The WAFL Eagles are set for an injection of speed and excitement this Saturday with brilliant small forwards Liam Ryan and Willie Rioli on track to return from hamstring strains against Claremont during West Coast’s AFL bye.
Ryan has missed the past three games and Rioli has been sidelined for five matches, and both will have the opportunity to build some match conditioning before the Eagles resume their campaign against Geelong.
“Liam and Willie have worked their way through their hamstring programs. The last couple of weeks they’ve done big running sessions, game like in terms of their GPS outputs,” Head of Health Mark Finucane told westcoasteagles.com.au.
“That has been their conditioning build towards playing WAFL this week with an aim to build their AFL conditioning after the bye.”
West Coast’s round 14 clash with the Cats at Optus Stadium should also see Jeremy McGovern return from his back issue after the star defender was a late withdrawal from the Adelaide loss on Saturday.
“We gave Jeremy every opportunity throughout the week last week but just with the wrestling and body work in our final test the back was a bit too sensitive, so the decision was not to play,” Finucane said.
“We’ll let that settle down and aim for Geelong.”
Young forward Isiah Winder was subbed out of the Crows defeat with a niggling knee complaint, but could still face Claremont this weekend.
“’Izzy’ has had an ongoing niggle with his knee so that the decision was made to sub him out,” Finucane said.
“So we’ll monitor how he presents later in the week and he’ll be a decision for this week.”
There are several others slightly further back who will push to play in the coming month, headlined by dual best and fairest Nic Naitanui (knee).
“Nic is going really well with his knee. We’re seeing him join the group with lighter skills and then doing his specific running and agility work on the side to prepare to integrate into more drills and gamelike simulation drills in the coming weeks,” Finucane said.
“Xavier (O’Neill) is very similar to Nic in that he’s building his way through skill drills and then we’ll see him integrate his way into the more chaotic drills over the next couple of weeks.”
In positive news, Zac Langdon (ankle) had his first on-ground running session on Tuesday morning, and Tom Joyce (ankle) is also making progress.
Meanwhile, Jamaine Jones remains in the concussion protocols and youngster Zane Trew is being held back temporarily by a knee issue.
“Zane was a late withdrawal from the WAFL, he’s been managing an ITB complaint for the last few weeks that we’re working through,” Finucane said.
“He’ll miss this week to try and let the intervention settle the knee down and then we’ll build him from there.”
Injury list:
Oscar Allen Foot Inactive
Campbell Chesser Ankle Inactive
Tom Cole Ankle Inactive
Luke Edwards Groin Inactive
Jamaine Jones Concussion 1 week
Tom Joyce Ankle 4-5 weeks
Zac Langdon Ankle 5-6 weeks
Jeremy McGovern Back 1 week
Xavier O’Neill Knee 2-3 weeks
Nic Naitanui Knee 3-4 weeks
Willie Rioli Hamstring Test
Liam Ryan Hamstring Test
Zane Trew Knee TBC
Isiah Winder Knee Test
