Hickey Homecoming. By Peter Blucher.
St.Kilda ruckman Tom Hickey will return ‘home’ on Saturday afternoon on a mission to replace a disappointing black mark on his ever-growing AFL CV with another welcome first.
Hickey, who played his first 12 AFL games with the Gold Coast Suns in 2011-12, will be chasing his first win at Metricon as a visitor.
One of the League’s form ruckmen this season, Hickey has only once played at Metricon as a member of the opposition.
It was in his first game for the Saints in Round 1 2013, when he had just four possessions before injury sentenced him to six weeks out of the side.
Now established as St.Kilda’s No.1 ruckman, Hickey will be part of a four-man Queensland delegation looking to extend the Suns’ losing streak to 11 games and defy bookmakers who installed the home side as favorites.
With Hickey in red, white and black will be fellow Queenslanders Nick Riewoldt, Sam Gilbert and David Armitage.
Ironically, St.Kilda will field as many Queenslanders as the Suns. Flying the Sunshine State flag for the home side will be Alex Sexton, Rory Thompson, Jarrod Harbrow and Jesse Joyce.
In Queensland news to come out of Thursday night selection for Round 15:
- After seven games in a row Jesse White was dropped from the Collingwood side to accommodate the retention of Travis Cloke and the return form injury of Darcy Moore for Saturday night’s MCG clash with Carlton.
- Aliir Aliir was squeezed out of the Sydney Swans side for Saturday’s twilight SCG clash with the Western Bulldogs by the return from injury of Jeremy Laidler.
- Josh Wagner’s dream debut season with Melbourne hit a minor hurdle when a minor knee injury forced him out of Sunday’s MCG clash with the Adelaide Crows.
- A knee injury has forced in-form Richmond ruckman Shaun Hampson out of Friday night’s Adelaide Oval clash with Port Adelaide.
Earlier, Sam Michael was named among the Essendon emergencies for the sixth time this season ahead of last night’s Perth clash with the West Coast Eagles.
