North Melbourne key defender Lachlan Hansen will return for the Kangaroos’ showdown against Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Friday night after being cleared of concussion.
Hansen was subbed out of last week’s game against St Kilda after receiving a heavy head knock in the third quarter and was in serious doubt for the Blues clash.
But yesterday North Melbourne coach Brad Scott confirmed Hansen had been given the green light to play by the club’s medical staff. He said the decision to take him off against the Saints was purely precautionary.
“He passed all the (concussion) tests at the ground (last week), but we decided to sub him because we wanted to make the sub anyway,” Scott said. “As it turns out, he would’ve been right to come back on, but we chose to be very cautious with him and he’s going to be available this week for selection.”
Hansen’s presence will boost North Melbourne, which is still a mathematical chance of pushing into the top four. The Kangaroos are sixth on the AFL ladder, two wins behind fourth-placed Geelong. But such is the closeness of the competition, Scott’s men are only two defeats away from tumbling out of the eight.
Opponent Carlton has been one of the season’s biggest disappointments and is playing for pride alone for the rest of the year. But Blues captain Chris Judd, who will make a call on his playing future at the end of the season, believes there are better times ahead. He said Port Adelaide’s emergence as a premiership force this year proved how quickly a club’s fortunes could turn around.
“We’ve got plenty of top-10 draft picks on our list, and two or three years ago you wouldn’t have known those guys as being blokes that we were going to rebuild a footy club around, but two years later they are,” Judd said.
“I think the talent on our list is good. The guys are working hard, and I’m confident in two years’ time we’ll have some guys mentioned in the same bracket as those Port Adelaide guys.”
