The Western Jets are counting the cost of a heavy injury toll stemming from Saturday’s heartbreaking seven-point loss to NSW/ACT Rams in a TAC Cup game at Ikon Park.
The worst fears were realised for the winless Jets when key position player Tylar Vujanic was diagnosed with a season-ending ACL injury that will require a knee reconstruction.
But the woes run deeper for the Jets with captain Jaycob Hickey having reinjured the foot that led to him missing games earlier in the season and Brayden Monk straining a deltoid ligament.
Hickey is out indefinitely, while Monk faces a month on the sidelines.
And that’s not where the injury list ends.
The Jets had no rotations to draw on for most of the second half after Daniel Foley and Daniel Venebles sustained concussions.
Jets coach Torin Baker must be wondering when the Jets’ luck will turn after an injury- ravaged start to the campaign.
“We lost some real quality over the course of the game,” he said.
“Unfortunately, some were serious injuries. We lost five players over the course of the day so we had no bench from 10 minutes into the third.”
The Jets must have felt like it was going to be a long day at the office when the Rams banged home five unanswered goals in the first 15 minutes.
What followed was what Baker described as “one of the most extraordinary games” that he’s been part of.
Battling the losses of key personnel, the Jets clawed their way back into the contest to get to within a kick at half-time.
But the Rams got going again to take a 17-point lead into three-quarter time.
Baker must have had doubts about how much petrol the remaining Jets players had left in the tank.
On the back of hard running by Frank Campisi, strong tackling from Jackson Volpato and Conor Daley, a quarterback-style set-up role for Lachie Knight, 44 hit-outs to Anthony Daw and three goals to Jake Bertollo, the Jets willed their way back into the contest.
They managed to level the scores in time-on of the fourth quarter, but the Rams got a second wind and goaled late to dash the Jets’ dreams of a miracle fightback.
“It was a really spirited effort. I’m very proud of them considering we didn’t have any rotations in the last quarter,” Baker said.
“We just changed our mids with forward and our backs didn’t get a rotation at all because there was no one to come on. To out-score them like that after quarter-time and really take it to them was brilliant to see.”
The Jets will be desperately undermanned for Sunday’s game against Gippsland Power in Morwell.
On top of the injuries, they are likely to have further players out due to private school football commitments.
But Baker insists there is enough quality in the line-up to give the Power a run for their money.
