Vice-captain Jackson Allen has been cleared to return to the Australia Post Queensland Scorpions side for their second match in the NAB Australian U18 Championships.
Thursday 9 June 2011
Vice-captain Jackson Allen has been cleared to return to the Australia Post Queensland Scorpions side for their second match in the NAB Australian U18 Championships against the powerhouse Victorian Metro combination at Visy Park, Carlton, on Saturday.
Allen (pictured), a former AIS/AFL Academy squad member and winner of the division two B&F medal at the 2009 Australian U16 championships, was included as coach David Ashkar and his selection brainstrust made three changes to the side that lost to South Australia in Sydney last week.
He has been struggling with a calf problem in recent weeks, and has played only about 20 minutes of the Scorpions four matches – the first quarter of the final warm-up match against the Calder Cannons.
Midfielder Allen, utility player Fraser Thompson and ruckman Craig Malone have come into the side to replace injured ruckman Josh Kolka plus Jack James and Brian Coleman-Broome, who have been left out.
Sam Cabrera, new to AFL from a basketball background, will find himself at the No.1 ruckman in Kolka’s absence, with Malone, playing senior football this year at Mt.Gravatt, coming into the side as the back-up big man.
Allen was named to play on a wing, with Thompson, an emergency against SA in Sydney, on the interchange bench.
Tom Davidson will be the travelling emergency for a game which shapes as a big test against a Vic Metro side, which beat NSW/ACT by 80 points in their first game of the championships.
The Queensland side as named is:
B: Chris Murphy, Tom Fields, Josh Wagner
HB: Dalton Tucker (c), Sam Michael, Henry Joyce
C: Andrew Boston, Peter Yagmoor, Jacksen Allen;
HF: Lachlan Russ, Fraser Thurlow, Adam Oxley
F: Clay Cameron, Jackson Starcevich, Alex Sexton
R: Sam Cabrera, Richard Newell, Aaron Laskey
INT: Fraser Thompson, Craig Malone, Jackson Rolfe, Luke Chitty.
EMERG: Tom Davidson.
