By Ben Lonergan (Armidale Express, 22/05/2015)
A bye weekend has helped freshen the weary legs of the New England Nomads, who have battled injures to big-name stars and player unavailability early in the Tamworth AFL season.


“Everyone was looking forward to the bye,” Nomads’ player-coach Zac Economou said.

“It was good to freshen up and recover a bit, we have a lot of boys battling nagging injuries.”

Economou himself, along with captain Dave Richards and Matt Foley are just three of the big names who have struggled with injury so far in 2015.

While those three and a number of others nursed their respective wounds, the rest of the squad got some much needed miles in their legs.

“The other guys hit the training paddock pretty hard,” Economou said.

“It was a good chance to build up fitness.”

With a new and improved Narrabri side headed for Armidale tomorrow, Economou will be hoping his side shows no signs of rust after the weekend off.

“Narrabri are playing very good footy,” he said.

“But they are a little unknown, we don’t really know what to expect.”

Tomorrow’s fixture is one the Nomads would dearly love to win, with Narrabri nipping at the heels on the table in third spot.

Economou is hoping the larger dimensions of Bellevue Oval will play into his side’s hands.

“Narrabri play on a very small oval out there,” he said.

“It will be a bit different for them playing at Bellevue so hopefully we can take advantage.

“We have a lot of young guys who can use the big space well.”

As has been the case in every game this season, the Nomads will be far from full strength, with Tom Hunt, Weston Whitby and Matt Foley headlining the missing brigade.

“They were three of our best players last year,” Economou said.

“In saying that we will still have a strong team on Saturday, but there are a lot of blokes to come back in.”

It will also be just the Nomads’ second home game of the season and Economou said they are glad to be back at home.

“The boys are looking forward to it,” he said. “It feels like we haven’t played here for a long time.”

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