Albury's Will Andrew in action against the Shepparton Bears.
ALBURY co-coach Chris Hyde admits the Tigers face plenty of selection headaches ahead of their season opener against Lavington.
The Ovens and Murray powerhouse trounced Shepparton Bears by 98 points at Birallee Park yesterday on the back of strong performances from a host of youngsters.
Lonnie Hampton proved a livewire, particularly with two goals in the second quarter, while Hyde was also excited by the performances of Will Blomeley, Isaac Pound and Sam Cross.
Andrew Dennis and Will Haberecht also came under notice in patches.
And while Hyde was thrilled to see those players put their hand up, he admitted it would make life a lot harder at the selection table over the next fortnight.
Albury opens its season under lights on Good Friday at Lavington Oval.
“It was pleasing some of the young guys stood up, like they have in all our practice games, but it makes for interesting selection in two weeks’ time,” Hyde said.
“It’s a good thing to have.
“The hunger from the younger guys is exciting.
“We’re comfortable with where the senior guys are going but I’m really impressed with the improvement of the young boys.
“We’ll sit down as a match committee and work through picking a team that we think is going to be competitive round 1 but it’s a bit early to tell how that will look.”
A host of Albury’s stars missed yesterday’s clash and fitting those players back into the Tiger line-up shapes as a tough job.
Joel Mackie, who spent yesterday’s contest in the coaching box, resumed running last Thursday and is still expected to play round 1.
Matt Shir, Michael Thompson, Lloyd Shepherd, Andy Carey and Josh Dicketts were other notable absentees.
“It will be interesting to see how the season pans out,” Hyde said.
“We’ve obviously lost quite a few players from last year — quality players and quality people.
“But we feel like we’ve recruited the same.
“Time will tell.”
Albury’s conversion in front of goal was again a talking point, with the Tigers kicking 18.22.
Matt Fowler booted four goals for the Tigers, with skipper Charles Gaylard and forward Josh Maher kicking three each.
Hyde said the ongoing issue needed to be addressed.
“I think it’s more where we get shots from and the way we kick the footy inside 50,” Hyde said.
“It’s something we’ll address at training.
“Kicking a lot of points isn’t great because it can win and lose you games.”