Summary
* In Mildura played probably his best game since coming back from his broken leg. He looked in terrific shape and all. He returned back to Melbourne and felt sore and tender about 2 inches below where the leg snaped originally. We sent him off for a scan and it showed a "hot spot" - a weakness around the bone area. Sometimes with scans you can see a crack start to form into a stress fracture. No major damage so we got it early enough which is at least a positive. He had had 10 days off his leg. We tried it out in our Wednesday training session at the 'G but he was still hobbling so we put him in cotton wool. A second scan yesterday showed it was little better from what the Mildura scan showed. It was on the mend but he wasn't right enough to play. Normally takes 20 days of rest once you get these things so he's a week or two away.
* So why did you name him in the side?
Initially we didn't know where we were going with it. Scan results didn't come out until last night after we had submitted the teams. If the scan showed the hot spot was gone then we would've have tested him again today but it showed it was still there. We were going to have a press conference before training today but Mike Sheahan got wind of it so we confirmed the story with him.
* How is Browny feeling?
Two sides to it. From the games he's played he knows he can get back to his best. The negative side is he won't be playing round 1. He'll also have to put up with the speculation of gloom and doom which is disappointing.
* We didn't have Browny last year or half the year before that so a lot of our preparation and planning has been done without him. We were able to beat Carlton twice last year with much input from Browny so we need to go into the game with lots of confidence.
