No Brett Deledio as Richmond prepares to face Brisbane team decimated by injuryHerald-Sun
April 13, 2014 4:16PMRICHMOND’S bid to resuscitate its season has received a huge boost with the Lions missing four of their best six players for Thursday’s crunch match.
But the Tigers will again be without Brett Deledio, who admits he is unsure when he will overcome Achilles soreness.
Brisbane pair Pearce Hanley (second in last year’s best-and-fairest) and Matthew Leuenberger (sixth) face a month on the sidelines, while Daniel Merrett is still suspended.
Hanley (hamstring) and Leunberger (knee) were injured in the belting against Port Adelaide, with 13 Lions including Daniel Rich (knee, second in the 2012 best-and-fairest), Luke McGuane (knee), Brent Staker (knee) and Ash McGrath (calf) all sidelined.
The Lions also have only a five-day break that included travel from Adelaide back to Queensland before taking on a Richmond side humbled by Collingwood last Friday night.
Deledio told Channel 7 on Sunday he was working towards his return from a sore tendon which ran down the back of his foot.
Coach Damien Hardwick said last week his star playmaker could be sidelined for up to a month but hoped he would return sooner.
“I have been running the last couple of days but I have to make sure I can pull up all right and get some strength work into it,’’ Deledio said.
“I haven’t got a lot of spring and can’t explode off the mark. It is a little tendon which runs down past your Achilles which is causing me grief but I am strengthening it and touch wood I will be back out there sooner rather than later. I am not going to be out for two months.
“I have had a pretty good history in the past of being able to heal pretty quickly so I want to get back out there.”
Deledio said the Tigers needed to do more to help star Trent Cotchin to escape taggers, with the captain adamant some of Brent Macaffer’s tactics were illegal.
“We know there’s been taggers in the game for donkey’s years but, just at times, I thought I was being held illegally,” Cotchin said.
“But the reality is there’s three umpires out there, they’re doing the best they can and the onus is on myself to win the footy and to have my teammates helping me out.”
Ivan Maric (ankle) is expected back after the Round 8 bye, with Tyrone Vickery subbed out but not injured against the Pies.
Lions coach Justin Leppitsch joked he might need to make a comeback, but knows Leuenberger and Hanley won’t be back soon.
“Whether it’s a minor couple of weeks or five or six, hopefully (Leuenberger is) not a surgery candidate,” Leppitsch said.
“And Pearce Hanley’s hamstring, whether it’s three weeks or whether it’s six, that will be determined by scanning.
“I have got no one left, I might have to come out of retirement if we keep going like this.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/no-brett-deledio-as-richmond-prepares-to-face-brisbane-team-decimated-by-injury/story-fndv8t7m-1226883035803
