WANGARATTA Rovers co-coach Sam Carpenter hopes Dylan Stone’s injury-enforced lay-off won’t hinder his chances of representing the Ovens and Murray.
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Stone will miss Saturday’s match against Albury after being concussed in a heavy tackle from Dylan McKane in the last quarter of the Hawks’ loss to Wodonga Raiders.
McKane will miss two matches after being found guilty of unreasonable rough conduct at the tribunal.
Stone has been one of the Hawks’ best players this season, kicking seven goals in the past two weeks, and was included in the Ovens and Murray’s preliminary 42-man interleague squad.
While Carpenter said Stone would be missed against the Tigers, he hoped the lively Hawk could represent the league against Hampden on May 21.
“He’s not too bad now but he was feeling crook for a couple of days,” he said.
“We’ll rest him this week and let him freshen up and look after himself.
“I hope he still gets a game in the interleague because his form has warranted it.”
The Ovens and Murray has adopted the HeadSmart concussion program this season and Carpenter said “you need to protect the player going for the ball”.
“You don’t mind someone getting hurt if it’s fair, but if it’s not fair, they’ve got to cop the punishment,” he said.
“The young fella will miss a couple of weeks and learn from it and ‘Stoney’ has already put it behind him, although it’s not great he has to miss a week of footy.”
Wodonga Raiders coach Daryn Cresswell was disappointed with the tribunal result, meaning McKane will miss crunch clashes against Myrtleford and North Albury.
“I want to make it clear that I’m glad young Stone is going to be OK, as you don’t want serious injuries coming out of these circumstances, but I am surprised McKane was suspended,” he said.
“I just hope they are consistent with this for the rest of the year because there was no double motion in the tackle, it was one motion.”