MANGOPLAH-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes coach Jeremy Rowe said last week's defeat to Leeton doesn't change their staunch belief sidelining their Sydney recruits was the "responsible" thing to do.
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The Goannas will be bolstered by the inclusion of siblings Jack and Harry Collins for this Saturday's home clash against Osborne after the club decided to make them unavailable for round one.
Sydney's ever-changing coronavirus situation was a hot topic in the lead-up to the start of the competition, and Rowe said they wanted to put safety first and take a cautious approach.
"As much as footy is about wins and losses, when it comes to health and safety and making responsible decisions that limit risk, you'd do it all over again," Rowe said.
"We made the decision at a time where there was a lot of discussion through the media and at other clubs about making sure everyone was looking after the safety of the club and their community first and foremost.
"At no stage did we want to forget the health and safety of your club and community is number one, and we didn't want to be giving any form of impression that we were just hitting the season in a kamikaze way.
"We thought not picking them for round one would be a responsible way of going about things. Despite the fact we lost last week we're happy with the decision we made, and we're equally as happy to bring them back into the squad this week."
Harry will boost a midfield that was beaten by Leeton last week, while Jack will line up on a wing.
The Goannas will be without Canberra recruit Dom Bunyan after he badly injured his ankle early in last week's game, and is waiting for swelling to subside before having an MRI to ascertain whether he will return this year.
Trent Cohalan (hamstring) is also rated a 50-50 prospect after he was a late withdrawal in round one.
"It was well documented going into the competition you couldn't stumble too often in the early stages, and straight away we've got our backs against the wall.
"You get to find out a fair bit about your group fairly quickly which is exciting for me. It is a massive game for us this weekend.
"This weekend we're definitely looking to be on the right side of contested ball, but also work a bit harder off the footy and be more proactive.
"We want to be a lot about being more courageous with ball in hand as well. We were pretty slow and clunky going forward against Leeton and we'd like to take the game on a bit more and not be so predictable."
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