The Brisbane Lions have been dealt a major blow ahead of Friday night’s Gabba blockbuster, with Matthew Leuenberger and Tom Rockliff ruled out of the team’s clash against Collingwood.
Rockliff is expected to miss two weeks after suffering a minor quad strain against Carlton, while Leuenberger will spend a month on the sidelines with residual damage from his dislocated thumb.
Although Leuenberger’s x-rays showed no signs of a fracture, Senior Coach Michael Voss revealed on Tuesday that the in-form ruckman would likely miss 4-6 weeks.
“It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Leuey will be out for 4-6 weeks with his thumb,” Voss told media at the Gabba.
“So we’ll have to go ahead and plan without him.”
It’s a huge blow for Leuenberger, who had only recently returned from a lengthy lay-off with an Achilles strain.
Rather than dwelling on the negative, Voss said the latest setback would provide another good opportunity for the Club to get some valuable game time into 19-year-old big man Billy Longer.
“Billy (Longer) still has got some work to do, but at the same time he’ll step up to the challenge for us no doubt,” Voss said.
“He’s had plenty of games under his belt, and has played 3-4 games already this year.
“It’s like for like for us. Leuey’s been playing predominantly 80-90% in the ruck, and that’s what we’ll be asking Billy to do.
“We’re very confident that he come in and do the job we’re asking him to do. He’ll be going up against a good ruckman in Darren Jolly and we have to make sure we get a good, competitive and honest effort.”
Rockliff, meanwhile, is set to miss his first senior match in two years.
To compound matters, full-back Daniel Merrett remains suspended for a further two matches and Co-Captain Jonathan Brown is also facing a potential ban from the AFL Match Review Panel.
But Voss said that having key players unavailable would be no excuse for anything less than 100% effort.
“We’ve got our fair share at the moment, but if you look across different teams in the competition, a lot of them carry a heavy weight of injuries,” Voss said.
“I look at Fremantle and they’ve had significant losses (of players), but they clearly have a lot of non-negotiables among their team, and that’s something we hope to emulate.
“When you come into the team, no matter what age profile you have, or how many games you’ve played, there’s an expectation that you will come in and pressure a certain way and defend a certain way. Anything less is unacceptable.”
