St Albans co-president Craig Osborne has hailed the resilience of the club’s playing group as it struggles through another GFNL season on-field.
The Supersaints are anchored to the bottom of the ladder, winless, with a percentage of just 21.19.
They have suffered six losses by more than 100 points and another by 97 against Bell Park in Round 2.
The closest St Albans has been to victory is a seven-point loss to Grovedale in Round 7 at Burdoo Reserve.
“(The) reality is, our senior 2 o’clock team isn’t performing where we need to perform, and there’s a whole lot of reasons for that, ” Osborne told K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.
“Before we start pointing fingers, we’ve got to own where we’re at at the moment.
“We’ve really struggled for stability, and that’s with our players, our coaches, and we’ve had probably too much of exits of coaches over many years, and players on that journey, too.
“It’s been tough, but we’re not going up by any stretch of the imagination.”
St Albans welcomes back Ben Wolfenden for its trip to Colac. He replaces Miles Gray.
The Tigers have included veteran Joffy Simpkin while naming Luke Hillman and Leigh Gorwell on an extended bench.
Tobyn Murray’s recent performances have earned him a recall to Geelong’s VFL team.
Premiership trio Mitch Burgess, Ollie Tate and Trent Thompson and star forward Jake Pitt have been named for Leopold ahead of the meeting with grand final opponents South Barwon at McDonald Reserve.
They replace the omitted quartet James Edmonds, Jake Edwards, Kody Gallagher and Zach Rochow-O’Toole.
The Swans have lost Geelong VFL-listed Todd White (concussion), Taylor Mulraney (calf), Will Sexton (illness) and Ethan Borys (ankle)
Austin Shepherd, Tom Burke and Jake Peters have been recalled from the reserves.
St Mary’s has made five changes to its team for the meeting with North Shore at Windsor Park.
Matt Copley, Christopher Jansen, Fletcher Hughes, Dion Johnstone and Elliot MacDonald have come into the 22.
They replace injured duo Elijah Wales (hamstring) and Sam Christensen (wrist), Max Augerinos (unavailable), Sam Dobson (soreness) and Charlie Sprague (overseas).
The Seagulls return to action after enjoying last weekend off.
Veteran big man Ryan Abbott headlines four handy inclusions for Grovedale as it prepares to host Newtown & Chilwell at Burdoo Reserve.
Brady Ferguson, Jak Tute and Sam Radcliffe are also back for the Tigers, who are chasing their second win of the season.
They replace impressive defender Harley McCarthy (quad), Charlie Nelson (unavailable), Mitch Fisher (illness) and Tyler Cummins.
The Eagles have named Liam Fiore for just his first game since the season-opener against North Shore, while Will O’Dwyer is back after missing the loss to South Barwon before last week’s bye.
However, Matty Lloyd has been named for a second VFL appearance with Sydney.
Lara will be without Josh Smith when it travels to Hamlyn Park for a meeting with Bell Park.
The veteran Cat will spend two matches on the sidelines for a high bump on Geelong West’s Jamieson Ballantyne in last week’s loss.
The Dragons will welcome back assistant coach Ben Lloyd from suspension. However, Hamish Lucas has retained his spot in Geelong’s VFL team after being released back to Bell Park for the Cats’ bye last weekend.
Oscar Morrison and Harry Smith have become the latest St Joseph’s duo to head overseas and will miss Sunday’s clash with Geelong West at West Oval.
Jack Mullen and captain Al Hickey return, as Joeys looked to extend its unbeaten run to ten games.
The Giants welcome back key forward Lachie Horniblow and Tyh Evans, with Jamieson Ballantyne (concussion) the only confirmed out for Greg Mellor’s men.
West will also have access to Sydney VFL-listed Phil Moimoi, who has been left out of the Swans’ team this weekend.
K rock Football is live via krockfootball.live for the South Barwon-Leopold and Geelong West-St Joseph’s matches.
