Swans unchanged, Eagles gamble on Cox - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Swans unchanged, Eagles gamble on Cox

By Greg Buckle 10/04/2008 06:54:15 PM Comments (0)

Sydney named an unchanged side on Thursday for Saturday's AFL clash with bitter rivals West Coast who will gamble on the fitness of star ruckman Dean Cox.

Cox injured his foot in last week's loss to Fremantle but travelled east with the team on Thursday for the round-four encounter at ANZ Stadium.

The fourth-placed Swans are listed as $1.18 favourites with TAB Sportsbet compared to West Coast's odds of $4.35.

The 13th-placed Eagles are without gun midfielder Matt Priddis (knee) and defender David Wirrpanda (hamstring).

But the Swans, coming off a win in Brisbane, had the luxury of leaving Nick Davis out of their 22 despite Davis bagging five goals in the reserves.

"We expect him (Cox) to play simply because he hurt his foot in the first quarter, went off and came back on and played the second half," Swans coach Paul Roos said.

"I guess what we don't know is what the long-term impact for them is if he does play. But we are certainly planning for him and think he'll be there."

While some fresh faces have given the weary-looking Swans some added bite this season, Roos has also been heartened by key forward Barry Hall's lively form.

"The real test last week was after halftime. We knew last year after halftime he really struggled in games because of his groin," Roos said.

"Last week after halftime I think he had 14 possessions, 10 marks and three shots at goal. So clearly he's a lot better physically than he was last year.

"We've got a reasonably healthy list. We've still got a few senior players coming back, Nic Fosdike, Tim Schmidt, Peter Everitt, Jared Crouch.

"But the good thing is the guys who are actually playing are playing really good footy.

"Things are going well at the moment (2-1). It's always a positive sign when you can name an unchanged side a couple of weeks in a row."

Roos said the Eagles were still dangerous despite losing Chris Judd (Carlton), Ben Cousins and Daniel Chick for 2008.

"They have beaten us the last three times so we can't afford to worry too much about who is not there. We have to worry about who is there," Roos said.

"They are a lot better team than $4.50 team in a two-horse race. They have won a premiership, they have been in finals for the past six years.

"They have got a lot of quality players so I think that's very disrespectful to them.

"We've had some terrific games, back-to-back great grand finals and finals series and great home-and-away games.

"That doesn't change much just because of a few players out.

"We probably see them as our biggest rivals and we have an enormous amount of respect for the way they play..."

Roos said former All-Australian ruckman Everitt was likely to make his comeback from a knee injury in the reserves next weekend.

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