Shoulder injuries come back to bite Bulldogs

THREE key South Fremantle players are currently battling shoulder problems with one ruled out for the remainder of the season, another a chance to return this Saturday against Peel Thunder and the third an outside prospect of still playing after hurting it late last week against Subiaco.

Two State representatives from this year and two of South Fremantle’s most important players Blayne Wilson and Ryan Cook both missed last Saturday’s 44-point loss to Subiaco at Medibank Stadium while dual premiership veteran Craig White hurt his shoulder late in the contest.

Wilson has been determined to require shoulder surgery so his terrific first season with the Bulldogs is now over but captain Cook is a chance to return this Saturday against Peel Thunder at Fremantle Oval.

White is yet to make a decision on whether he plays on in 2016 to try and reach the 200-game milestone, but the worst was feared that his season was over when he hurt his shoulder in a collision in the dying minutes against Subiaco.

However, this week it has pulled up better than anticipated and coach Todd Curley believes he could still line-up on Saturday against Peel.

“We’ve certainly had no discussions about whether he plays on next year or not. But we are hoping his shoulder’s not too serious so we think he’s still a chance to play next week,” Curley said.

“Blayne won’t play again this year. He has to have some shoulder surgery. But Cooky’s a chance for next week.”

With Cook and Wilson going out of the team against Subiaco, Jarrod Parry returned from a foot injury following one game in the reserves, and Anthony Collica played his first game since Round 5 after solid form in the reserves, and both performed well against the Lions.

“Collica’s form has been really strong for about a month so he got his chance, and we played him inside which is where he’s been playing at twos level and was OK,” he said.

“Jarrod missed a bit of time injured, played one back and he’s one of our leaders so we were pretty keen to get him back in.”

Curley was pleased in the improvement shown against Subiaco following the embarrassing 106-point loss the previous week against East Perth, and now he hopes to see a four-quarter performance against Peel on Saturday at Fremantle Oval.

“I guess for us it’s just a chance to improve. We were terrible last week, we were pretty good for two and-a-half quarters this week,” Curley said.

“We have to get back out and get back on the horse, train hard to improve and we still have to work on our ball use a bit especially in the first half. Peel will be tough, but to be honest we are more focused on what we’re doing than the opposition at this minute.”