We’ve got a couple of debutants this week in Charlie Ballard and Brayden Crossley, can you tell us what we can expect from those two?

I’ll start with Cros (Brayden Crossley), obviously a product of our academy, and with Tom’s injury we saw fit to bring him in, obviously he can play forward and ruck but the main thing is he competes really hard so his form’s been really solid in the NEAFL so he’s able to step into that role. 

Chuckie (Charlie Ballard), really good story, obviously one of our first year players but certainly has adapted well to AFL lifestyle and again has been picked on his performances in the NEAFL, been really consistent and probably his flexibility also helps his selection given that he can play forward mid, or back and we just thought with our side this week, we needed a bit of flexibility and Charlie brings that so it’s really exciting for him and his family I guess to get to watch him play his first game.

We have had some unfortunate injury news in the last 24 hours or so, Brayden Fiorini and Jesse Lonergan, they will come out of the side.

So Brayden, although he pulled up well, he was a little bit sore in his lower leg, so we got a scan on that and there’s a little bit of a stress reaction in there so he’s been advised to rest, it’s a bit of a risk with those ones if you push too fast. He’ll be likely 4-6 (weeks), but we’re awaiting on a little bit more information and then Jesse’s been playing with a bit of a knee injury too and that hasn’t allowed him to train for a couple of weeks and we think AFL football is so demanding that you need to be able to train and play but if you get into the cycle of just games it starts to catch up on you so he’ll have a few weeks off as well to make sure we get that right.

Michael Barlow is out of the team as well?

Michael obviously came into the team, but we think this week we need a different mix with our balance with the personnel in there, so he’s been unlucky this week and obviously other guys get the opportunity.

We’ll see Cal Ah Chee and Brad Scheer make their first appearance for the SUNS this year, what are you expecting from them? 

Cal obviously you know unfortunate, preseason did a significant hamstring injury but he’s come straight back in, you know a couple of games in the NEAFL to get going but we want and watched him play the NEAFL and it’s pretty clear he was ready to go so we’ve put him straight in and Scheer has been one, probably of perseverance and doing the role that’s asked of him down in the NEAFL so he’s played some footy last year so we’re expecting a bit of flexibility from him as well, we think that as a team we need some guys that can play different positions to give us some options.

Michael Rischitelli comes in, does he sort of even up that balance with experience?

Yeah, I mean Risha’s (Michael Rischitelli)  been important for us in a leadership sense, and especially down back, he’s rarely had a goal kicked on him so he’s been defensively strong back there which has allowed others to play more of an offensive role so that’s really important for us and I think although he’d love to get a bit more of the ball he’s been playing the role that we’ve asked.

We have lost both our captains, both key position players, how does that change how we structure up?

Well with Cros (Brayden Crossley) coming in forward, obviously that’s tall for tall but down back obviously Maxy Spencer came in last week and he can play on a tall if need be down there so you know, although we’d love them out there every team gets injuries and we know the Bulldogs have lost their captain this week so a couple of acting captains for each team and opportunities all around which is exciting.