Courageous defender Tom Lonergan will take the first step back to competitive football when he lines up in the Bendigo Bank Cats’ clash with Tasmania on Sunday.
The 23-year-old will complete what has been a brave yet arduous 10-month comeback in the curtain raiser at Skilled Stadium, after the Geelong medical staff declared him fit to play on Tuesday.
Lonergan, who will wear a protective fitted guard around his midriff, will play between two and three quarters and will today make the decision of exactly when he will take to the field.
“We’re going to talk about that after the main session tomorrow, there’s a few ideas being thrown around at the moment, but we’re going to let Tom decide where and when he wants to play and all that,” Coach Leigh Tudor said on Wednesday night.
Tudor said the presence of Lonergan this weekend will serve as an inspiration to the players in the side.
“They’ve seen how hard and tough it was for him at the start and they’ve watched him really work his butt off for the last nine months to try and get himself back to playing footy… and everyone’s rapt,” Tudor said.
“It’s fantastic for the club to watch his comeback from the 10 months of work he’s been doing, it’s really exciting for the club.”
The team will wear rainbow bootlaces in honor of Lonergan’s return – the same kind worn the day he lost his kidney in a collision with Melbourne’s Brad Green last year.
The laces represent the Zaidee Foundation in the promotion of organ and tissue donation, for which Lonergan is an ambassador.
Todd Grima’s inclusion is a massive boost to the side’s forward line structure.
“We missed him last week - we needed a leading forward,” Tudor said.
“So hopefully he can come back into the side and give us that option in attack.”
“The last two game’s we’ve lost, goal kicking has been a big issue, we’ve got to work on a little bit more the zones at the kick ins and playing on and off our man,” Tudor said.
The Devils, who have lost eight straight matches, are anchored to the bottom of the VFL ladder.
After holding off a determined Bendigo in round one, a season that started with such promise for Tasmania has diminished into one of recrimination and discontent.
Tudor also threw his support behind the potential night VFL grand final on AFL grand final eve, suggesting the proposal is long overdue.
“I think it would be fantastic – it should have been happening 10 years ago,” Tudor said.
The idea was brought onto the agenda in Wednesday’s Herald Sun in an attempt to revive dwindling crowd figures and capitalise on the influx of visitors to Melbourne for the AFL grand final.
Geelong defeated Tasmania by 67 points at Bellerive Oval in round two this season.
The action gets underway at 9.50am on Sunday, with the Bob Davis Gate opening at 9.30am.
