HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has backed tyro ruckman Brent Renouf to do the job against the Adelaide ruck brigade in Simon Taylor’s absence on Saturday night.
Renouf, 20, will share ruck duties with Robert Campbell tomorrow at AAMI Stadium after Taylor was ruled out with a cut knee. Renouf, a 200cm Queenslander, was the No. 24 pick in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft.
“Taylor and Campbell have been really good for us over the past 18 months to two years but they haven’t been injured in that time,” Clarkson said at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport before leaving for Adelaide on Friday.
“Young Brent (Renouf) gets his chance tomorrow night against the Crows and we are sure he will acquit himself well.”
Clarkson said Renouf had to look no further than this weekend’s opponents for inspiration.
“They lost (Ben) Hudson and they had young (Ivan) Maric, (Jonathon) Griffin and (Kurt) Tippett, very much raw ruckmen themselves, and they have come in and performed admirably throughout the course of the year for the Crows,” Clarkson said.
“And we are expecting that Brent will come in and do the same sort of thing for us.
“He knows the role that we require of him, he will get tremendous support from Robbie Campbell.
“We expect he will come in and make a contribution for us.”
Clarkson said that taking on the Crows at AAMI Stadium remained a daunting challenge for any side.
“Not too many sides have got good record against the Crows at AAMI Stadium, they are a pretty good unit,” Clarkson said.
“Especially under Neil Craig’s tenure there but even before that under Gary Ayres, Adelaide is always very tough to beat over there, just like Port Adelaide, Fremantle in Perth and West Coast in Perth.
“They are daunting trips, tough away games, but we’ve been playing good footy and we give ourselves every chance of trying to knock them off this time.”
He said the Adelaide team structure and style was “predictable”, but that fact did not mean the Crows were any easier to beat.
And Clarkson pointed to their run out of defence as the main worry for the Hawks and said last month’s AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match proved his point.
“Four of the back six were Adelaide Crows players, (Ben) Rutten, (Nathan) Bock, (Graham) Johncock, (Andrew) McLeod – they are super players,” he said.
“It doesn’t surprise us that they’ve started that well.
“We were always of the belief that the Crows were always going to be a pretty hard unit to knock off this year.”
Clarkson said young ruckman Max Bailey would play in the Box Hill reserves this weekend on his way back from a serious knee injury.
He also said the side was grateful to welcome back Stuart Dew from a hamstring injury. “He has worked really, really hard and we know we are a lot better side with him in it,” Clarkson said.
