EAST Point still has hopes of a Lazarus-style recovery for three of its top half a dozen players ahead of tomorrow's Red Onion Ballarat Football League preliminary final against Redan at Eastern Oval.
The Red Lion Kangaroos last night named a team that may bear only a superficial resemblance to the one that takes the field, with Jason Delaney, Brad Whittaker and Sam Cooper all in the 22 for the match.
Delaney has been rated about a 50-50 chance of playing after rolling his ankle during last weekend's semi-final loss to Sunbury, although he has been cleared of a break. Whittaker (hamstring) and Cooper (lower leg) are, if anything, even more doubtful than Delaney.
The Kangaroos have named Brad Dreher, Sam Van Meel and James Blood as emergencies.
"(Whittaker and Cooper) did some light work on Tuesday night. We named them obviously but whether they take the field or not will be a decision we will take on Saturday morning," East Point playing coach Dan Jordan said.
" With a young developing group it is hard to sustain pressure for four quarters and that's what we work on all the time. It is up to those guys to go out on Saturday and play 120 minutes of sustained pressure footy. "
Redan has named Nick Bye for the third week in a row. Bye has not played the previous two times he was named but L&H Lions co-coach Eammon Gill has stated the giant ruckman is a starter for tomorrow's match. Blair Whelan has also been promoted, with Chris Edwards and Darcy Watchorn the two players to miss out.
Gill said his team had a good mix of finals experience and youth, which came to the fore in last weekend's crunch semi-final against North Ballarat City.
"It was really good on the weekend to see our leaders and players with lots of finals footy experience step up, but it was also good to see some young kids who are only 19 or 20 come on board and come with them," Gill said.
