The Standard | THE injury toll continues to mount for Allansford as it enters what has become a period fraught with danger.
The latest Cat to go down is utility Brett Hunger who injured his shoulder in the loss to Dennington on Saturday.
Hunger is expected to miss four to six weeks with a damaged anterior cruciate.
He joins a long list of injured Cats including Nick Johnstone, Brett Membrey, Josh Brown, Brenton Webster, Justin Nowell, Jeremy Parkinson, Joel Cornelissen, Kye Bunworth, Dave Pullen and Aaron Johnstone.
Apart from Pullen, who injured his knee last month and will miss 12 months of football, the Cats expect all players on their injury list to return between now and finals.
After the opening 10 rounds, Allansford is in third place on the ladder with the familiar win/loss ratio of 8-2.
This result is a mirror image of the Cats position at the same time of the year in the previous two seasons.
Unfortunately for Allansford coach Josh Parkinson and the Cats faithful, the second half of the season has proven to be a bogey period.
In 2013 the Cats lost five of their last eight games to fall to fifth on the ladder before being knocked out by Dennington in the elimination final.
Last year they dropped three games in the last eight rounds to finish fourth and lost an elimination final against Old Collegians.
Parkinson believes if the Cats can get better news out of the medical room, they can finish the season strongly.
“It is always a challenge to make sure we are peaking at the right time,” Parkinson said.
“Obviously we haven’t been able to do that over the past two years with a lack of personel at the time of an issue.
“It is very rare that you have your perfect team on the ground at once but when you have seven or eight of your best 21 out, it does make it hard.”
Parkinson said the club would be working hard to ensure it had the best rehabilitation processes in place for injured players.
Despite the mounting injury roll call and two consecutive losses, Parkinson said the immediate future was bright.
“We have been in a bit of lull but there is certainly no doom and gloom around the place,” he said.
“We have been able to bring some young blokes into the team and give opportunities to players from the reserves.
“As a club we are excited about the last eight weeks and setting ourselves to be in the best position we can.”
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