News

From The Mercury
Reported by Adam Smith

LAUNCESTON teenagers Kieran McShane and Tom Bellchambers become the latest Devils debutants tomorrow and face the Casey Scorpions at Bellerive.

The pair -- who both played at the national under-18 carnival last month -- are yet another example of Daryn Cresswell's desire to get games into his Mariners players.

And in further evidence, Cresswell has his sights set firmly on next season. He is looking to give them plenty of time on the ground to learn the ropes at VFL level.

Bellchambers, who has been named to start in the ruck, is a mobile big man who can also be thrown forward and McShane can rotate through the midfield and will no doubt benefit from playing alongside the likes of Ken Hall.

It brings the number of players to have made their Devils debut this season to 25 and a total of 53 different players have been used.

This could also increase further if Brennan Savage and Leigh Brown line up tomorrow for their first games of the year.

"Where we are at now, it's simply in the development phase," Cresswell said.

"It's time to put some games into the younger players as they will be better off in the long term, which will make the Devils better off.

"We need to persevere and give them game time.

"Bellchambers will play forward and in the ruck but I'm keen to leave him on the ground.

"Alex Grima as well, we tried him down back last week. We don't want to throw them around too much. It would be good to settle these guys into a position."