South Warrnambool suffers injury toll against Cobden

Defender Liam Mullen (broken ribs and bruised lung), key forward Dylan Weir (ankle), utility Brayden Beks (calf) and youngster Max Irving (knee) are bracing for stints on the sidelines.

Roosters coach Mat Battistello said Mullen, Weir and Irving were likely to miss four to six weeks each while Beks was a chance to return after the Hampden league bye in two weeks' time.

Battistello said South Warrnambool would regain important trio Ricky Henderson, James Hussey and Trent Williamson, who were unavailable on Saturday, for its next match against Camperdown.

Forward-ruck option Sam Kelly is also a chance to play after injury while Sam Thompson and Isaac Thomas are likely inclusions after the bye.

Battistello was rapt with the Roosters' performance at Friendly Societies' Park on Saturday despite the injury woes, highlighting debutants Ollie Smith and Thomas Freitag.

The duo are strong chances to hold their spots after impressing in wing-forward roles in the 13.8 (86) to 5.14 (44) win against the Bombers.

"Cobden were really competitive and played well and I thought we did as well," he said.

"Unfortunately we had a few injuries which soured the day a little bit. We were done with our bench at half-time which didn't help but the rest of the boys managed to solider on."

Battistello said Mullen and Weir would need time to recover.

"I am really disappointed for (Mullen). It was a knee in the back which has turned into a bruised kidney and a couple of broken ribs," he said.

"We think there is a bit of a break in the foot (for Weir). It's a nice clean break so probably a four-week injury which is probably better than ligaments which are six to eight. We are reasonably positive for Dylan that will just heal."

The Roosters, who boast a 9-1 win-loss record, are "testing our depth".

"We have about 15 out at the moment between both groups (seniors and reserves)," Battistello said.

Cobden coach Dan Casey was rapt with the Bombers' application.

"We wanted to play the way we've been playing and not let South set up their defence and I thought we did that quite well," he said.

"We had that much opportunity, we just couldn't convert. They are a class side so those 50-50 contests in the first quarter, they were able to get the ones over the back and got five or six of them into space and convert whereas we seemed to work hard for our scoring opportunities.

"There's a lot of positives more than negatives."

The Bombers learned lessons from their round one defeat to the Roosters.

"We kicked it a lot to (defender) Harry Lee and we didn't want to do that, we wanted to lower our eyes a bit and chip through it," Casey said.

Casey highlighted teenager Luke Smith who was their best player, defender Josh Worboys and midfielder Josh Hickey, who kicked two goals.

"He played well for a 16-year-old kid. He was our prime mover in the midfield and took some nice grabs," he said.

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