdominal strain) and Joel Reynolds (leg stress fracture) all facing fitness tests.
Bendigo Bombers v Tasmania
Teams for Sunday @ QE Oval at 1.00pm
Bendigo Bombers
B Nash Hunt Thomas
HB Doering Wilson Childs
C Rosa Blumfield Slattery
HF Vigus Beasy Carter
F Jolley Watson Marsh
R Cartledge Alvey Bullen
Int Young Reynolds Bowen Pendlebury Robins Bain Richardson Cupido
Tasmania
B Henley Jovanovic Shackleton
HB Street N. Grima B. Geappen
C Beams M. Geappen Hall
HF Brown T. Grima Lonergan
F Plapp Atkin Callinan
R Ronaldson Stephens Robinson
Int Iles Millhouse Heazlewood Johnson Britton Wager Savage Setchell
Last Modified on 05/08/2005 08:40