Essendon’s Heath Hocking will make his first appearance since the NAB Cup when he takes the field for Bendigo in their crucial clash against Casey this Sunday.
 
Hocking has been battling to recover from a groin related injury since the early part of the season and he will be joined in the Bendigo line-up by Tom Hislop, who is available after recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in Round 10 against Adelaide.
 
Hocking was taken in the 2005 Rookie Draft and his good form for Bendigo over a season and a half saw him make his AFL debut against Carlton in Round 20 of last year.
 
Essendon rewarded Hocking for his hard work, elevating him to the senior list at the end of the 2007 season and his performances in this year’s NAB Cup campaign suggested he was ready to play at the top level before injury forced him to take an extended break.
 
Bendigo coach, Adrian Hickmott, says Hocking, who trained strongly with the main group this afternoon, has been doing all the right things in terms of his rehabilitation and hopes he will make a successful return against Casey this weekend.
 
“We get two really good ins this week, both Heath and Tom Hislop will come back. Heath will probably play about 60% of the game, as will Tom, and we expect to rotate them both through the midfield,"" Hickmott said.
 
“Heath has worked extremely hard. He is really fanatical about his footy like most young boys and it was disappointing when he was injured in pre-season as he was the fittest he had been. When he went down he had been playing in the middle so I suspect when he is with Bendigo that’s where he’ll play.""
 
Bendigo could well have extended their winning run to three last weekend, when they lead by eight points 10 minutes into the final term, but North Ballarat stormed home late to run out winners by 13 points.
 
While the last month has been Bendigo’s best for the 2008 season the final quarters are still a concern for Hickmott who believes its one area that the team needs to get better at.
 
“Some basic fundamental things cost us last week and have cost us before in the last quarter. We kicked 14.15 to their 18.4 last week so we missed important shots but also we dropped marks and missed targets at crucial times. The main thing is to take responsibility and take care when we have the footy,” he said.
 
This weekend’s opponent, Casey will be another difficult assignment for the Bombers who were comprehensively beaten when the two sides met in round four of this year.
 
Hickmott recognises this game as one of the biggest challenges this year and is confident Bendigo will continue improving and testing themselves when they face the best sides in the competition.
 
“Our job this week is much the same as last week against North Ballarat, to make sure and take care with the footy and continue to do the little things. Other sides might not need to take this attitude but Bendigo Bombers do,” he said.
 
BendigoBombers play Casey Scorpions at Casey Fields on Sunday 29 June at 2pm.
 

B

Flaherty

Michael

Holmes

HB

Weeks

Chartres

Crameri

C

Bowe

Peverill

Atkinson

HF

Williams

Hooker

Coghlan

F

Dick

Johns

Hartigan

R

Bellchambers

Hislop

Hocking

Int

Stroobants

Magin

Skipworth

Davies

Granger

Pilcher

D. Young

Anderson

Fahour

Geary

Bristow