Sport
25 July, 2026
Injuries sideline key trio
A DECIMATED Newbridge will travel to Serpentine this Saturday, with its finals hopes all but over and the club already looking to 2027.
A DECIMATED Newbridge will travel to Serpentine this Saturday, with its finals hopes all but over and the club already looking to 2027.
Coach Jayden Cordy, star key defender Jon Coe, and captain and key forward Brandon Dimech will all miss the clash with the Bears after being injured in the narrow loss to Macorna.
Cordy has an injured collarbone that will sideline him for at least a week, while Coe has a potentially serious ankle ligament injury that could mean his season is over.
And Dimech, who returned last week in a roll-of-the-dice move with the Maroons’ season on the line, won’t play again this year after his injured knee swelled up after the game.
Cordy said the club would not risk Coe and Dimech, putting them in cotton wool with an eye on next season.
Newbridge was within a goal of the Tigers deep into the last quarter before two late majors pushed the final margin out to 18 points.
“Our disposal cost us in the end,” Cordy said. “We got out a lot of the time and were in control and then we would drop a chest mark or miss a target.”
Dimech made the courageous decision to play despite being hampered by his knee and twisted it again in the second half.
“We were all-in on the Macorna game and unfortunately we didn’t come up,” Cordy said.
The Tigers’ win, their eighth of a fine first season in the Loddon Valley, kept them in fifth place, one game ahead of Maiden Gully.
Newbridge jumped Macorna early with the first two goals of the match, with Dimech’s great hands to the fore, but the Tigers wrested back the initiative and led by less than a goal at every change.
Key defender Josh Whittle was a rock for the winners, who were without coach Fergus Payne again.
Macorna meets a Marong side on the rebound this Saturday at Malone Park.
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