THREE recruits are among five inclusions to the Hepburn side that brought home Central Highlands Football League glory last year.
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Brad Stringer, Corey Taylor and Michael Watt are the new faces and join Nev Purtell and Stephen Simmonds in the team that will travel to take on flag fancies Waubra in tomorrow’s season opener.
The five are the only players in the selected 22 that did not play in the 2013 grand final win over Buninyong.
Missing from that successful side is Lee Cox, Trevor Johnson, Salesi Uhi and Danny Abbott, who will either play elsewhere or have retired, and Josh Clissold, who is injured. Clissold is expected to miss six or seven weeks following shoulder surgery.
The Burras will have vivid memories of last season’s round one clash with Waubra, who raced away to win the encounter by 67 points.
However, Roos coach Jason Allen knows that early flogging mattered little, as the Burras went on to claim the premiership.
Waubra will unveil a string of its own recruits tomorrow, with gun onballer Jason Delaney, former St Kilda forward Jarryd Allen and past North Ballarat Rooster Dean Robertson among those named to debut.
This fixture comes ahead of a somewhat easy run for the Roos, which take on just one top eight team from last year in the next eight rounds.
PREDICTION: Waubra by 19 points.