ADELAIDE forward Brett Burton has been ruled out of Friday night’s clash with Hawthorn at the MCG with a badly corked buttock.
Burton, 31, suffered the injury in the loss to Collingwood last weekend. He was hopeful of being available to take on the Hawks, but the six-day turnaround between games has proved too big an obstacle.
Burton failed to train with the team on Thursday morning and will be replaced in the 22 by the Crows’ sixth debutant of the season, Rory Sloane.
Comeback kid Trent Hentschel has also been recalled at the expense of young forward Taylor Walker, who has been omitted.
Hentschel, who has been playing in defence for SANFL side Woodville-West Torrens, will start up forward while Sloane will join the midfield rotation.
Sloane picked-up 28 possessions for North Adelaide on Saturday and Crows’ coach Neil Craig said he’d been looking for an opportunity to play the gutsy 19-year-old.
“I’ve been impressed with Rory since pre-season, but particularly his last three to four weeks in the SANFL. He’s played really strong, hard and aggressive footy,” Craig said on Thursday.
“It gets another young player on our list exposed to AFL footy and with the way it falls it’ll be at the MCG, on a Friday night against last year’s premiers… it’s a pretty special game for him.”
Hentschel, 26, has endured a hellish rehabilitation process since suffering a career-threatening knee injury against Port Adelaide in August 2006.
He made his long-awaited AFL comeback against Collingwood in round one this year, but his troublesome knee flared up in the round two loss to St Kilda.
Hentschel was forced to undergo more surgery on the joint and made his return via the SANFL last month.
Craig said the next month would be an important period for the out-of-contract goalkicker.
“Trent’s probably in the best condition and feels as good as he’s felt since the initial injury. He’s in good form and now is the appropriate time to find out [if his knee can handle it],” Craig said.
“The last time he played was against St Kilda out here and whilst it was reasonably early in that game [when he got injured] the way he was going was the Trent Hentschel that we need to see. He was aggressive and he was pushing off his leg.
“We need to find out now, so we can make a good decision in conjunction with Trent about where we go from a list management point of view."
Craig admitted there was likely to be criticism about his decision to drop Walker after a solitary game, but said he was unhappy with the teenager’s four-possession performance.
Draftee Phil Davis and Jared Petrenko will travel with the team on Thursday afternoon, but will return to play in the SANFL if not required.
In other injury news, promising ruckman/forward Shaun McKernan trained with the main group on Friday and is expected to make his return from a broken arm with South Adelaide next weekend.
Brad Moran (knee) is also back running and is hopeful of playing in around three weeks.
