A KNEE injury has ruled Daniel Motlop out of his guest appearance for Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong on Saturday.
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Shannon and Daniel Motlop were set to follow in their father, Eddie’s, footsteps and don the Ganmain jumper on Saturday.
Daniel played a game in Adelaide recently and injured his knee, ruling him out of Saturday’s guest appearance at Ganmain Sportsground.
Shannon, 38, will still play for the Lions in the big clash against reigning premiers, Wagga Tigers.
“It’s a shame, but oh well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Sicker said.
Shannon Motlop played played 54 games for North Melbourne and 10 for Melbourne from 1999 to 2006. Post his AFL career, he has played a lot of football in the country, as well as with Wanderers in the Northern Territory competition.
Sicker has played against Shannon and believes he will bring a lot to the table on Saturday.
“Shannon will play through the midfield, he’s still in pretty good nick. I expect him to obviously have an impact on our side and more so, be pretty good with the young fellas. If they can learn something from him then that will be good,” Sicker said.
The Lions will make four or five changes to the team that lost to Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes by 56 points last Saturday.
Motlop, Mitch Carroll and Justin Evans will come in, as may Tom Quinn, who has returned home for university holidays.
Talented teenage forward Riley Corbett is the only confirmed out due to his representative duties.
Despite last weekend’s scoreline, Sicker believes the Lions played some of their best football. He knows Tigers will be tough, but gives his young team a chance on a big day for the club.
“Everyone’s pretty excited, the playing group and around the club,” he said.
“We feel we haven’t had the results this year but how we’ve played has been pretty positive. It was probably our best performance of the year last week against Mango, it just blew out late.
“We’re definitely confident, but we won’t go in over confident or get ahead of ourselves. I still rate Tigers as the team to beat.
“It’s all about bringing that effort. If we do that, then we’ll give ourselves a chance, but we won’t get too carried away.”
