Corowa-Rutherglen’s Will Chandler will become the youngest debutant in the club’s history on Saturday.
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Chandler will be 15 years and seven months against Wangaratta Rovers.
The Year Nine Xavier High School student will edge out former Collingwood forward Damian Houlihan, who was 15 and eight months in his first game in 1991.
“We’ve taken everything into consideration, his age, he’s going from under 16s to senior footy and so we’ve selected a game from an opposition point of view we think is suitable for him,” coach Terry Burgess said.
“He’s trained with us on a regular basis, he has a few things we don’t have at the moment, so he ticks a lot of the boxes.”
Burgess was then quizzed on the aspects of Chandler’s game which the winless Roos don’t possess.
“He’s very footy-smart and particularly in the front half, where he’ll probably play,” he said.
“He just knows how to play the game, some guys have got it naturally and some guys have got to work hard to improve it over the years.”
While the lightly-built 180-centimetre Chandler is the youngest in the Roos’ time in the O and M, dating back to 1979, the Corowa Spiders debuted a 14-year-old in the O and M prior to the merger.
Peter Ash debuted for the Spiders in 1971.
The Roos haven’t won a game since round 16, 2015, when they defeated Wangaratta by 37 points
However, the Hawks boast just the one win this season and that was against the Roos by 82 points in round four.
However, they’ve lost their last four matches by an average of 100 points.
“We get (vice-captain) Jordan Lavis and Jay O’Donoghue back and that will give us a boost psychologically,” Burgess said.
“Just having them in the team and out on the park gives us that little bit more depth across the board in all three areas of the ground.
“We’re playing at home and hopefully we can get to play competitive footy.”